Herff senior Kenzie Slakans earns hands-on experience and industry exposure through continued internships with Barnhart Crane & Rigging
July 31, 2026
Incoming Herff College of Engineering senior Kenzie Slakans already has more industry experience than most engineering students do by the time they graduate, thanks to her ongoing internships with Barnhart Crane & Rigging, a company that assists with the moving and installation of heavy equipment of all sizes.
At 19 years old, Slakans returned to Barnhart in the summer of 2026 for her second internship with the company, a paid research and design intern position that allows her to work on her own projects while learning from seasoned engineers.
“I think this has been the best learning experience I’ve ever had,” Slakans said. “I’ve been in school my entire life and I’ve never learned so much in such a short amount of time than I have by being in this place, because you have industry experts sitting next to you, across from you, and these people with decades of experience will literally sit right next to you and show you the correct way to model something.”
During her brief tenure at Barnhart, Slakans designed a box to test lasers and assisted professional engineers in static calculations. Currently, she’s working on the “Slide Beam Buggy,” a project she named herself.
“We have, basically, a large piece of metal. They’re slide beams and they’re used for a lot of different things here,” Slakans explained. “It’s a piece of equipment that was built and designed and there is a need to transport them around inside shops or on job sites or even here when they’re being built. So, I’ve been working on a design for that, going back and forth on different sizes, extending the wheelbase and actually building the prototype.”
But developing the design’s concept is only half of its creation. Slakans also spends time in the shop building the design, 3D printing, and running functional tests.
She earned her first internship at Barnhart through a Herff College of Engineering career fair. After graduating high school at 16, Slakans’ parents, both Herff alums, insisted that she pursue engineering at the University of Memphis. That family tradition continued further when Slakans stopped by the Barnhart table. She’d soon found herself in the same building where her mother worked for nearly 10 years.
“I got the internship through a career fair. I’ve gone to all of them except for one. The manager stopped me and we had a conversation. They were like, ‘Hey, you’re Heidi’s daughter, right?’ And that kind of started the conversation. But it was a long hiring process. I went through a bunch of interview phases and they make you take a bunch of tests,” Slakans said.
Despite her age, Barnhart’s representatives were impressed with Slakans' background in 3D modeling and robotics. Now, she learns engineering concepts in the classroom and immediately puts them to use in the real world.
“We’ll be learning these equations and I’ll come to work and have a senior engineer, literally, writing all of the equations that I just learned by hand and by memory on the table, which is super cool. So, it’s actually being able to apply what I’m learning in the classroom here and that kind of helps everything stick that much better. But, I’ll say, with an opportunity like this, you learn so much more than sitting in class, hands down,” Slakans said.
Slakans said she nervously walked into Barnhart after securing her first internship but quickly found she related to professional engineers who were more than happy to support her.
“At the end of the day, they’re all nerds. I think everybody can relate on that level. I walked in on the first day and I was like super scared of everyone. Then I realized that they’re just a bunch of guys who like to model, like to design, like cars and guns. I think everybody can relate on that level. I was really surprised by how open everybody was to sitting down with me and helping me,” Slakans said.
That gave her the confidence to walk into the office of Eric Barnhart, a concept engineer at Barnhart Crane & Rigging, and ask about his daily workflow and the projects he was working on. A year later, Slakans is working on and making changes to one of the projects that Eric Barnhart showed her during the first few weeks of her first internship with the company.
Slakans said she hopes to earn a full-time job at Barnhart, a company she said is unique by allowing engineers to both create and design their own concepts. But, regardless of what her future holds, Slakans said the skills she’s picked up during her time at Barnhart have better prepared her for wherever her career may take her.
“I now realize how much I didn’t know,” Slakans said. “I think that’s the big thing. Having an opportunity like this teaches you how to fail and how to learn and I think that’s a valuable skill that you could take with you anywhere. But as far as being around the equipment and how we make our drawings and all of that, I think I’m better prepared for a job here after college.”
And for any students looking to land their first internship and follow in Slakans’ footsteps, she said to remember that the hiring process isn’t just about whether a company wants you. It’s also about what company you want to join and the skill sets you need to get there.
“Whenever you’re going to talk to a person at a career fair, it’s not an interrogation. Yes, you’re trying to get hired for a job, but also, you’re trying to seek a job that you’re going to enjoy,” Slakans said. “Whenever I go to these types of career fairs, I ask what I will be doing every day. What is interesting about this job versus another job? Have a two-way conversation with them and if you don’t have enough experience, figure out what experience you need. We have so many free licenses because we’re students. So, go out and learn those skills because they’re invaluable.”