Improving the World of Energy with GE

As a computer science and economics double major, the president of Coding Team, vice president of Student Assembly, a violist, a computer science teaching assistant, and a Digital Humanities Initiative intern, Jiin Jeong ’21 likes to stay involved during the school year. Now that it’s summer, she’s taking a break from her Hamilton extracurriculars and instead throwing herself into the similarly busy world of interning in General Electric (GE) Power’s Digital Technology Leadership Program (DTLP).

The DTLP helps bring students into Information Technology (IT) and software development fields while also providing them with leadership experience. As an intern, Jeong has several responsibilities, including working on the Data Governance Team wherein she oversees GE’s data quality, security, and usability, assisting with cybersecurity efforts, and serving as the Community Outreach Intern Ambassador, which entails coordinating volunteer work for other interns based in Atlanta. In the past few months, she has acquired new technical skills, volunteered with organizations like the Atlanta Food Bank, communicated with other interns across the globe, and met CIOs and vice presidents in various technological sectors.

Jeong discovered the opportunity last fall when she attended the Grace Hopper Conference for Women in Computing. Knowing that she wanted to apply her other interests to computer science, she decided to work with GE because of its involvement in energy and sustainability. “I believe in the power of computer science to do good for society and collaboration with other industries to do so,” she said.

Jeong noted that GE’s motto is “Imagination at Work” and that GE Power especially emphasizes “Powering Forward.” She said she is “drawn to how both missions value creativity and innovation to help ‘build, move, power, and cure our world,” and as DTLP intern, she has the ability to impact not just the people in her office, but ultimately the people in the more than 180 countries in which GE has interests.

Having been provided with several leadership positions throughout her internship, Jeong expects to apply her administration experiences to her life at Hamilton. Her work with GE has helped teach her more about organization structures, ensuring accountability, and making projects and environments more efficient. “I definitely want to use these takeaways to be a better leader and manage organizations better at Hamilton and beyond,” she said.

Jeong plans to go to law school after she graduates from Hamilton and wants to focus in IT law, where she will continue to keep busy and stay connected to her technological and global interests. Overall, she feels that her GE summer internship has provided her the tools she needs to pursue her career aspirations. She said, “This summer of working with data and computer security gave me a nice technical background, and I am excited to approach this area with political and legal lenses.”