2024 Steel Intern Scholarships
Alfonso Montanez Fuerte
This experience was completely gratifying. I had the opportunity to intern at Nucor-JFE Steel Mexico this summer. I had the opportunity to work on a project that will have a huge impact on Nucor-JFE Steel Mexico, as it was related with the defects control in the production line, so I had to work with different areas such as metallurgy, inspection, production and laboratory. Starting on my first day everyone made me feel part of the team. It’s normal to have a lot of questions in the beginning, and everyone was willing to listen.
While it was a great experience, it was also such a challenge as it was my first time leaving my hometown for a while. The emotions that these experiences can provide are unparalleled. At college, everyone told us about the industry and how it will change our mindset and gave us advice for preparing for life during college, but the fact of having those experiences before finishing it are such great opportunities because it changes the way you see the things, and these are feelings that you won’t feel until you experience them, but even so, you can share them with other people and transmit those emotions.
In my Steel Intern application letter, I mentioned the word “sharing” several times. And I did just that — I shared the things I knew, and my teammates shared what they knew, and it made such a difference. They made me feel confident, and when there were issues, I had the courage to face them. The internship was not all about technical information, but about meeting different people and different perspectives. We can all complement each other by being polite and having the same curiosity for learning and solving problems.
My supervisor was thorough, and we had meetings every week for checking my progress and how I’ve been feeling. At the end of the project, the procedure I proposed was being verified by the laboratory team, and if there were any suggestions it would be discussed, and everything went well according to the schedule. Change is a constant in life, and it’s such an exciting thing because you’ll never stop learning.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity Nucor-JFE Steel Mexico and AIST, thank you for believing in me and thank you to all the ones who I had the opportunity to meet and for sharing your knowledge.