{"id":163983,"date":"2026-03-24T13:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=163983"},"modified":"2026-03-24T13:48:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:48:01","slug":"heres-your-opportunity-go-take-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/24\/heres-your-opportunity-go-take-it\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Here\u2019s your opportunity. Go take it.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nathan<\/a>

Computer science major Nathan Fairweather talks about his internship experience with Reynolds and Reynolds as part of Wright State\u2019s Work Forward Internship Program.<\/p><\/div>\n

During his first year at Wright State, Nathan Fairweather thought an internship was out of reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in computer science<\/a>,\u201d said Fairweather, now a sophomore. \u201cYou don\u2019t get a computer science internship your freshman year. That\u2019s just not how STEM works.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least, that\u2019s what he thought.<\/p>\n

But then a series of events started happening thanks to the Work Forward Internship Program<\/a> and Wright State determination. If you\u2019re a Raider, you know the signs. How things start lining up and falling into place when you\u2019re doing all the right things.<\/p>\n

Fairweather had two excellent mentors in his corner before arriving on campus. His parents are Wright State alums and sent him to campus with advice: get out of your comfort zone so your professors get to know you.<\/p>\n

And, in a first-year course taught by Kayleigh Duncan \u201908, \u201919, instructor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering<\/a>, he got the extra nudge he needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day in class she said no one was coming to her office hours and let us know we could stop by to talk about course materials or anything,\u201d Fairweather said. \u201cI was doing great in class and wasn\u2019t looking for help, but I fully credit stopping by her office and meeting with her leading to a bunch of opportunities that happened later in the semester.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the Work Forward program, Duncan set up a tour of the world headquarters of Reynolds and Reynolds, located about five miles from Wright State\u2019s Dayton Campus. Fairweather had earned a scholarship from the company and, as one of the recipients, was invited to participate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a crazy cool tour,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have this big innovation center where they showed us products they\u2019re designing.\u201d<\/p>\n

One representative even mentioned that students on the tour already had a foot in the door. Fairweather was very interested but was stuck in the mindset that first-year students don\u2019t qualify for STEM internships and was prepared to apply after his sophomore year.<\/p>\n

But he had opened the first door; he had talked to Duncan. So, the next week he asked her what she thought he should do. He said her answer was clear: \u201cHere\u2019s your opportunity. Go take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He submitted his application that day and, although he was convinced that he would need to wait another year, he eventually won that internship. At 19, Fairweather was able to say, \u201cI\u2019m a software engineer!\u201d And engineer he did. The company provided real problems and demanded serious solutions.<\/p>\n

Fairweather has a lot of highlights from the experience, but two stand out. The first was seeing his initials in dark blue in the computer code he was working on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was working, and I looked up and thought, \u2018Hey, that\u2019s me in this real script that is a part of their real product that people are using,\u2019\u201d Fairweather said. \u201cI made a change that mattered to them as a company.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the second? He was invited back to intern with Reynolds and Reynolds after his sophomore year.<\/p>\n

Stopping by Duncan\u2019s office hours led to opportunities on campus, too. Before he knew it, Fairweather found himself talking about his internship experience with Wright State\u2019s Board of Trustees, President Sue Edwards and Darryl Ahner, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science<\/a>. Some serious connections to make no matter where you are in your college career.<\/p>\n

When he met with these Wright State leaders, he had a clear message for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving this experience proves I\u2019m capable of being a software engineer \u2014 that I\u2019m capable of making a mark on a company,\u201d Fairweather said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m a huge supporter of the Work Forward program that helps students find real-world experience opportunities \u2014 maybe even earlier than they might think they can.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program shows me that Wright State isn\u2019t just here to give me a piece of paper. This university makes that very clear. Wright State is setting me up for life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Computer science major Nathan Fairweather secured a rare first-year software engineering internship through Wright State\u2019s Work Forward program, confirming his abilities and jump-starting his career. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":163984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2034,4267,743,726,715,4298,2061],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-career-services","category-computer-science-and-engineering","category-engineering-computer-science","category-homepage-feature-rotator","category-news","category-student-profile","category-undergraduate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163983"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164542,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163983\/revisions\/164542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}