Thanks for the....interesting feedback. I can understand your POV when you read something like that. Let me explain, then.
I graduated high school at a younger age than normal. I skipped two grades in grade school, thus graduated high school at 16. I enrolled in college the next semester, and turned 17 during my freshman year. I applied for, and was accepted into, an internship with CCI during the summer before my freshman year. I then had a work program with B&M the following summer. I don't have any European coaster in my track record because of a simple fact. I've never been. The program I was enrolled in was based state-side. And because it was a work program, not a co-op or a job where I was employed by the company, I was there to learn about the biz, and help out wherever I could. I got to travel a lot that summer, to new rides, and existing ones with B&M reps. It was a lot of fun, but I didn't learn too much about actual designing, because I wasn't in a professional school at that point.
The internship at CCI was similar to the program at B&M. Like I said, I lacked the technical knowledge at that point to really "do" anything. It was just a way to get acquainted with the biz, and introduce me to what roller coaster design was all about. If I were to apply for an internship now with those companies, I'm sure I'd have a different experience, and role.
Last summer, I made a huge road trip to many parks I had never been to before, like a lot of West Coast parks. I had been to a few when I was young, but the parks had changed greatly since then. And, I hadn't been to the East Coast much either, just Florida mostly.
Hope that clears things up. If you ave any other Q's, e-mail me, let's not waste Jeff's space.
~TodD~
"God help us, our lives are in the hands of engineers..."