Couture Makes Most of Summer with Second-Year Internship

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Junior women's soccer player Brittany Couture returns to Carnegie Mellon for her third season on the pitch after spending her time away from Pittsburgh traveling and gaining experience in the biomedical engineering field. The Santa Barbara, California native spent the beginning of the summer in Thailand before returning to her home city for a second stint of work at Owl Biomedical.

The draw of Thailand came via Couture's father, who has been living and working in the Southeast Asian country for two years. During her visit with her father, Couture rode elephants in the northern part of Thailand and met many locals.

At Owl Biomedical, a company in the process of developing a machine that sorts cells, Couture worked as an intern. During her second go-round with the company, the biomedical engineering major worked mostly in the lab area where tests and experiments were run to get the best sort results of cells. As an intern, she was able to see problems develop and work on the process of coming up with reasons why they happened and how to fix them. She was then able to see the implementation of those ideas.

Couture has also experienced hands-on problem solving in her classes at Carnegie Mellon.

"Most of the classes I have taken so far have lab sections built in, so there is almost always an opportunity to get out of the lecture room and actually apply what we are learning," stated Couture.

Although she's originally from New Hampshire, the draw of city life lured Couture to the East Coast from her sunny hometown in California, where it's 60 to70 degrees year round. The change of seasons was also a factor, as the junior enjoys seeing the snow that falls in Pittsburgh.

"I've never lived in a city before coming to Carnegie Mellon, so all of the activity of Pittsburgh is really exciting," Couture said. "I like exploring the different little sections of the city and finding cool new places to see. I also like watching sporting events, so I think I am going to make it my goal to see a Penguins game before I graduate."

Couture is a two-year starter at outside back for the Tartans and trained throughout the summer for the season. She is excited about the prospects for the 2012 campaign, knowing the team is going to get better from last year with its experience and the depth the new players bring.

"Preseason has been long but good," Couture said. "I think our team is really close right now, which is good news for the rest of the season and I am really excited to start our non-conference games."

Couture and the rest of the Tartans open the season at Nazareth College on Friday, August 31 at 5:00 p.m.