SHOWING INITIATIVE
Silicon Valley Internships are Shaping the Next Generation of Spartan Engineers
By Rhoda Shapiro
Situated in a region where innovation is in perpetual motion, San José State offers students a unique experience. Its location within Silicon Valley brings students into close proximity to some of the most influential, high-tech companies in the world.
Students at SJSU’s Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering are taking full advantage of the opportunities that this proximity provides. Year after year, engineering students pursue internships that give them the hands-on experiences to succeed beyond college.
In this article, we highlight three engineering students whose internships have enabled them to put the spirit of ingenuity and innovation into action, while gaining valuable real-world experience.
Jerome Foronda on Tower Lawn at SJSU. Photo: Robert C. Bain.
Jerome Foronda
Ever since he was a little kid, Jerome Foronda, ’27 Mechanical Engineering, has been fascinated by designing and building.
When he was in the third grade, he went with his class on a field trip to the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. He remembers being in absolute awe of all the big machines and systems.
“They were talking about how they simulated their machinery before sending it out to space,” says Foronda. “I kept thinking to myself: Someone actually thought of all this, and they were able to bring it to life. That amazed me.”
Foronda walked away from that experience inspired. He envisioned himself designing such things in the future.
As a student at SJSU, he is working toward making this vision a reality.
“When I got here to San José State, I knew I wanted to have a major that was based on my interest in building,” says Foronda. “With mechanical engineering, you can start from scratch with an idea, and it can become an actual product.”
Last summer, he worked as an engineering intern for Owens Design, where he read and modified various engineering schematics. Owens Design works with companies in the semiconductor industry, building machines that larger companies then use for their products.
“My role was to find the missing piece and modify the drawing for technicians, so they would have an update and not mess up,” says Foronda. “I was also able to assemble subsystems with them. I thought I would just work on the schematics, but they also gave me the opportunity to build it; to fill in the components myself and build the machine.”
Foronda describes schematics using the analogy of Legos. The instructions for properly assembling the bricks are the actual schematics. This includes the images of whatever the thing is that one is working toward building, and the real life components are the actual Lego [Group] themselves.
“What I liked about the internship was they were never holding my hand. They told me what to do and let me figure things out by myself. At times, I would take it upon myself to go ask my coworkers questions that would help better my understanding of the task," says Foronda. “But most times, I would use critical thinking and my own judgment to determine what the best direction would be.”
Last fall, Foronda was one of 10 SJSU engineering students selected to be part of Apple's Next-Gen Innovators Mentorship program. Through the selective program, students get access to an Apple engineer, who serves as a mentor for a full year.
“Throughout the program, I’ve had the opportunity to share different engineering designs I’ve been working on with my mentor, and the feedback he gives me has been incredibly valuable. He’s helped me learn how to think more deeply about the way engineers approach problems,” says Foronda. “He has also helped me with interview preparation and has given me career advice. This has made me a lot more confident in my journey. I really appreciate Apple and SJSU for giving me this opportunity because it’s given me access to the kind of mentorship and guidance that will definitely help shape me into the engineer I want to be.”
After he graduates next year, Foronda hopes to land a job working with Apple as a manufacturing engineer. He feels that with all the networking opportunities and job fairs at SJSU, he has made many connections that might be beneficial for the future.
Along with getting hands-on experience in his internship, Foronda also credits the SJSU community of students and faculty for nudging him forward on his journey.
“Being around other mechanical engineering students is really motivating. Hearing about their goals and the steps they’re taking makes me reflect on what I want to implement in my own journey,” says Foronda. “I also like talking with my professors before and after class about how they built their careers, which helps me picture what my future in engineering could look like.”
Foronda’s advice to students who are looking to move toward their educational and career goals:
“Putting yourself out there opens the door to so many opportunities,” he says. “There’s a saying that closed mouths don’t get fed. If you don't take that action to get what you want, those opportunities might never come.”
“I really appreciate Apple and SJSU for giving me this opportunity because it’s given me access to the kind of mentorship and guidance that will definitely help shape me into the engineer I want to be.”
— Jerome Foronda
Dori Hjalmarson
It was during his first year at SJSU that Dori Hjalmarson, ’24 Psychology, ’26 MS Human Factors and Ergonomics, realized the connection between psychology and technology.
Before coming to SJSU, Hjalmarson went to West Valley College for two years. He transferred to SJSU in 2022 with the hopes of becoming a school psychologist.
But being in such close proximity to Silicon Valley sparked his interest in the world of technology.
“I asked myself: Is there a way I could get involved with the tech industry with a degree in psychology?” says Hjalmarson.
That question was soon answered, as he started his SJSU journey.
“Coming to San José State made me realize there were so many other opportunities,” says Hjalmarson. “I realized that you don’t need to just do clinical psychology if you go into psychology. I feel like SJSU really opened my world to what you can do with a psychology degree.”
As an undergrad, Hjalmarson minored in industrial and organizational psychology, as well as applied computing for behavioral and social sciences, which is part of the engineering program. Through the study of industrial and organizational psychology, he learned about how psychology could be applied to organizations and used to influence corporate culture. And in human factors, he started to examine the ways in which a product or system can be created in alignment with what people need.
