{"id":3823,"date":"2019-11-01T16:37:03","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T23:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/?p=3823"},"modified":"2025-09-08T09:00:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T16:00:32","slug":"palomar-stem-students-start-internship-at-northrop-grumman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-stem-students-start-internship-at-northrop-grumman\/","title":{"rendered":"Palomar STEM students start internship at Northrop Grumman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denise Fernandez and Jacob Zeferino were selected by the aerospace and defense technology company for a new \u201ctalent pipeline\u201d program.<\/p>\n

RANCHO BERNARDO \u2014 For six years, Denise Fernandez attended Palomar College as a military spouse, balancing a growing family and military life with demanding STEM classes. On a recent Monday morning, all of her hard work began to pay off.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 28, the 26-year-old mother of two reported for her first day at Northrop Grumman<\/a>, a large technology company and defense contractor with several locations clustered around Palomar College\u2019s Rancho Bernardo Education Center.<\/p>\n

I tried to convince my husband to work for Northrop when he retired\u2014I told him, \u2018They hire veterans!\u2019 Then, the more research I did, I was like, \u2018I want to work there,\u2019 she recalled. That was before this internship. This is my chance to do my part.<\/q><\/p>\n

Fernandez is one of two Palomar students selected for a pilot program at Northrop Grumman providing community college students with work-based learning opportunities and career development in the aerospace and defense industries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a go-get-coffee internship,\u201d said Fernandez. \u201cThey\u2019re throwing us right in.\u201d<\/q><\/q><\/q><\/q><\/p>\n

She and Jacob Zeferino, the other Palomar student chosen for the program, are officially Electronics Technicians at the company. Zeferino\u2019s internship is set to begin on Nov. 4.<\/p>\n

Both will be working 20 hours a week, four days a week, until Christmas. Fernandez described her first week as part of an infrastructure team, doing hands-on software engineering, and a production team, assembling virtual machines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey invest a lot in their interns, and they really did treat us like real employees coming on,\u201d she said. \u201cAs an intern, you can feel really small in a big company, but they\u2019ve been really supportive and helpful.\u201d<\/q><\/q><\/q><\/q><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool they\u2019re having us work on real projects,\u201d added Zeferino, 20, who plans to transfer to UC Irvine to pursue computer engineering after he graduates from Palomar next spring.<\/q><\/q><\/p>\n

\u201cAll my experience so far is either my own projects or school assignments. I\u2019ve never done anything like this. So I\u2019m hoping to get some good experience,\u201d Zeferino said. \u201cJust the name of the company is going to look good on my resume.\u201d<\/q><\/q><\/q><\/q><\/p>\n

Jason Jarvinen, the Cooperative Education Department Chair at Palomar College, described the process of partnering with Northrop Grumman as highly collaborative, with huge potential benefits for the students who are chosen to participate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really good opportunity for students to be with a company where they\u2019re going to work on really cutting-edge technology programs,\u201d said Jarvinen. \u201cI think this will really enhance their career potential down the road. And the mentoring they\u2019ll get from staff members at Northrop will expand their networks and help them develop some of the soft skills that are necessary to be successful in the field.\u201d<\/q><\/q><\/q><\/q><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, as a beginning software engineering student, I didn\u2019t even think internships would be possible until my first year at Cal State San Marcos\u201d\u2014where she plans to pursue her bachelor\u2019s degree next year, Fernandez said. \u201cPalomar definitely opened this door for me.\u201d<\/q><\/q><\/q><\/q><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denise Fernandez and Jacob Zeferino were selected by the aerospace and defense technology company for a new \u201ctalent pipeline\u201d program. RANCHO BERNARDO \u2014 For six years, Denise Fernandez attended Palomar College as a military spouse, balancing a growing family and military life with demanding STEM classes. On a recent Monday morning, all of her hard… \u00a0Continue Reading: Palomar STEM students start internship at Northrop Grumman<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10413,"featured_media":3824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,23,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carousel","category-features","category-home","category-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPalomar STEM students start internship at Northrop Grumman - Palomar News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-stem-students-start-internship-at-northrop-grumman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Palomar STEM students start internship at Northrop Grumman - Palomar News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Denise Fernandez and Jacob Zeferino were selected by the aerospace and defense technology company for a new \u201ctalent pipeline\u201d program. RANCHO BERNARDO \u2014 For six years, Denise Fernandez attended Palomar College as a military spouse, balancing a growing family and military life with demanding STEM classes. 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