ProVia Internship

Meet Will Frautschy, a Computer Science major at the Ohio State University, incoming Vice President of OHI/O, and Co-Lead for HackOHI/O. Will grew up in Dover, Ohio, where his love of technology and automation took root, and he’s brought that same energy to his summer internship and to his leadership within OHI/O.

This is Will’s second summer interning at ProVia, a door and window manufacturer based in the Tuscarawas/Holmes County area. Over the past year, he’s split his time between the DevOps and Cybersecurity teams, saying, “I have shuffled between the DevOps and Cybersecurity Departments to help and get experience wherever I can!” Monday through Wednesday Will spends time at the New Philadelphia branch working in security, and Thursday and Friday at the Walnut Creek facility for development, where “a typical day for me can be making a TODO list and trying to finish everything by the end of the day or talking with various departments to learn more about the products and how they should be designed”

On the development side, Will owns a standout project: rendering ProVia’s custom shaped windows on their online ordering platform. Will shared that his “project utilizes [his] understanding of math to programmatically store the geometry of the window and render it with precision, along with the rules of what manufacturing is capable of. Customers can now get an accurate preview of their customized ‘shaped’ window design on their ordering menu.”

That kind of ownership has reshaped how Will thinks about his career. “ProVia has opened my eyes to what an intern can do when given the opportunity… I’ve always loved Mathematics and Programming, and so they took my strengths and let me run with my own project.” He added, “I always believed a Fortune 500 software company would be my endgame, but working here has given me the perspective that I can make a difference in a smaller company and feel more fulfilled.”

He’s also been struck by what he found once he got started: “Something that I didn’t expect coming in was the intricate system that was built by a handful of developers that manages almost the entire company’s workflow. They avoid leaning on third-party applications and give the devs freedom to create. I also didn’t expect to get the freedom that I did when I arrived. No one was looking over my shoulder or limiting what I believed was the correct approach. They were all inviting and every developer plays a key role in the company’s workflow.”

If there’s one lesson Will’s carrying forward, it’s patience. “A lesson I’ve learned has definitely been to meditate on a solution,” he said. “If I feel stuck, instead of rushing to a solution, I can lean on my coworkers for help and take my time considering all the puzzle pieces before moving forward. This approach has saved me from a lot of pain and wasted time.”

Will’s story is a great example of the hands-on, high-impact experiences OHI/O students are having this summer and a preview of the leadership he’ll bring to OHI/O in the year ahead.

Congrats on a great summer, Will! As he heads into his next chapter, we’d love for the OHI/O community to connect with him on LinkedIn