University of Minnesota Athletics
Construction Season with Haley Mennes
7/27/2017 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
There are often two seasons in the Twin Cities, winter or construction season. During the offseason, sophomore Haley Mennes has been involved with some of that construction taking up an internship with Metropolitan Mechanical Contractors (MMC) in the Twin Cities.
Mennes says she has learned about the internship at the annual professional development event the University of Minnesota holds called pro day. She was referred to MMC, a mechanical engineering company. Mennes, a civil engineering major, decided she would take the plunge into another engineering field, mechanical engineering.
"When I got there, I talked to some of the other athletes there, and they said that if I was interested in engineering to go talk to API group, who helps oversee MMC."
In her few months at MMC, Mennes said she got a chance to see and learn about more she could have even bargained for.
"I went through buildings and the assistant project managers explained what everything was and why it was there. It was just so much information, every single day I was learning an incredible amount of information so sometimes it was hard to remember everything," said Mennes. "I learned that a lot of places that, by code, have to have these ceilings that lead rain water through these giant pipes and out of the building; and every pipe is at a slat so it can naturally run down the pipe."
Mennes mentioned that her interest in engineering may be different from others, but said that the inside of buildings really sparked her curiosity because it is a completely different level of engineering.
"MMC is a company that works on the mechanical side of engineering. So plumbing, piping, any duct work like heating or cooling, toilets and sinks," said Mennes. "I love the way a building is structured or the way it is held up with civil engineering, but then I got to go into how the building breathes, and the mechanical side, that is just another layer of a building and how it is constructed."
Mennes says a childhood toy was how she first became interested in engineering.
"When I was growing up, my brother and I were in love with Legos," Mennes said. "I tried to piece together what I was going to do and thought possibly architecture would be cool, then I just combined my interest in math and that is how I decided on engineering."
With the construction of Athlete's Village, Mennes said she is itching to get to an opportunity to see the project for herself.
"I am incredibly interested about Athlete's Village. I haven't worked up the courage to ask about going on a tour myself. After working with construction all summer, I walk past and look at what they are doing and look at any duct work or piping and try to tell what it is or where the water is leading to in the pipes."
Last season, Mennes did not appear in any games in the high powered Gophers offense, but Associate Head Coach Krystle Seidel said that Mennes is going to be able to do anything she sets her mind to, both on the field and in the professional world.
"Anyone who works with her within the program would say the same thing about her- she sets a new bar for work ethic and self development. You never have to motivate her, she motivates herself and she will work relentlessly at whatever she sets her mind to," Seidel said. I know with certainty that she will be very successful in the program and in the workforce beyond her college years."
With the start of the preseason just a few days away, Mennes and the rest of the Gophers are getting ready to end their own offseason construction, and geared up to show off the 2017 version of Minnesota soccer. Minnesota will play in their first exhibition game on the road against Creighton on August 6 at 1 p.m.