The human factors lens made a big impact on Hjalmarson’s trajectory as a student.
“I was very fortunate to have this one professor, Anthony Andre, who taught human factors. When he talked about his experiences working as a human factors consultant, he talked about the variety of products he was working on — things like medical devices and products in the health care space,” says Hjalmarson.
Dori Hjalmarson on campus at SJSU. Photo courtesy of Dori Hjalmarson.
“The human factors space is very small. But it’s one of those spaces that you realize how important it is once you start understanding exactly what it is. Every single one of us interacts with human factors in our everyday lives.”
— Dori Hjalmarson
That was when Hjalmarson knew that this was the path for him.
“I always knew I wanted to help people. And I thought about how you could help make these devices and really help people,” says Hjalmarson.
In 2024, Hjalmarson started graduate school in the human factors program. What he loves most about this work is the human approach to design thinking and the process of working toward creating a better product or system that is catered toward how humans interact with it.
“Human factors work is most needed in safety-critical domains,” says Hjalmarson. “If you can help a user understand a device and that helps them make a decision one second quicker, that could be the difference between life or death. That’s where we come in, to understand how we can help them to use a product more efficiently.”
Last summer, Hjalmarson worked as an intern at Samsung Research America in their enterprise security innovation lab.
Working to help create a more usable and intuitive experience across various products, Hjalmarson was able to hone his skills more sharply in thinking and designing from a human-centered perspective.
At Samsung Research America, he worked to develop their portfolio of enterprise products. He also gathered user-testing insights, finding ways to apply human-centered research to health care and biomedical technologies.
Last year, he had the pleasure of presenting research at the Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care Symposium with School of Information Assistant Professor Crystal Fausett.
He has also been working part time as a research assistant through the SJSU Research Foundation, where he is doing collaborative work with the Honda Research Institute.
“It’s really exciting because it’s this safe space where you’re working for SJSU, but also working collaboratively with this huge company,” says Hjalmarson. “It’s a good mix of balancing it with your school work and getting that experience as well.”
He’s currently taking a gap semester as he’ll be doing a co-op internship with Merck in New Jersey, where he’ll work as a human factors engineer for six months. He’ll be working predominantly on their combination products, which include any medical device that combines a drug and a delivery system.
“It was the whole reason I joined this program, to get into this space. It’s like everything’s fitting together right now,” says Hjalmarson.
When asked how he has been able to secure key internship positions, Hjalmarson mentioned that being a student at SJSU has helped him tremendously.
“The SJSU program for human factors is really respected in the field. I noticed once I joined the program and applied to opportunities that just having it on my resume is helpful,” he says.
During his grad program, he also actively works to find ways to network by attending various events and conferences. He feels that it’s valuable to get out in the community and make connections with others in the human factors field.
“The human factors space is very small,” says Hjalmarson. “But it’s one of those spaces that you realize how important it is once you start understanding exactly what it is. Every single one of us interacts with human factors in our everyday lives.”
April Santillan posing outdoors. Photo courtesy of SJSU's Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering.
April Santillan
When April Santillan ’25 Civil Engineering, was younger, she remembers her parents suggesting that she become a nurse. But she knew that a nursing career just wasn’t in the cards for her.
“I wouldn’t be able to handle the sight of blood,” says Santillan.
Instead, Santillan drew inspiration from her dad’s work in construction, which was very logical and hands-on. She decided to study civil engineering and began her studies at Mission College before transferring to San José State in 2023.
“There are so many opportunities on campus,” says Santillan. “Being involved with different projects and talking to professors and asking for help made my undergrad experience even more memorable.”
She joined the Concrete Canoe Club, where she got to build canoes out of concrete and compete against other universities. She also joined the American Society of Civil Engineers and was on the board of the Institute of Transportation Engineers during her senior year.
One of the experiences that really helped to shape Santillan was her internship with Valley Water, which she applied for through the MESA Engineering Program.
MESA is an SJSU program that empowers and supports students who are economically disadvantaged, providing them with access to resources and other co-curricular programs.
Valley Water opens applications for interns in general, and then they open another round for first-generation students; and in that pool, they only accept people who are part of the MESA program.
“I didn’t really know much about water and all the projects in the Bay Area,” says Santillan. “It gave me a good understanding of how a project is started and executed. I learned how contracts are administered, and how funding works and how political the water industry is.”
During the summer, Santillan was in the construction contracts unit, and then later moved to the advanced water treatment plant.
“So I moved from an office setting to something more hands-on. It’s very interesting. I’m learning a lot about how water is treated and cleaned,” says Santillan. “Every day is something new.”
Although she graduated this past December, Santillan has been continuing her internship position and is currently working for 20 hours a week at Valley Water. At the same time, she is trying to find a full-time job. She’s also working on getting her engineer-in-training (EIT) certificate.
Her ideal job would be working on projects to benefit the environment or any infrastructure that might benefit the community.
“I wouldn’t have had the same experiences and connections had I not gone to San José State,” says Santillan. “We’re in the heart of Silicon Valley, and our professors work full-time jobs [in industry] and come to teach. That has a lot of value.”
“I wouldn’t have had the same experiences and connections had I not gone to San José State.”
— April Santillan
