Kraus-Anderson Interns Look Back on the 2024 Summer

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Kraus-Anderson hosted 22 wonderful interns this summer.

As their internships come to a close, we asked them to reflect on their time with Kraus-Anderson.

Emily Anderson

College: St. Thomas, Financial Management and Real Estate Series

What was the biggest highlight of your summer?: Joining in on various tours with the Construction and Realty Companies. I appreciate that KA gives their corporate employees the opportunity to get out of the office and check out the projects & properties that the business evolves around!

Morgan Gallagher

College: Marquette, Construction Engineering

What is something that surprised you this summer?: Something that surprised me is how quickly things can change on the job site and how fast the project can transform (super cool to see!).

Cal Hass

College: Minnesota, Actuarial Science

Did you face any challenges this summer? If so, how did you overcome them?: One challenge was gathering all the data for a project I was working on. It required lots of meetings, scheduling, and overcommunication to figure this out.

Meir Hetletvedt

College: Minnesota, Construction Management

What was the biggest highlight of your summer?: This summer I was at the Rosemount Public works and Police Campus Project and found many of the details quite unique to this specific site. Though the highlight of it all was getting to work with all the trades, architects, project managers both internal and external, and the owners. It painted an overarching picture for the entire construction process I had never gotten to see or be a part of first hand before.

Bryce Holtan

College: North Dakota State, Construction Management

What is one thing you learned during your time as a Kraus-Anderson intern?: I learned a lot about documents and software programs that I was unfamiliar with before. I learned how to utilize Bluebeam to mark up plans and perform quantity takeoffs. I also learned how to review and mark up submittals.

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College: North Dakota, Construction Engineering

What were your expectations coming into the program? Did we meet or not meet them?:

I am a returning intern so I was expecting to do the same things as last summer. I did do some of the same things but my mentor, (Project Manager) Dan (Kjellberg) made sure to ask me three things that I want to learn over the summer and then he gave me stuff to work on that would teach me about those things.

Owen Larson

College: Wisconsin-Stout, Construction Management

What was the biggest highlight of your summer?: Getting to know all the amazing people I’ve worked with this summer and the connections that made them. Specifically, the pig roast we held at the Hayward High School to give back for all the hard work everyone has done!

Justin Marschinke

College: Dunwoody, Construction Project Management

What advise do you have for future interns?: The advice I have for future interns is to ask questions, stay determined, stay focused, get your tasks done as soon as possible (do not procrastinate), and take notes! If your tasked with something write it down and cross it off or put it on your calendar. Lastly, stay organized in your email.

Joe McCormick

College: St. Thomas, Marketing (back in 2012), Minnesota, Construction Management Certificate Program

What is one thing you learned during your time as a Kraus-Anderson intern?: Construction management requires a great amount of specificity. It’s better to spend a little extra time double checking things than spending even more time and money fixing something later.

Patrick McGuire

College: Wisconsin Platteville, Civil Engineering-Structural Emphasis

What is something that surprised you this summer?:  How much everything is connected on a larger job. If one trade is behind, it can hold other trades up with their work. Same thing for answers from the client/architect, if they take a while to answer a question it can hold everybody and their work up.

Connor McGraw

College: Minnesota State, Construction Management

What is one thing you learned during your time as a Kraus-Anderson intern?: How to manage my time more efficiently and balance multiple projects and tasks at once.

Henrik Pederson

College: Minnesota, Construction Management

Did you face any challenges this summer? If so, how did you overcome them?: One thing that was challenging was keeping up with the schedule for pre punch, as it often took more time to do a unit (of the apartment) and would hold me up. One thing I learned is that you have to plan ahead on these hold ups, have something planned in the case of a given unit not being ready for pre punch, or let someone know that there is too much garbage in the unit so it can be taken care of prior to pre punch.

Nathan Rewald

College: Wisconsin-Stout, Construction Management with a minor in business

Did you face any challenges this summer? If so, how did you overcome them?: I faced a couple challenges this summer, usually having to deal with subcontractors and submittals. To overcome them I needed to make sure I knew everything I could about the plans and specs, then by having open communication with the subs and design team, sometimes followed by setting up a meeting or site-walk with both the sub-contractor and the architect to solve the issue.

Caden Smith

College: Minnesota State Mankato, Construction Management

What was the biggest highlight of your summer?: So far, the biggest highlight has been working on site with the opportunity to be the only young KA employee. Coming into the job, everything was at a much larger scale than I had been used to in my previous experience, so having a great team surrounding me was a huge leap into the untapped potential that I hadn’t used before. Being able to help build and manage a hospital has been a diverse, yet career altering experience that will forever allow me to be a better industry professional. Building relationships with my co workers and some of the subs on site is such a great feeling to know that people rely on you but you also rely on them to get the job done that they’re profession is in.

Tyler Thilmony

College and Major: North Dakota State, Construction Management

What is one thing you learned during your time as a Kraus-Anderson intern?: The importance of Communication. Can’t expect people to know things you have to make sure you personally communicate it to them.

Frederick Zach

College: Nebraska, Construction Management

What was the biggest highlight of your summer?: The biggest highlight for me was attending the Intern Summit. It was awesome to see the way of operating on a job site versus in the office. It was also great to meet the other interns from different schools. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]