For most colleges and universities across the country, including Marietta College, Ellucian, formerly known as Datatel, is the software provider of choice.
This summer, eight college students were chosen to participate in Ellucian's highly selective internship program, including Marietta's own Austin Sampson '13 (Waterford).
Sampson, an Information Systems major, has been working with the Mobile Development team in the Software Development division of Ellucian. He first learned about this 13-week internship in Fairfax, Va., from his advisor, Bob Van Camp, Associate Professor.
Article Photos
Austin Sampson, an Information Systems major at Marietta College, was chosen to participate in Ellucian’s internship program.
"Most of the internships we get in the IS department are more business orientated working around the MIS half of the major. This one, however, was more software orientated and dealt with development," says Sampson, whose inclinations toward software development have been reaffirmed by this experience.
For most of Sampson's peers, the work is he doing may seem like completely foreign territory, but one of Ellucian's most popular mobile apps, MOX, is used by Marietta College students regularly. The app, among other capabilities, shows enrollment for individual courses, making it easy for students to discover who shares their schedule, alleviating that common fear of "Who will I sit with on the first day of class?"
As part of the Mobile Development team, Sampson works on these types of phone applications for the iPhone, Android, and other devices. His typical day is spent working on the computer alongside the other interns, who hail from schools like James Madison and Loyola.
"Austin is good student who is excellent at problem-solving and programming," Van Camp said. "He had to go through a rigorous testing process to get this internship. We use (Ellucian) here at Marietta so Austin will have real experience with a large software firm."
While most of Sampson's project details are "under wraps" due to the industry's competitive nature, he could reveal that he is beyond grateful for the opportunity to work with this software powerhouse.
"I'm not really sure where I want to go with my career, but this internship has definitely helped push me toward software development," Sampson said. "I'm perfectly happy sitting behind a computer, spending my days writing programs, which is exactly what I'm doing now."
