As our 2025 Summer Internship Program draws to a close, we invite you to take a look at a day in the life of a Wright-Peirce intern. Below, Katherine Sullivan shares her experience.
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My alarm sounds at 7 AM. This is a later wakeup call than typical mornings when I commute to the Wright-Pierce office in Topsham, Maine. Today is a special day . . . it’s Field Day!
For the summer of 2025, I joined Wright-Pierce as an architectural intern before returning to Penn State for my last year in the B. Arch Program. Wright-Pierce’s architectural group primarily sits in Topsham. I live in Southern Maine, and the Portland location would be a shorter commute for me. However, I am happy to travel to Topsham to work alongside my talented colleagues. Plus, the Topsham office, situated on the Androscoggin River, is a beautiful building that I feel privileged to call my workplace. Not to mention, I have the option to work from home on Monday and Friday, so I only commute three times a week.
I get to sleep in a bit today, not because I am working remotely, but because I am going to the Wright-Pierce Portsmouth, New Hampshire, office to meet the other interns for Field Day. Field Day is an annual event at Wright-Pierce where they take the interns on field visits, primarily to water and wastewater treatment facilities. My fellow interns from the Topsham office are already heading south, carpooling in a rental vehicle that Wright-Pierce provided. While I love a good carpool, the Portsmouth office is much closer to my home, so I will be meeting everybody there.
A short drive later, and I am pulling up to the Portsmouth office. It is very exciting to see what another office looks like, and I am surprised by how large the building is. It is slightly more modern than Topsham and surrounded by trees. After an elevator ride, I get to meet the two Portsmouth interns, who I have already acquainted myself with in Microsoft Teams meetings. They show me their office and offer their weekly survey for me to take, a fun way of bonding with the team. I have my own cubicle at the Topsham office, but the Portsmouth interns share an office with a large window. It’s a nice space, but I am still grateful for the scenery and charm of the old mill that the Topsham office is situated in.
We all gather around the table in the large conference room. There are about 20 of us, and I am very happy to be meeting these colleagues of mine face-to-face. I formed a few connections and even discovered that I attended the same high school as another one of the interns. After touching base at the office, the interns, a couple wastewater engineers, and a few people from the marketing team all head to the Somersworth Water Treatment Facility. This is the first water treatment facility I have been to, which is very exciting for me. Before this summer, I was not familiar with this field of work other than its relation to architecture. It was helpful for me as a designer to see this equipment that I had been seeing in drawings in person. The Somersworth facility was interesting to me because it was originally constructed in 1870. It features somewhat of a turret and beautiful wood ceilings. I have never seen a prettier plant!
After the water treatment facility, our group headed to the Somersworth Wastewater Treatment Facility. Again, it was very beneficial for me to fully visualize the equipment and related processes that I had been working with on the computer. Not only did I learn more about the treatment process, but I also learned more about the design process. Besides Wright-Pierce employees, there were a few employees from the Hampton Wastewater Treatment Facility that joined our field trip. I had a conversation with one of these employees and learned that her main job is to clean the facility. She shared with me some instances where facility design may not be functional. For example, she frequently finds that many more pipes are utilized and in need of cleaning than are necessary for the process. We even ran into an example of maintenance-inhibiting design on the Field Tour. One of the smaller buildings at the plant featured a translucent, pyramidal roof that collected a lot of dirt and insects.
After the field visit, we head back to the Portsmouth office to enjoy some Otto’s pizza. I tried mac-and-cheese pizza, yum! Field Day was very exciting and valuable to me. I learned about the treatment process that will inform my design skills. I also learned more about the design process itself, having new perspectives brought to my attention. But my favorite thing of all? I got to meet more of my colleagues. Every Wright-Pierce employee I have had the opportunity to meet is such a kind person, and I really value the connections I established with the other interns today. Meeting people that are in similar shoes to me has made me feel more confident and comfortable at work.
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Are you interested in becoming a Wright-Pierce intern? You can learn more about the program and our career opportunities by contacting us today.