From a young age, senior mechanical engineering major Nathan Golden knew what he wanted to be. Not many people grow into 20-year-olds who have accomplished their 10-year-old dreams. Golden is one of the few who have.
“When I was 10, I was saying I wanted to be an engineer, which is pretty unheard of, most people don’t know what they want to do until after college,” Golden remarked.
Several years later, and Golden has now participated in a competitive internship at Dynetics, a military contracting company that works with NASA, for the past couple of years and has been given the opportunity to continue his work with them this summer. Golden has an impressive resume.
Though according to Golden, the success isn’t his own. That isn’t to say that Golden hasn’t worked hard or that his determination hasn’t paid off; he just credits all his accomplishments to his faith in the Lord.
Golden’s internship at Dynetics began his sophomore summer at Union and has continued throughout the rest of his summers as a student. This opportunity led him to working with one of the most impressive organizations in the United States: NASA.
“When I got there, they put me in the space solutions division. And NASA, they don’t do their own engineering, so most of the time they contract it out to other people,” Golden explained. “So we had part of their life support system, and we were working on building it, basically.”
Golden was involved in the design and testing of the device. Last summer, he finished helping with the project. After that, he moved on to more military things while occasionally helping with NASA projects.
The way Golden speaks about his job is in the same way anyone passionate about their job does — with excitement. He has a way of communicating, “yeah this stuff is super complex, but it’s also really great.”
When working, his day-to-day activities include sketching, testing, and troubleshooting products. During his time at Dynetics, Golden spent lots of time in the labs and even got to wear a full dust-suit and laser googles.
When asked about his experiences as an engineering student versus working out in the field, Golden said the biggest difference is the technology.
“Well, it’s not a lot of hand calculations,” he laughed. “We spend a lot of time in class learning how to solve certain problems, but when you get to the real world, you plug in a bunch of numbers into a computer and then it spits it out for you.”
As a sophomore, Golden heard about this internship opportunity from a relative who briefly knew the secretary of defense for the United States. The secretary of defense knew the CEO of Dynetics and was able to get Golden an interview.
After completing his interview, Golden was determined to secure his spot. Golden “cold called,” according to his fiancée and Union alumna Hannah Juiliessen, several people who worked at the company just to get his name out there, and to find out more about what it may be like to work at the company.
“One thing I learned in my first year of interning: I reached out to everyone high up and asked them to lunch. I got lunch with the CEO, the heads of all the departments, three of which were former secretaries of NASA. I got lunch with a lot of high up people and that got me connections early on,” Golden explained. “Most people don’t realize that the CEO would love to have lunch with this random intern because it’s just lunch.”
Golden’s determination and ability to take chances in his past has contributed to him being where he wants to be now.
“He’s always been very one minded, like ‘This is what I want to do, and I’m going to do what it takes to get there,’” Juiliessen said fondly. “So its been really cool to sit back and watch and be like, ‘This is like your dream job and you have it right out of school,’ and that’s just really impressive.”
When Golden came to Union, he was an electrical engineering major. Though he quickly became unsure if it was the route he wanted to take. So he prayed about it.
“I had a mechanical test coming up and an electrical test coming up, so I prayed that those tests would show which field I show take,” he recalled. “I think I got a 98 on the mechanical and a 72 on the electrical. So I was like, ‘All right, going mechanical,’ and here I am.”
Golden will continue to work at Dynetics in Huntsville, Alabama after graduation, where he will be continuing the work he has been doing during the internship. While the details aren’t final, Golden will still have the opportunity to work with space gear, along with the various other aspects of the engineering field.
“It’s been really cool watching Nathan come in as an engineering major and just fall more and more in love with what he does throughout the years,” Juiliessen said, proudly. “It’s just been really cool to see all of his dreams come to fruition.”
“It’s been all the Lord,” Golden shook his head as he smiled. “I don’t think it’s been my abilities at all.”