Trinh Ha
By: Nancy Gardner
Trinh is among the many UW students who’ve worked with UW Facilities units across campus. For some, the experience isn’t just a part-time job but a blueprint to a new career.
Tacoma native Trinh Ha, who graduates in June with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, credits her experience with UW Facilities’ Engineering Services with helping her land her dream job at Stantec, a consulting and engineering design firm.
From drafting and updating electrical drawings into AutoCAD for the High Voltage Shop to developing a proof of concept for the fire alarm system, Trinh’s been very busy.
“When I went through the interview process, I felt incredibly fortunate because my internship with Facilities made me a very competitive candidate,” Ha says. “My interviewers knew my supervisor [Tony Fragada] because they’ve done a lot of work with him and the University. The interview felt more like a conversation because we already had that common connection.”
Cesar Escobar was one of Trinh Ha’s supervisors and says her willingness to learn meant she soon became one of the team at Engineering Services. “I was able to task Trinh with projects that started from a basic level to more complex over a short amount of time. It made me very proud when she shared the news that she’d landed a position at a major consulting firm.”