What can you really achieve in just three weeks? These QUEST students pushed the limits of a typical software engineering internship and delivered real results.

Over the course of three weeks in January 2025, two QUEST students, Joanne Lee (Q44) and I, Neola Dsouza (Q44), gained invaluable technical experience, built strong professional connections, and contributed to creating a meaningful impact.

Both Lee and I got our internships through Break Through Tech’s Sprinternship program. Break Through Tech is a unique opportunity at UMD, part of the Iribe Initiative for Inclusion and Diversity in Computing. The organization provides many opportunities for students in tech at the University of Maryland, regardless of their major. Their programs, such as the Sprinternship, aim to help students build community in tech and gain professional experience that will lead to future internships and jobs. 

Lee, a sophomore pursuing a dual degree in Computer Science and Immersive Media Design with a minor in Statistics, interned at Mastercard. During her internship, she worked with four other students to create a fully-functional web interface that allowed users to select the feature from a dropdown menu, input a start and end date, and receive a unique financial pattern analysis from the system based on those dates. This fixed dates feature would become part of an internal financial pattern analysis tool that Mastercard already uses to provide consulting to their client companies. 

Reflecting back on her experience, Lee says that “balancing professionalism with approachability” helped her form strong connections and leave a positive impression! She bonded with her fellow Sprinterns through exploring Mastercard’s Arlington office, solving challenging problems, eating lunch together, and playing Super Smash Bros matches in their game room. Professionally, she frequently had coffee chats with current employees and learned about how they navigated their own career paths. “I think there’s a lot of emphasis on knowing exactly what your career goals are as a student, especially in the software engineering community,” said Lee. “And it was nice to gain some perspective from people who have been in the field for a long time.”

Through her Sprinternship, Lee strengthened her intuitive skills and picked up the best practices needed to succeed as an intern. She looks forward to applying this knowledge in her upcoming summer software development internship at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

At the same time, I had the opportunity to intern at the University of Maryland Libraries, where I also worked on a real-world software development project. I am a sophomore pursuing a dual degree in Computer Science and Geographical Sciences with a concentration in Geospatial Data Science. During January, I worked with three other interns to design and build a replacement IP manager web application. Administrators could access the site through an improved user interface, and the Libraries’ external applications, such as their websites and online databases, could access the data through the site’s API. 

My highlight over those three weeks was meeting with and talking to not only software developers, but also to directors, librarians, and the former dean of UMD Libraries. Through those conversations, I learned about how libraries operate and their role in storing and sharing knowledge. I’ve realized how important it is to me to work on a project that’ll make a positive impact. When our application goes live, many faculty, students, and researchers across campus and the world will have a better experience accessing digital content through the Libraries’ sites and databases!

This summer, I am excited to apply all of the technical and collaborative skills I’ve developed to my software engineering internship at United Airlines.

Students can get involved with Break through Tech by attending events, joining student organizations such as the Association for Women in Computing, CODE: Black, and Technica or by participating in their professional mentoring program or the RESET Project, a program that offers scholarships and community building with a focus on BLNA women!