Redefining STEM Internships with Jay Ahn
In this episode of Debugged, our first ever REPEAT guest, Jay Ahn, VP of Operations at Akima, LLC, joins us to discuss her groundbreaking approach to creating impactful STEM internships. Drawing from her own experiences, she designed a program where students take full ownership of real-world projects, like building “Kakau,” an E911 health monitoring system for the U.S. Air Force. By immersing students in agile learning, cloud computing, and high-stakes problem-solving, Jay empowers them to embrace challenges, fail fast, and innovate boldly. Her internship program goes beyond observation, pushing students to realize their potential by working on meaningful, life-saving missions. Tune in to hear how Jay is shaping the next generation of STEM leaders and setting a new standard for internships.
Hello! Welcome back to Debugged, the Congressional App Challenge’s alumni-led podcast that connects the country’s youth with technology by debugging the intricate world of computer science.
In this episode, we welcomes back our first ever returning guest: Jay Ahn! Jay is the VP of Operations for the Emerging Markets Group at Akima LLC. At Akima LLC, she helps deliver mission-critical services and cutting edge technical capabilities to the federal government, by leading several innovation initiatives for public safety and sustainable digital transformation.
To start off the interview, Jay discusses her role as VP of Operations. She explains her work in a business unit within a larger enterprise, where she focuses on strategic initiatives, digital consulting, and bridging technological solutions with operational needs.
Jay then shares her career journey to Akima LLC. Early on as an IT staffing recruiter, she spent a lot of time alongside technical professionals, having meaningful conversations about their careers. Wanting to understand their work more deeply, she took a hiatus from sales and business development to explore technical career options herself.
The highlight of the interview, however, is Jay's discussion of her new internship program, designed to be world-class. The design of her program was inspired by the usually observational nature of traditional internships, rather than actually providing interns with tangible and transformative hands-on experience.
Specifically, she created a team of interns who would develop a real MVP product for real customers. Throughout the 11-week program, these interns were treated as full-time colleagues, and had autonomy over their decision making processes. Jay describes the program's logistics and shares lessons learned from its first class—including technology and skills like working agilely.
Finally, Jay ended the interview by providing a key piece of advice to middle and high school students interested in internships. Tune in to this week's episode of Debugged to hear all of Jay's great advice, and her experiences and lessons learned from her internship program!