Anastasia P. July – 2020 Steel Intern Scholar
This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to work as a cold mill metallurgist at Nucor Steel Decatur. This was my first industry experience and it was very rewarding to be a part of the Nucor team. Nucor provides a culture of safety, respect, quality and teamwork to be a successful steel company. The success is in the people — everyone plays an important role to have the mill run smoothly. Working here, there was a big emphasis on safety to have the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) for the job, be aware of your surroundings, and to look out for your teammates. The people I worked with were more than coworkers — they were like family. They welcomed me into the team and helped me progress with my projects at the temper mill with understanding, guidance and friendliness. My projects included surface roughness measurements, seeing the effect of various temper hits, and comparing tensile properties of products. I was able to improve my technical and communication skills through this experience.
Touring and learning many aspects of the mill gave me a better understanding of the steel-making process. An overview of the many components that make Nucor function, such as the hot mill, cold mill, galvanizing line and labs, really solidified the importance of teamwork and how well it is done at Nucor. I was able to try out welding with the maintenance crew, shadow the roll coolant lab operator, and help a fellow intern with titrations. I also got to see what happens to our products when they leave the mill through my visit to Nucor Tubular and doing circle grid testing on a part for Nissan.
I had a very rewarding experience interacting with the metallurgists, operators, quality control, IT, maintenance, fellow interns, and more. Going into the steel industry, you have to be willing to learn and be a team player. My experience with Nucor helped me in both these aspects and really helped me embrace the safe community culture. I grew a lot through this internship and am grateful for the efforts of everyone at Nucor Steel Decatur in making this a truly valuable experience.