CHICAGO--Megan Burrill is a junior on the Illinois Institute of Technology women's swimming & diving team. The Truckee, California native is coming off a 2019-20 season that resulted in a trio of first-place finishes at the Liberal Arts Championship in the 200-yard butterfly (2:09.87), 100-yard butterfly (57.92) and 400-yard medley relay (3:57.03, school record). Burrill also tallied a school-record time of 1:48.56 in the 200-yard medley relay at the 2019-20 Liberal Arts Championship. Her freshman season in 2018-19 resulted in a pair of first-place marks and facility records (100-yard butterfly, 57.80) (200-yard butterfly, 2:09.87) at the Liberal Arts Championship.

Burrill spent the 2020 fall semester as an intern at the Idaho National Lab. Learn more about Burrill's experience!

1. What was your main role at the Idaho National Lab (INL)?

My primary role was supporting projects through fabrication, sample preparation, and sample characterization. This involved combining raw metals into metallic alloys through an arc-melting casting process, various laboratory techniques to process the cast rods into usable samples, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive x-ray (EDX). At the end of this characterization, we had a qualitative analysis of the elements present on the surface of the sample. 

2. How did you discover this opportunity?

While speaking with my advisor about internship opportunities which would allow me to work in a lab setting, he recommended the INL internship program. Looking into it, I found it to be well developed and applied to all the projects that interested me. When I asked another professor if he would be a reference for my INL applications, he mentioned we had a school alumnus at the lab. I reached out and ultimately ended up working in the same group. 

3. What advice do you have for students seeking the right internship?

Start by being involved on campus; project-based student orgs, undergraduate research, student government, athletics, and other involvements on campus will help you have relevant experience to put on a resume even if you do not have a previous internship to add. In addition, they provide great experience that you can draw on to answer interview questions. I would also recommend looking for internships early – they start opening during fall semester and many close in early January! If you are interested in a particular company, see if there are any school alumni on LinkedIn who could give advice on how to be hired. 

4. Tell us a little bit about your interest in the career field and how it got started. 

I chose material science engineering because it sounded interesting and a good way to apply chemistry to solve real world problems. I have really enjoyed learning about the field and have a particular interest in applying material science towards developing a grid which runs entirely on clean energy. My experience at INL gave me some background in nuclear energy as I'm currently researching sodium ion batteries, which would be favorable for grid scale energy storage. Moving forward to grad school I plan to continue researching in one of these fields as both will be important to remove coal and oil from our electricity grid.

5. Talk about the most gratifying aspect of the internship. 

I was lucky enough to stay at INL through fall semester, which gave me enough time to get to know the lab and my co-workers. Looking back, I would say that the most gratifying aspect was how much my lab skills developed. I learned a lot about how to organize and manage a project, and throughout the project my work quality improved as I practiced more with the equipment. In addition, as I grew more knowledgeable, I was able to ask more questions to the full-time researchers, helping me to better understand what my project could contribute to their goals. 

6. Talk about balancing the rigors/challenges of online classes, the internship and athletics.

It was definitely a busy semester! I worked an average of 20 hours per week, and while I was not engaged with university athletics, I continued to work out a comparable amount independently, all in addition to taking 15 credit hours. Online classes were probably the hardest part – the learning environment is a lot more forced and I was the only full-time student I knew in the entire state, so it took a lot of self-motivation to meet my academic standards. I had a very flexible work schedule, often working two 10-hour days a week, but if it worked better for my academics, I could come in three days but do some school work while at the lab. It took a lot of organization, communication, and flexibility to change my schedule every week based off what days I had the most schoolwork, what days I could use the equipment I needed at the lab, and if there were any assignments I needed to submit a day in advance because they were due while I was at work. As far as athletics go, I was climbing and lifting at a gym after work, sometimes it felt like I didn't have time, but I feel a lot better when I work out, so I tried to keep it consistently in my schedule. 

7. What are your interests beyond academics and athletics?

I love reading, especially science fiction and fantasy! I also love being out in the mountains, hiking, biking, backpacking, climbing… pretty much anything. While in Chicago (or other cities) I like to explore by walking through neighborhoods and commercial areas so that I understand and connect to the place more. While I tend to get hyper-focused on school and athletics during the semester, I'm always down for an adventure!