Meet Claire, a high school intern from Cary whose passion for engineering began with an opportunity to try something completely new
To her, Caterpillar has been more than just an internship experience. It has been a guiding force in her journey to becoming an engineer ✨
Her story began in ninth grade when she joined an all-girls robotics team sponsored by Caterpillar. With little engineering experience and limited exposure to tools, she was eager to learn. Beyond sponsorship, Caterpillar employees volunteered as mentors, helping her think through challenges, understanding real-world customer needs, and developing problem-solving skills that extended far beyond the classroom. Claire also toured Caterpillar facilities and attended events such as Family Day and Girls in Engineering Day, giving her a firsthand look at what a career in engineering could look like. Those experiences helped Claire and her teammates design and build a competition-ready robot in just eight weeks, earning three awards at the FIRST Robotics World Championship. 🌟
Last year, she carried the momentum as a high school intern and a rising senior, she used her past experiences to take lead on her own projects. She also learned software tools to implement her own designs on machines and gathered feedback from operators to make a real impact for Caterpillar customers.
Today, Claire has come full circle. Now an incoming freshman at North Carolina State University, she spent her summer interning with Caterpillar's Finite Element Analysis team at the Clayton Machine Development Center (CMDC). Working alongside engineers, Claire helped analyze and evaluate designs across multiple machines while continuing to build her technical skills.
But beyond the hands-on experience, Claire says what stands out most is Caterpillar's culture. "Everyone is an expert at something," she shares. "When people feel like they belong, collaboration happens naturally. I've learned so much from the people around me, and I'm grateful Caterpillar continues to invest in future engineers like me. One day, I hope to do the same for others." 💛
For Claire, the greatest lesson isn't just about engineering. It's about the power of mentorship, teamwork, and creating an environment where people feel empowered to learn, grow, and succeed.
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Why this matters for talent
This is employer brand content built around one intern success story, not a hiring announcement, but it signals that Caterpillar keeps investing in a structured pipeline from sponsored high school robotics teams into paid internships and engineering roles. Caterpillar currently carries more than 460 open roles on the jobs board, so candidates eyeing a manufacturing or mechanical engineering path there can read this as evidence of a real early career program rather than a slogan.
956 likes · 18 comments · 9 shares · Read the original LinkedIn post. Curated by Larry Sherwood Jr. from company announcements; analysis above is my own.