Poba Medical has long embraced offering local students and students from all over the U.S. internships to provide them with a hands-on opportunity to work in the medical device field. Thanks to the quality internship program, interns quickly realize that learning how their course of study applies to the real world builds invaluable experience, making them stronger candidates for their dream job once they graduate.

Marc Aruguete and Ethan Hegseth - Poba's most recent summer interns - know that by completing their internship at Poba Medical, they do much more than fulfilling a college requirement; they gain real-life job experience that will benefit them long into the future. 

Meet Marc Aruguete from Flagstaff, AZ

Marc Aruguete, studies mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. A local of Flagstaff, AZ, Marc is grateful for his internship experience thus far for multiple reasons. 

‍"As an intern at Poba, I have helped supplement many projects throughout the summer, whether through communicating directly with multiple suppliers and customers or directly contributing to R&D for projects. As interns, we also have projects we are working through R&D on our own. Poba definitely allows its interns to get tons of hands-on experience in various workplace settings." said Marc.

For Marc, one of the most rewarding aspects of interning at Poba is that the company allows him to work on several projects throughout the summer and gain experience in multiple areas instead of being delegated to a single part of the engineering process. Besides the free burritos, Marc also enjoys rapid prototyping in R&D. "It is quite special to see something that was designed to be then created by you."

As an avid wrestler and mountain biker, Marc can thank his wrestling coaches for his inspiration to take an interest in medical devices. "Many of my old wrestling coaches worked for medical device companies as engineers, so I always looked up to them as positive role models. It is also a field that allows you to be on the cutting edge of engineering, innovating new and creative ways to solve problems. That is very exciting to me."

Meet Ethan Hegseth from Peoria, ND

Ethan was born and raised in Peoria, Arizona, but studies at Texas A&M University. As a summer intern at Poba, he works on many exciting projects, such as engineering design, 3d printing, designing in CAD, repairing 3d printers, and managing inventory. His inspiration to become an engineer came from all the summers he spent working in North Dakota on his family's farm.

"I've wanted to be an engineer almost my entire life, and I never really had an interest in becoming a doctor, so as an engineer working with medical devices is one of the only ways that I can have an impact on the medical field," said Ethan.

For Ethan, the best part of working at Poba is "the ability to work on real projects that could someday have an impact on the medical field." Working in various facets of balloon production  - whether in manufacturing or design - has also made this internship a professionally rewarding experience. 

Although Ethan is still uncertain about which industry he wants to enter after graduation, his positive experience at Poba made him realize that he would prefer working for a smaller company where he can be more hands-on in various aspects of the organization.