As a high school student, Ethan Rogers dreamed of someday working at Tesla. A native of Cory, Indiana, Rogers was very familiar with nearby Rose-Hulman and the internship and career opportunities the STEM college provides its students – with its consistent 99 percent placement rate and high starting salaries with companies across the globe – so he chose to enroll there to pursue his dream.

In spring and summer of 2023, Rogers’ goal became reality. The mechanical engineering major landed an internship at Tesla’s Gigafactory near Reno, Nevada, after making multiple contacts within the automotive and clean energy company during the Career Fair. 

“The Career Fair is honestly what did it,” Rogers said. “I knew that Rose was known for engineering, so I thought, maybe if I go there, I can get an internship opportunity with Tesla. When I heard they were coming (to the Career Fair), I was super pumped. I knew I had to be intentional about connecting with them and figuring out the tips and tricks to getting a role there. I’m super thankful for the opportunity because it was a really good experience.”

Rogers worked as a technical project manager for the Manufacturing Automation Development Engineering (MADE) team, which makes the battery packs for the Tesla vehicles.

“It’s a massive team, but essentially what I ended up doing was I was kind of like the (project manager) between all these people,” Rogers said. “The mechanical designers need to know what's going on with the controls people, or we have to work with facilities to coordinate how everything's going to go and make sure we're getting the required power and air and exhaust and all these things that we need in there. I was the one who helped to basically connect all the pieces of the puzzle.

“I got to see a little bit of what each team does. It was a really cool experience, especially for an internship where you’re only there for a few months.” 

Part of his work included working with staff engineers on 3D-modeling software projects that utilized SolidWorks. “I was very familiar with what they were showing me,” due to his classroom experience at Rose, Rogers added.

“I was actually taking an engineering management class while I was doing this internship, and I saw a lot of things really coordinate between the two,” he said. “When you work in project teams here at Rose, you really do get a taste of project management. You really have to coordinate between teammates. It was the same during my internship. We had a due date where we needed to have that project done, and so I had to figure out what the milestones needed to be to reach the goal by that date. “

Rogers has been active in campus clubs and organizations as a student, having served as president and currently as vice president of Rose-Hulman’s Rose Innovative Student Entrepreneurs (RISE) club, professional development chair for the student chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and Student Advisory Board member for the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He’s also enjoying attending college alongside his younger brother, Elliott, a first-year student.

“I love the small community feel at Rose,” Rogers said. “I think it's very special. When you go to other colleges, you're probably not walking from class to class, you know, giving fist bumps to like three or four guys walking down the hall. Whereas here, a lot of faces that you see are very familiar and you actually know those people.  It’s just a community feel. Obviously, the academic side is very rigorous, as most people know. And as much as it can be (challenging) you also get that satisfaction (when) you start realizing what you can actually do with it. Even in my startup mindset. I'm thinking about the things that I've learned, and I can correctly apply them to the real world. It's really about all the problem-solving techniques and practice.”