By Leila Ugincius

It seems fitting that Anthony Jacinto’s summer internship was with Dominion Energy. After all, he is the son of an electrician.

“My dad inspired me by showing the value of skilled, detail-oriented work that brings projects to life,” Jacinto said. “By my final year of high school, I realized I wanted a hands-on, technical career where I could apply problem-solving to real-world challenges.”

That work ethic, combined with Jacinto’s love of math, solving equations and figuring out how things worked, has led him to pursue mechanical engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. And though just a sophomore, the first-generation college student applied that same commitment to landing his internship – as a freshman – with Dominion, the Richmond-based energy giant whose operations touch major regions throughout the United States.

Jacinto applied to Dominion for an internship at every opportunity, whether it was through the VCU College of Engineering’s career fair, meeting company representatives at the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers 2024 convention in California (Jacinto serves as treasurer of the VCU chapter) or introducing himself to employees who visited campus.

His persistence paid off. This summer, as an intern on Dominion’s Outage Management team, Jacinto gained deep insight into the power generation industry, whether visiting power stations and control rooms or shadowing engineers, operators and planners to learn about plant operations, outage planning and engineering workflows. Jacinto received support from VCU’s Internship Funding Program, which helps cover costs associated with summer internships.

Jacinto also became familiar with the industry’s enterprise software platforms, such as SAP, Primavera and SharePoint, and gained knowledge in scheduling, contractor coordination and safety protocols in a high-reliability energy environment.

The highlight of the summer was visiting power stations and seeing firsthand how energy is generated.

“The biggest thing I got out of this internship was real-world exposure to how power generation works from the inside,” Jacinto said. “I learned how gas and steam turbines, boilers and control systems all come together to keep the grid running reliably. Beyond the technical side, I gained a better understanding of the teamwork, planning and safety that go into every outage. … Overall, it confirmed my passion for mechanical engineering and showed me how I can contribute meaningfully to the field.”

Through the connections he built with engineers and other industry professionals, Jacinto also learned about different career paths and what skills are most in demand.

“My advice to students hoping to intern somewhere is to apply as much as possible and take advantage of every networking opportunity. Apply, apply, apply! Network, network, network!” Jacinto said. “Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself, even if you think you might not have enough experience. It’s not common for a freshman to land an internship, but if I did it, I believe anyone can if they put in the effort, stay persistent and aren’t discouraged by rejection.”