Halena is a Junior Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering major who worked with Hydrite Chemical Company as a Food Group Intern in the summer of 2025.
What did you work on this summer? As a Food Group Intern, I am working with different Hydrite customers throughout the valley and observing their safety and sanitation processes. I am responsible for tracking inventory, completing CIP verifications, upholding plant safety procedures, and investigating potential water, chemical, and energy savings.
What’s the best thing about your job? One of my favorite things about my internship is being able to go ‘behind the scenes’ of the food industry and see different food processing plants and how they are prepared for consumption. Every plant I visit is slightly different in its processing procedures, so each day I get to learn something new. I also enjoy the flexibility this role allows me. Many of my hours are dependent on the needs of the customer so I’ve had the really cool opportunity to experience a night shift one day and a midday shift the next. The variability in my everyday tasks keeps the internship exciting. This is my first internship, and first look into how the food industry works so I love the amount of new things I’ve gotten to learn over the summer. Additionally, my manager and all of my coworkers are very kind and open to answering any questions I have and have truly made this an engaging learning opportunity.
What’s great about your company? I love that Hydrite is a family-oriented and family-owned company. It is not uncommon for multiple family members to have positions within Hydrite; I think that speaks to the environment that Hydrite creates. As an intern they flew me out from California for a two day intern event at the corporate office, where I got to meet all the other interns as well as speak with the president of the company and many more executives. From what I can tell, Hydrite takes care of its employees. Hydrite feels like an ‘open-door’ company, or a place where even the summer interns are welcome to strike up a conversation with an executive. Additionally, Hydrite is always looking to evolve and make its way into more industries, meaning they are open to expansions into different fields, and they make room for trailblazing go-getter employees to help them along the way. Hydrite is a company where you are not just a numbered employee clocking in and out every day, there is great camaraderie throughout the company and throughout the many states they have expanded to.
How did you find your internship opportunity? I found my internship at the Career Fair.
How did the Career Connections Center help you with your internship search? I dropped by a few times to the Career Connections Center and they helped me refine my resume before the career fair!
