Aug. 15, 2023

This paid piece is sponsored by SDN Communications.

Interns have long been a vital part of the operations at SDN Communications, and the 2023 class wasn’t any different.

SDN Communications 2023 interns Josh Krull, Dalton Brouwer, Joe Larson and Abigail Nielsen. Not pictured: Ethan Ferguson.

SDN Communications, which provides business internet services, hired five interns from Dakota State University, Mitchell Technical College and South Dakota State University.

Four of the five worked out of the Sioux Falls office, and one worked in Rapid City; four jobs were on the technical side, and one was in marketing. All said that SDN Communications treated them like they were regular employees and members of the team.

SDN will begin interviewing for its 2024 interns in the next few months. Interested? Here’s what this summer’s interns said about their experiences:

Dalton Brouwer, network operations center intern

What was your role during the internship?

My job was helping and learning from others in the network operations center at SDN. This included going to cell sites to move, change, repair or check on gear, along with running both fiber and ethernet lines at SDN’s main building and the SDN Data Center at Mark Shlanta Technology Park in northwestern Sioux Falls. The internship also had me working in the main office, upgrading customer technology and doing maintenance over the nighttime hours.

What accomplishment over the summer are you most proud of?

I am just proud of the internship as a whole and how I was able to learn about many new things over the summer that I will be able to keep with me and use as experience for future jobs.

What surprised you the most about your internship?

I was surprised about how laid-back and helpful everyone is here. I have had internships in the past where it’s all work all the time, and nobody cares about you as a person. But SDN was different; my co-workers asked about me, talked to me and helped me daily to be a better person over the entire internship. There were not any challenging parts of this internship due again to the help that I received from others.

What’s next for you?

I am just beginning my senior year of college at Dakota State University as a cyber operations major. I do not know completely what I am going to do with my future, but I know that I want to finish college and hopefully move into a career that makes me happy.

Ethan Ferguson, outside plant intern

What was your role during the internship?

My job at SDN during the internship was mainly locating fiber paths and depths. I also helped network operations with some installs when needed and helped wherever I could.

What accomplishment over the summer are you most proud of?

What I am most proud of is being able to contribute to something bigger than myself. Being able to do my job and help where I could has helped me realize how important it is to be able to work as a team with others’ help.

What surprised you the most about your internship?

What surprised me the most was just how massive SDN’s network really is. I was unaware of how many people they provided service to and just how much ground they cover.

What’s next for you?

After the internship ends, I am going back to school at Mitchell Technical College, where I will be finishing my second and final year. And then I will be looking for a job. I am not sure where I want to work as of right now but am ready for the opportunity to get started somewhere.

Joe Larson, outside plant intern

What was your role during the internship?

During my internship at SDN, my main job was renovating the CircuitVision fiber map and database. I made sure all of SDN’s cell towers and buildings were formatted correctly and connected to each other.

What accomplishment over the summer are you most proud of?

When I first started my internship, my first assignment was to scroll through a long list of buildings that SDN connects with fiber. I needed to go through every single building on that list and make sure the “SDN Lit” box was checked, the fiber termination panel CLLI code was correct and that the physical location of the building was also in the right area. I completed all the buildings in roughly a month and a half when the assignment was originally expected to take the entire summer. I was pretty happy to get that done way ahead of schedule so that I could help out in other areas of the field services department.

What surprised you the most about your internship?

The most surprising thing about the internship at SDN was how friendly and helpful everyone was at the SDN campus. It felt like there was always some fun social event taking place where I got to meet a lot of co-workers. My boss, Chris Haiar, was also very flexible with how I worked. I split time between working in my office cubicle and working from home on days I had track practice or other errands to take care of. And I was still able to get all my work done in an efficient manner. I was given a few difficult tasks in my internship, though — some assignments related to concepts and terminology I was unfamiliar with. So I often had to turn to co-workers and Microsoft Teams for help with them.

What’s next for you?

As my final year at Dakota State University starts this August, SDN was kind enough to keep me under their internship program during the school year. If they have work that I can do for them, I am eager to help with any assignment they can give me. But while I’m at DSU, I will be finishing my cyber operations major and my network administration minor. Once I’m all done with school, I’d like to shift into the cybersecurity side of IT. I would love to be a penetration tester or security analyst as I love to hack things, and red team assessments were always intriguing to me. Thankfully, jobs in that field are abundant, so I’d hope I can secure one regardless of where I’d have to go to get it.

Josh Krull, network operations center intern

What was your role during the internship?

I worked closely with the people in the network operations center at SDN. This involved tasks such as device upgrades and replacements, device configuration and responding to alarms.

What accomplishment over the summer are you most proud of?

A big part of my summer was traveling to cell towers with power supply alarms. This is something that is important but takes time to get out to each site, which can be up to three hours away. We don’t have a ton of information before going to the site, so you don’t always know what to expect and have to be ready to troubleshoot.

What surprised you the most about your internship?

I was surprised by the number of devices and infrastructure SDN has spread throughout the region. It is impressive how they can handle it all with all the alarms and situations that pop up. This can be challenging as sometimes issues can happen that are time-sensitive and require a quick response. I think this sort of challenge was a good experience for me.

What’s next for you?

I will be going back up to Madison to finish my Master of Cyber Defense program at DSU. I then will be looking for a full-time job after graduation in the spring. I am not set on what job exactly I would like to do, but I do like the cybersecurity industry.

SDN Communications vice president of sales and marketing Ryan Dutton, marketing manager Andrea Leesch, intern Abigail Nielsen, marketing specialist Hannah Boquet and digital marketing specialist Michael Klinski.

Abigail Nielsen, marketing intern

What was your role during the internship?

During my internship, my biggest responsibility was designing the print materials for the SDN Communications Golf Classic. This included drink tickets, the sponsor banner, hole signs, table tents and more. Other jobs I had included designing the company holiday card, writing blogs, designing infographics and writing a press release.

What accomplishment over the summer are you most proud of?

I found designing the holiday card to be creatively stimulating. Finding different ways to make the card recognizable as a holiday card but also stick to the SDN Communications branding was an interesting challenge. I was able to find different ways to hide the SDN logo within the holiday design and used the blue branded colors to my advantage. During the design process, I was also able to share my design ideas with my co-workers and get their input on how to improve my designs.

What surprised you the most about your internship?

Going into this internship, I didn’t know what to expect. I had little-to-no knowledge of the telecommunications industry and was worried the design work wouldn’t be challenging. I found my experience to be extremely educational; having weekly meetings about the ins and outs of the company gave me more knowledge of SDN than I have in jobs I’ve had for years. I found my co-workers to be an inspiring and extremely fun group to be around, and my tasks gave me the opportunity to explore my design skills further.

What’s next for you?

I am going into my senior year at South Dakota State University, where I am pursuing a major in graphic design and minors in dance, and digital and social media. I am excited to continue exploring my design knowledge and am looking forward to all the experiences senior year holds.

How SDN Communications finds fun at work