While many college students are just getting acclimated to their summer internships, Hannah Preheim is already a seasoned pro.
This summer marks her third internship with Sayre Associates — a relationship that began during her senior year at Brandon Valley High School.
Preheim became interested in civil engineering after an eighth grade project focused on traffic flow. Her teacher, Brady Olson, helped take it from there.
“Hannah is a rock star,” Olson said. “She’s very thoughtful and approaches challenges from different perspectives. She’s a great problem-solver. When she expressed an interest in engineering, we worked to find her an opportunity to explore it firsthand.”
Brandon Valley is one of six area high schools participating in the Career Connections program. As part of the internship course, Olson reached out to Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development at the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.
“Through the Career Connections program, Denise connected us with Sayre,” Olson said. “They took a chance on bringing in a high school student — and she absolutely rocked it. She did an outstanding job, and it was incredible to see that door open for her.”
That’s exactly the goal of the program, Guzzetta said.
“We’re able to leverage strong relationships across the business community to connect talented students like Hannah with employers like Sayre,” she said. “It’s inspiring to see how much can grow from that initial high school opportunity.”
As a senior, Preheim began interning at Sayre, where she was introduced to advanced computer-aided design software.
“We could tell Hannah was a very bright student who learned quickly, so we asked her to go through the tutorial and see what she could pick up,” said Paul Korn, civil engineer at Sayre. “From there, we were able to assign her tasks and design work on active projects.”
The summer after her high school graduation, Preheim continued her internship — this time moving from design work indoors to hands-on experience in the field learning construction administration.
“I got to do different things in the field and see how things are built,” she said. “I was keeping records of things and did some as-built drawings and helped monitor quality control.”
Following her freshman year at South Dakota State University, where she’s studying civil engineering, Preheim came back to Sayre for a second summer.
“That year, I was more in charge of one specific project, checking in with contractors and doing price estimation,” she said.
Her role included assisting with curb and gutter repair for the city of Sioux Falls in south-central Sioux Falls.
Now in her third summer, Preheim is back in the office doing site design, grading plans and designing utilities.
“I’m doing things for a gas station and working on putting together some plan sets for affordable housing,” she said.
The level of responsibility Preheim has earned is unusual for an intern — but well deserved, Korn said.
“I think this is the first time we’ve had an intern work inside on design from the start,” he said. “But Hannah has shown she’s proficient with the software, and we wanted to utilize her more now that she’s gained the field experience most of our interns start with.”
“She’s had two summers of seeing how things are built and reviewing plans, and now she’s applying that knowledge in design.”
Now entering her third year of college, Preheim also feels more comfortable as part of the team.
“Everyone is really nice, and I don’t feel intimidated asking questions, which I really appreciate,” she said.
Most importantly, her internship experience has confirmed that she’s on the right path.
“I definitely feel like I have a better understanding of what I’m working toward in my degree,” she said. “Things feel more connected and applicable now that I’m taking design classes.”
Sayre also has connected through Sioux Falls Development Foundation programming to reach students earlier in their education.
The company was among 17 employers participating in an interactive Your Future STEM event for sixth graders this year, for example.
“We continually emphasize the need to develop STEM skills in students and the opportunities they will have to apply those,” Guzzetta said.
A Talent Talks event during Women in Construction Week in March further inspired students by allowing them to hear from STEM professionals.
“We’re seeing success encouraging more women to pursue engineering careers, which is critical to meeting our projected workforce needs,” Guzzetta said.
While Preheim still has two years of undergraduate education to go, Korn already sees a bright future.
“She’ll have lots of opportunities when she graduates, and we hope she considers Sayre as one of those opportunities because we certainly see her fitting in here,” he said.
Olson sees Preheim’s success as a model of what Career Connections can offer.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “It’s all possible because of business partners who are willing to provide these opportunities. It’s incredible that they see the value in creating win-win experiences.”
“We’re hoping students get authentic learning opportunities and businesses get worthwhile work done,” he added. “We’ve had several students asked to stay on for employment — either after high school or while in college — and some have even received full-ride Build Dakota Scholarships.”
Through the partnership with the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, “Denise and the team help expose students to what’s out there,” Olson said. “A lot of students just don’t know what’s possible, and the more we can do to change that, the better.”
“Career Connections is truly a win-win — for students, schools and employers,” Guzzetta said. “It offers a smart, streamlined way to engage early-career talent while making career development more intentional, accessible and impactful.”
If your business would like to connect with career development opportunities, reach out to deniseg@siouxfalls.com.