Texas A&M Scholar Interns at Alcon
The Posse Houston Career Program has seen significant growth in STEM partnerships, including a new and highly engaged partnership with Alcon, a global leader in eye care.
Texas A&M University Posse Scholar Sara Estrada, a third-year biochemistry major, recently completed a summer internship at Alcon in its manufacturing engineering department.
Sara was connected to the opportunity via a career fair held by Posse Houston last December. The Greater Houston Area is home to many highly competitive corporations in STEM and STEM-related fields, including health and biomedical sciences. Since establishing a formal Career partnership in 2021, Alcon has gone above and beyond to forge a deeper network with the program, including attending Posse Houston’s annual career fair and offering employee volunteers to connect with Scholars.
“A fellow Posse Scholar helped me practice the night before my Alcon interview,” Sara says, recalling the high investment she felt after applying for the opportunity. “When I got the internship, he said that I deserved to be there. My Posse knows me so well to understand that I needed to be reminded of that.”
During her summer at Alcon, Sara gained invaluable hands-on experience at the firm, working with unreleased technology to develop best practices for product automation.
“It was really cool to help with testing and different studies at Alcon,” Sara says. “I was even trusted to lead a study and got to help the engineers with a lot of their projects. I gained a lot of confidence in myself and it reaffirmed what I want to do in my career.”
After her internship, Sara met with Posse staff to update her resume and discuss next steps for her career goals. She plans to meet with the Posse Houston team on a regular basis to stay informed on career partnerships and job opportunities.
Looking towards future goals as she continues her studies at Texas A&M, Sara is particularly interested in the technology side of the medical field. She is currently considering career paths in research and development, medical devices, or pharmaceuticals.
