Two DSU Students to Spend Summer in Internships at Apple
A coveted internship program with Apple – the renowned multinational technology giant – is giving some select Delaware State University computer science students real world experience that will help to catapult them into their careers in the industry.
Curtis A. Hite and Tuba S. Abbasi, both rising seniors, will spend their summer in California as interns working for Apple through a partnership program with the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund. In addition to the internship, TMCF is providing the students with a one-year scholarship and is paying for their summer relocation costs.
They are following the footsteps of Deshaun Crawford, a May 2017 computer science graduate, who spent the summer of 2016 as an intern who worked on Apple’s product testing team. He apparently made a good impression at Apple, as immediately after his graduation he will leave DSU to work for the company as a software engineer in Santa Clara, Calif.
For Ms. Abbasi, a native of Pakistan and a resident of Smyrna, Del., receiving the news that she had been awarded the Apple internship “left her almost in tears.” She is going to work on Apple’s Swift Team, which is involved in the company specific computer language.
A job with Apple has been a major aspiration for Ms. Abbasi. She has been working on her skills in app development, and along with Mr. Crawford and another student, Janelle Boyd, the trio published a “fun facts” app on the App Store that featured engineering names and STEM info.
“Because I want to work at Apple, I wanted to get my hands on anything that could give me a better chance if I would get an opportunity to work for them,” she said. “When I started doing app development, I really began enjoying it and decided that I want to do mobile development in android and IOS.”
Ms. Abbasi credits the preparation she has received in DSU’s Department of Computer and Information Sciences. “The professors and the chair have given us great support and encouraged us to take advantage of the opportunities.”
Mr. Hite, of Philadelphia, will be working in Apple’s Watch Community in the area of software quality assurance. He previously had an internship at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the summer of 2016.
He said that his experience at Apple will help him learn how to test software to see if it is working properly.