HD Construction Wraps Up Summer Internship Program
This summer, HD Construction welcomed two University of Kentucky mechanical engineering students to the team, giving them firsthand experience with how engineering, technology, construction, and business come together in the real world.
Lance Jarnagin, a junior in mechanical engineering at the University of Kentucky, and Gavin Proffitt, a freshman in mechanical engineering at UK, spent the summer working alongside HD’s team. Both gained hands-on field experience while learning how daily work on a jobsite connects to project management, technology, company systems, and overall project performance.
That meant experiencing construction as it actually happens — starting the day early, working in the elements, learning new skills with their hands, solving problems, and working alongside experienced tradespeople.
Gavin spent much of his summer in the field with HD’s crews. He gained exposure to daily construction operations and saw how plans and schedules translate into actual work. Along the way, he learned how safety, quality, productivity, communication, and coordination all contribute to keeping a project moving forward.
Lance also spent time in the field while focusing on technology and business systems. His experience provided a look at how HD uses technology to organize information, improve communication, streamline workflows, and connect what is happening on a jobsite with the information needed to manage projects and the business.
Together, those experiences helped demonstrate an important part of the construction industry: field performance and company systems are closely connected. Daily production, documentation, scheduling, material coordination, safety, quality, and job costs all rely on people consistently doing their part and communicating accurate information.
For HD Construction, that connection is an important part of the internship experience.
“Having interns with us over the summer gives us an opportunity to bridge the gap between the analytical side of engineering and the practical side of construction,” said Donnie Proffitt, President of HD Construction. “They get to see how decisions are made, how problems are solved, and how people work together to move a project forward. They also learn that performance matters. Showing up early, working safely, communicating, doing quality work, and completing what you said you would do all have an impact on the success of the team.”
As Lance and Gavin return to the University of Kentucky, they take with them a broader understanding of the relationship between engineering and the skilled trades, field production and business systems, and individual responsibility and team performance.
For HD Construction, the summer was an opportunity to invest in two future engineers while giving them something the classroom alone cannot provide: the experience of being part of a team responsible for getting real work done.
