Our INTERN OF THE YEAR award recognizes students who have gone above and beyond what is expected of them throughout their internships.
During the month of September, faculty and internships supervisors are asked to submit a nomination for a current UCA student who has excelled in or made a significant impact in work-integrated learning within the past year (Sep-Aug). Click here for more information on Intern of the Year!
Interns of the Year
2024
Madison “Maddie” Porter
Writing, Rhetoric, and Information Design
Maddie is a senior Writing, Rhetoric, and Information Design (WRID) major who interned at Acoustic as a User Experience (UX) Writer. In this role, she assisted the product development team with informational and engaging content such as error messages, help center text, and in-app tours. Her employer describes her as one with “a knack for simplifying complex ideas into user-friendly language”. Maddie’s work contributions have made it into Acoustic’s product releases providing a direct value to the product development lifecycle. Maddie’s faculty nominator praises her work ethic, professionalism, and excitement to learn new skills. She was appointed to the Student Advisory Committee for two consecutive academic years and was the winner of the WRID Best Multimodal Project and WRID Best Scholarly Essay award in 2023.
2023
Brian Cavin
Computer Science
Brian is a senior Computer Science major who interned at CG Infinity as a Developer Intern. In this role, he assisted the development team with client consulting, problem analysis, and solution implementation and focused mainly on data warehousing, ETL, and integration. His employer describes him as “one of the most critical components to the CG Infinity Little Rock team’s success”. Brian is a 2-time UCA President’s Scholar and has also been recognized on the President’s list and Dean’s list multiple times since 2021. After graduating in May, Brian plans to complete his M.S. in Computer Science and continue working at CG Infinity. Serving five years in the U.S. Marine Corps, Brian earned several notable awards and then spent nine years in the energy technology industry before starting his construction business and returning to college in 2020. He is a natural leader and is especially proud of his wife and seven children. Brian is also the recipient of the 2023 National Internship Student Achievement Award presented by the Cooperative Education and Internship Association.
2022
Daisy Martinez Carranza
Marketing and Studio Art
Daisy is a May 2022 senior and has maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout her four years at UCA and serves on many UCA student organizations. In Summer 2021, Daisy completed an internship at Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield where she was charged with the task of creating and executing a marketing plan for a national health program with low enrollment in Arkansas. Daisy’s “Healthy Blue Summer” campaign was a huge success, resulting in over 3,600 registrations (an 8.85% increase in program participation). As a result of her hard work and collaboration on this project, Daisy was also awarded the 2021 Arkansas Blue Cross Academic Scholarship. Daisy plans to pursue a master’s degree in Data Analytics in the near future. Daisy has also been selected as the honorable mention for the National Intern of the Year distinction. She will receive a certificate and formal recognition on the CEIA website and in the program at the CEIA national conference in April 2022.
2021
Grace Zimmerman
Mathematics & Music Performance
Grace is a May 2021 senior and completed her internship at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center where she worked on the project “Net Flux Radiometer for the Ice Giants.” She was ultimately named a John Mather Nobel Scholar, an award given due to her internship work at Goddard Space Flight Center as well as her outreach involvement and academic achievement. She continues to work as an intern at the NASA Langley Research Center where she is working to create a generic robotic control system. Grace will compete nationally for Intern of the Year through CEIA. Upon graduation she plans to go to graduate school to obtain her masters degree in Aerospace Engineering and then work again for NASA as a full-time civil servant. Grace is also the recipient of the 2021 National Internship Student Achievement Award presented by the Cooperative Education and Internship Association.
| Year | UCA Intern of the Year | Major |
| 2020 | Greta Hacker | Public Administration |
| 2019 | Hannah Standley | Writing |
| 2018 | Samantha LeMarr | Writing |
| 2017 | Eryka Williams* | Public Administration |
| 2016 | Lindsey Bray | Public Administration |
| 2015 | Margaret McNeary | English |
| 2014 | Benjamin Lykins | Geography |
| 2013 | Courtney Dunn | Biology |
| 2012 | Tisha Nooner | Sociology |
| 2011 | Brandon Mathis | Art |
| 2010 | Rachael Small | Musin |
| 2009 | Joseph Cazzell | Insurance & Risk Management |
| 2008 | Meaghan Dellar | Computer Science |
| 2007 | Bradley Klingsport* | Accounting |
| * denotes National Intern of the Year distinction | ||