Explore Internships/Co-ops
A co-op or internship helps you learn about different types of roles in ChemE, exposes you to more job options, and gives you more opportunities to network with other industry professionals. In this page we will dive into Ibrahim Elfaki’s opportunity with the Eastman Chemical. He’s a former Co-op and a current Junior here at Virginia Tech, if you would like to ask him more questions about his experience, then here is his email: ibraelfaki@vt.edu
Ibrahim Elfaki
Virginia Tech Chemical Engineering ‘26
Co-op with Eastman Chemical for all of 2023
If you have any questions please reach out to his email: ibraelfaki@vt.edu
What is your day to day like?
You are basically treated like a full time engineer. My day starts with a morning meeting, discussing what went wrong that night and how as a team we fix the problem. Then I spend the day working towards fixing minor issues and working on my overarching projects
What do your projects look like?
I had a lot of different projects over my 3 terms at Eastman. My favorite one was using investigating issues with a tank mixer. What I discovered is that they were running the tank 10% higher than what it should be, so I ran an experiment to lower the level for a week and implemented a procedure for operators to follow. It ended up being a success and was a pretty satisfying conclusion!
Is doing a co-op worth it?
100%. My co-op helped me realized what I liked - and more importantly what I don’t like. It also taught me concepts that I used in later classes like scaling heat exchangers and modifying the reflux of a distillation column. It also was like a break from school because work is much less stressful than having 3 tests in one week. Lastly, a co-op is pretty beneficial financially since it has helped me fund my education.