It is always exciting to hear about Pedrozzi Scholars and their involvement in the community – for Shannon Meyer, a 2017 Pedrozzi Scholar, she is taking her experiences in the local community and applying skills gained to a whole new level. Shannon shares about her experience being part of the pilot Boomerang Program in Livermore and how that’s helped her gain an internship in Washington D.C.

“My name is Shannon Meyer, and I am a second year Economics and Statistics major at UC Davis who grew up in Livermore and graduated from Granada High School. After my first year of college, I came home to participate in the Boomerang Program as a content marketing
intern for Nyentek, a software firm operating out of The Switch, a startup incubator in downtown Livermore.

My experience at The Switch was nothing short of extraordinary. For the businesses based there, The Switch is an incubator: a shared office space, lab, and studio that supplies young startups with everything they need to get off the ground. For interns like me, it is a manifestation of ideas and possibilities where I can watch Yolanda Fintschenko crafting high-quality technical articles as Jonathan Gibbs, who was introduced to me as “Airplane Jon”, perfects the design for his LNG-powered jets at a desk fifteen feet away. Nyentek itself takes on projects from multiple market spaces, building software for industrial, medical, and hospitality companies.

The summer I spent with Nyentek transformed me professionally and academically. The variety of tasks I worked on gave me confidence in my versatility and learning ability, and the practice in drafting and revising articles made me a stronger, more mindful writer. The conviction and motivation of the people at The Switch is contagious, and I entered my second year of college with an intrinsic determination to achieve a new set of academic and personal goals.

That determination has stayed with me throughout the school year. I’ve continued my professional development through the UC Davis Women in Economics Society and as a peer tutor, where I continue to build my communication and leadership skills. The professional writing and presentation skills I developed also prepared me to participate in the UCDC Washington Program, which guides selected students through the process of finding internships in Washington DC, where I will be interning in the Fall.”

Shannon shared in July 2019 that she will be an intern in Congressman Eric Swalwell’s office in the fall. The Pedrozzi Foundation wishes Shannon all the best as she heads to DC in the fall!