Courtesy Story by LeeAnn Abrams
2026 was another successful summer for the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs Construction and Facilities Management interns. Three students joined seasoned Construction Facility Management Office employee mentors this year to work on projects, job shadow, and learn what it takes to work in a government job setting. Construction Facility Management Office (CFMO) has been hosting an intern program since 2024, developed by now Design and Project Management Branch Chief Brendon Manglos.
Mr. Manglos began the program with the idea to reach out to universities and colleges across the nation to find promising students and give them an opportunity to get paid to learn and experience a state department with over 200 active construction projects year to year and over 239 buildings with 3.51M sq ft of space, 550K sq yds of pavement, over 1,200 acres of land, and approximately 3,178 assets to manage.
This year we were joined by UW Madison, 4th-year electrical engineering student Calfyn Chen of Jefferson City, MO; UW Stevens Point, senior forest management student Ethan Abel of Green Bay, WI; and UW Madison, senior data science student Luukas Vainio of Espoo, Finland.
Mr. Chen worked closely with Senior Project Manager Kolt Knutson on several project statements for exhaust fans, lighting, fire alarm inspections, and boiler replacements for future construction projects. Mr. Chen also accomplished updating the CFMO project management flow chart for use as a training document and travelled across the state documenting the usage of CHP (Controlled Humidity Protection) units in garages and various facilities. A highlight of his summer was obtaining knowledge of arc flash dangers and developing an email template describing the danger and what to look for, making network contacts in his field, and getting to travel the state.
Mr. Abel worked alongside Facility Operations Specialist Aaron Wolf on several forestry initiatives throughout the state. Summer highlights include pruning 90+ trees for health and maintenance issues at several facilities, and planting 40+ trees obtained through the Department of Natural Resources at Camp Williams. To date, these trees have a 95% survival rate through the summer. Not only did Mr. Abel increase his skill in pruning and tree health, but he also saved the state over $7,500 by keeping this work in-house. Additional goals accomplished this summer were to practice urban tree identification and create a network of people in his chosen field.
Mr. Vainio joined Senior Data Analyst Jason LaFever for the summer. Mr. Vainio’s major project was to create a framework in Power Business Intelligence to gather data about roofs, boilers, chillers, furnaces, generators, and water heaters from Asset Essentials (the program CFMO uses to track maintenance items) and the Builder database (maintained by the planning and programming branch) that tracks asset lifespan and replacement timelines and costs. The final output is a searchable, interactive, and intuitive database with clear visuals and graphs that tracks every asset across all state facilities and creates a 7-year replacement schedule and estimated cost per asset to assist with incorporating these needs into the Fiscal Year Capital Plan. The project also has a dashboard that summarizes all the data into a one-page, high-level informational document. Goals that Mr. Vainio accomplished include improving his communication and collaboration skills and improving his BI skills with hands-on, meaningful experience.
CFMO is excited to support this program and has employed past interns studying civil and mechanical engineering, building information modelling (CAD/Revit modelling), and GIS (Geographic Information Systems). As a welcome bonus, besides being excellent employees, the interns have also added value to the CFMO office by bringing new ideas, current trends, and cutting-edge technology being taught in schools.
CFMO recruits candidates through WiscJobs and by attending student job fairs in the area. Applicants will go through an interview and selection process, giving them real-world experience in applying to government positions. Selected applicants will be hired as Limited Term Employees with a set number of hours that they can work for one year. If a student is local, this means that they can continue working through the school year if they choose.
At the end of the summer, the interns are tasked with giving a presentation on what they accomplished and learned while working with CFMO. This is always a well-attended and popular presentation and is a great opportunity for the interns to gain experience giving a briefing to and answering questions from various levels of management. It is often that an intern’s brief starts an in-depth conversation about how a new technology or process can be used in the department.
If you are or know a student who has reached junior or senior status who may be interested in applying to an available intern position, have them reach out to the Department of Military Affairs HR Department at dmashr@widma.gov. Please note that the Department of Military Affairs does not offer work visas.
