San Clemente Chemical Engineering Grad Lands Top Job

SAN CLEMENTE, CA — Melissa Shew transferred to Manhattan College in 2016 to complete a dual bachelor’s degree program. After spending three years at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, majoring in chemistry, she switched her major to study chemical engineering, altering the course of her future.

“It’s been a great experience,” Shew said. “All my teachers in the chemical engineering department, and all the other departments I’ve interacted with have been really good. I love it here.”

The planned two-year program turned into a three-year program when Shew decided to also minor in environmental engineering.

"During her time at Manhattan, she has been a student researcher in the Chemical Engineering department, a member of the Society of Women Engineers and a member of Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society, and Omega Chi Epsilon, the national honor society for chemical engineering," a university spokesperson said.

During the summer of 2018, Shew began an internship at Air Products in Long Beach, California, which led to an offer to work full-time at Air Products.

At her internship, Shew helped analyze sewer water pH fluctuations to achieve environmental compliance, compiled and updated a critical safety systems and consequence of deviation summary table and led a full plant piping and instrumentation diagram update.

“I got a really well-rounded plant experience at my internship,” Shew said. “Everyone was willing to answer my questions and would drop things to help me. I was able to work with the engineers, operators and the maintenance people to see how everything works.”

Shew will take on three different jobs in a two-year rotational program at Air Products, which provides industrial gases and related equipment to dozens of industries, including refining, chemical, metals, electronics, manufacturing, and food and beverage.

Air Products is also the world’s leading supplier of liquefied natural gas process technology and equipment.

At the start of the rotational program in July, Shew will work in equipment sales and plant support at Air Products’ facility in Allentown, Pa., for eight months.

From there, she hopes to return to her home state of California and continue her immersion into process engineering.