Internship Spotlight: Summer with Consolidated Analysis Centers, Inc.
Internship Spotlight: Summer with Consolidated Analysis Centers, Inc.
Andrew Travis
Staff Writer
This summer, Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations student Ashley Skladany worked as an Administrative Support Intern with Consolidated Analysis Center, Inc. (CACI). CACI is a cybersecurity defense contractor in Florham Park, New Jersey. Ashley, a junior Political Science and History double major with a minor in Diplomacy and International Relations, shared her experiences during her time at CACI during an interview with The Diplomatic Envoy. CACI focuses on developing the latest cybersecurity and cyber-technology strategies and solutions for the Department of Defense (DOD), homeland security, intelligence agencies, and healthcare institutions. It contributes valuable resources to the DOD, including information technology, consulting services, and engineering.
Ashley’s internship exposed her to the field of cybersecurity. She was able to support the engineering teams administratively and gain hands-on experience with company projects. As an administrative support intern, Ashley Skladany had a flexible position designed to fulfill the needs of other engineers on her team. In her role supporting her team, she organized travel, managed communications, and managed expense reports.
For Ashley, ensuring precision in all her work was a big part of the job. Part of her experience included assisting on contracting projects, including proofreading proposals and papers that would go on to managers and executives at CACI. Ashley’s role also included managing CACI expenses. She made sure that any manager or employee who was traveling, ordering food, or getting supplies was reimbursed correctly by the company. Ashley also took inventory of different laboratories to ensure everything was up to date.
According to Ashley, she learned a lot about the cybersecurity sector and the defense contracting industry. She was able to better understand how the corporate world works through interacting with those in different positions within the company. Not only was she able to gain experience herself, but she also gained mentors within CACI with whom she is planning on maintaining relationships as she finishes her last years of undergraduate studies.
Ashley also conducted research on the current Department of Defense advancements for a potential future CACI platform that her organization may want to assist with. She notes that playing a role in the company’s ability to assist the DOD, and in turn, national security has reminded her that her years of studying diplomacy and international relations will allow her to work for a cause much bigger than herself.
Ashley shared specifically that her favorite part of working with CACI was having the opportunity to utilize research skills that she learned in diplomacy classes such as Investigating International Relations. She explained, “It was so rewarding to convey the importance of an ongoing topic with the Department of Defense using the research I helped conduct.” Ashley shared the excitement she felt while presenting her research to managers, noting that they were always supportive of the accomplishments of all of the CACI interns. She shared that the internship allowed her to hone skills such as public speaking, quantitative research, and organization.
For Ashley, working with so many skilled engineers was an honor, and even if she did not directly work on projects’ technical aspects, the exposure to cybersecurity was transformative for her. The impact of the internship on Ashley shined through the way she spoke about her internship and the people she worked with. She explained that the supportive atmosphere she found herself in was created by how her colleagues and coworkers showed kindness in their everyday interactions. Ashley’s experience has given her a new perspective on the defense industry, and it has exposed her to new job possibilities and career paths.
