By LAURIE J. FROST
Few companies out there encourage their interns to wakeboard every day.
However, when Ben Hudson interned for Tig? Boats, a wakeboarding company, over the summer, getting out on the lake was part of a day's work.
'In the mornings we would get there early and design ,' Hudson said. 'We built four boats a day and then would test them out.'
Hudson is only one of many BYU students who build their own internships, simply by getting up the guts to pick up the phone and call. Hudson, a manufacturing engineering major, contacted Tig? and got the internship - not just because of his knowledge of plastics - because of his love of wakeboarding.
'In a phone interview, I told them I loved to wakeboard, and I think that's why they hired me,' Hudson said, grinning. 'They paid me to wakeboard.'
However, Hudson didn't spend all his time on the lake. He was actually down in the trenches, helping design a special cruise-control system that would accommodate its different speeds with different riders.
'I designed the cruise control and a thing called a dampening circuit,' Hudson said. 'It works so that when your speedometer turns on, it slowly accelerates, instead of jumping .'
Curt Conway, Hudson's engineering supervisor, said Hudson's greatest contribution to Tig? was designing a revolutionary ventilation system.
'Ben did exhaust system drawings and models for the new system,' Conway said. 'In the old system, the gasoline will seep through the pipes, and a concentration of fuel vapors build up in the engine. So you have to have ventilation through there and fresh air to flush it out continually.'
Conway said Hudson's design of the ventilation system was so good the factory crew implemented it immediately.
'He drew it out, built it, instructed the crew about how to install it, and we're using his method of installation to this day,' Conway said.
Hudson's good work is no surprise to Conway. He said what stood out in Hudson's internship application - the last application in the pile - was Hudson's involvement in scouting.
'That caught my eye, that an Eagle Scout,' Conway said. 'His work ethic and integrity reflects that, and he could contribute wherever he goes.'
Conway said if Hudson wanted to come back to Tig?, they would take him in a heartbeat.
'I wish we had more citizens like that in this nation,' Conway said. 'I can't say anything better than that.'
Nevertheless, Hudson isn't the only BYU student making a dent in the industry with his sweet internship. Derek Andersen, a marketing and advertising major, scooped an internship with Electronic Arts. The company has one of the nation's top ten internship programs, which Andersen got through his sheer nerve.
'I contacted , and I got a call from someone in San Francisco about the internship program ... a week before Christmas, asking if I could start the first week of January,' Andersen said.
He had already signed up for classes, but that didn't stop him from taking the leap. Andersen moved to San Francisco and started working.
One of the benefits of working for Electronic Arts, Andersen said, was being able to play video games whenever he wanted to. The employees could test out the new products, which they got for free.
'I had a Playstation and an Xbox in my office, and unlimited access to the best video games in the world,' Andersen said.
The internship wasn't all fun and games, literally. Andersen worked heavily on e-mail ad campaigns, advertising the release of new games through various ways on the Web, such as Web spots and commercials.
Gina Chung, Andersen's direct marketing manager for his first internship, praised his 'stick-to-itiveness.'
' was a great intern right off the bat,' Chung said. 'Direct marketing is not something you can study in school. He was very inquisitive about this style of e-mail marketing.'
Chung said Andersen worked directly with Web teams and vendors, analyzing the effectiveness of the ads, as well as working on mobile marketing.
'He did a really thorough analysis of mobile marketing, which is marketing using text messaging as a new avenue to do marketing,' Chung said. 'We really made him dive into it.'
After several months as a direct marketing intern over e-mail ad campaigns, Andersen returned to BYU, only to have Electronic Arts give him a bigger and better offer - to market 'The Godfather III,' which promises to be the biggest game release of 2006.
Andersen said yes.
Gary Treangen, a marketing assistant and Andersen's supervisor, said Andersen was a huge asset during the 'Godfather' ad campaign.
'It was a high-intensity situation to make deadlines, and Derek delivered all his projects with flawless execution,' Treangen said. 'I can remember daily laughing with Derek. Having him to work with every day was a relief.'
Andersen plans to return to Electronic Arts after graduation.
'People ask me, 'Are you just trying to live out your childhood a little bit longer?'' Andersen said. 'I say, 'No, I'm just tying to have a career that's really cool.''