For four University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff students, the Accessing Careers in Energy Summit (ACES) is providing more than an introduction to the energy industry. It’s giving them a chance to see firsthand how their skills and interests can translate into careers that help power their communities.

Entergy Arkansas is among the organizations supporting ACES, which brings students together with energy-industry professionals, exposes them to different career paths and challenges them to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to real-world energy issues.

This year’s students include computer science and engineering majors from across Arkansas and beyond. For several, the experience has broadened their understanding of what a career in energy can look like.

“Computer science is such a broad field, and right now I don’t know exactly where I want to go with it,” said Omarion Tucker. “This gives me direct experience and lets me see firsthand what different energy companies and different fields are trying to do and what relates to me.”

As part of the experience, students toured Entergy’s transmission operations center, where they got an inside look at how the company monitors and manages the flow of electricity across the state.

For some students, the visit provided a glimpse of how their technical interests could intersect with the energy industry. Kudzaishe Chikowore said he was particularly interested in the technology and systems supporting the control center, including how data is displayed and used to monitor the grid.

Alaura Myers compared the experience to a scene from the movie Hidden Figures—walking into a room filled with screens, numbers and abbreviations that initially seemed overwhelming.

“What was so great is that the person directing us was able to speak in simpler terms, so we were able to understand what we were looking at,” she said. “That was very valuable.”

The students also are putting their skills to work through an ACES case competition focused on one of the energy industry’s biggest emerging challenges: how to meet growing electricity demand from large customers while making the most efficient use of available power resources.

Working across academic disciplines, the students are exploring how the energy industry can address the need for more power and supply in a way that benefits both companies and the communities they serve.

For Landon Rhodes, the opportunity to work alongside people with different academic backgrounds has been one of the most valuable parts of ACES.

“It opens my mind,” Rhodes said. “Working with people from different majors and different mindsets” provides a perspective that can’t be gained in a classroom alone.”

Tucker said the experience has reinforced an important lesson about careers in energy: where you start isn’t necessarily where you have to finish.

“Just because you started here doesn’t mean you have to end here,” he said, noting that employees can explore opportunities ranging from operations and project management to other areas of a company.

That flexibility and the opportunity to use technical skills in service of something larger is particularly meaningful to students who want their careers to have an impact on their communities.

Rhodes summed up the appeal this way: “I want to be able to work for my people, work for my community.”

That’s at the heart of programs like ACES: helping students see that the energy industry needs people with a wide range of skills and interests and showing them that there may be a place for them in powering Arkansas’s future for generations to come.