When Allie Davis stepped into Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for the first time, she carried with her equal parts excitement and disbelief. Growing up in Oak Ridge, the lab loomed large—mysterious, powerful, and, in her mind, unattainable. “I always saw my friends’ parents working out at the lab and we just never knew what they did,” she said. “Being from Roane State, I just didn’t think that it was within reach.”
Yet there she was: a community college student, freshly enrolled in Roane State’s chemical technology program, stepping into one of the nation’s most respected scientific institutions. Her journey began with a conversation—a family friend who asked if she planned to apply for the Community College Internship (CCI) program, funded by the US Department of Energy Office of Science’s Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS). She had not, and she almost did not. “I had no intention of ever doing an internship,” she said. But something in that moment shifted. She applied with only two weeks left before the deadline, unsure if she would even be considered. “I applied, and then Don reached out to me, and I’ve not looked back.”
From her very first day, she felt the weight and wonder of where she was. “I was totally overwhelmed… a fish out of water,” she remembered. Navigating badge access, learning new procedures, trying to understand the rhythm of the lab—everything felt big. But what she found surprised her most: kindness. “Every person I met was super smart but also so nice,” she said. “Everyone’s been very welcoming and encouraging… There was no question too insignificant.”
This sense of belonging was not accidental. Donald Caverly, her mentor, has made it part of his mission to create opportunities for students who come from backgrounds where national labs seem distant or inaccessible. His passion comes from lived experience. “I grew up in the middle of nowhere, northern Michigan,” he said. “I had no idea what the nuclear program was, what nuclear power was, that [ORNL] existed, or any of that stuff.” After leaving home at 17 to become a Navy Nuke—sailors who operate and maintain the Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers—and later finding his way into the lab, he carried forward a commitment to making the field accessible to people who may never have seen themselves in it. “Every year I try to bring in interns like me,” he said—students from community colleges, rural areas, and places where careers in nuclear science or engineering are not typically visible. “I try to bring these guys in, show them a career path that they didn’t know existed.”
What Don saw in Allie from the start was not just potential—it was fire.
“Her motivation to learn—that is her number one driving factor,” he said. “She came in here, tackled a project, completed it, started another one, and then was looking for more stuff to do on her own.” Her energy, he added, is unmistakable: “She doesn’t do anything half measure.”
For Allie, Don’s mentoring style became a turning point. “Don is a little more hands-off, and I appreciated that,” she said. At first, the autonomy felt daunting. But it pushed her into territory she did not know she could occupy. “I’ve had to gain confidence because it’s been on me,” she said. “And then Don has approved everything… it’s been this very positive feedback that I wasn’t anticipating.”
Don watched her transformation with pride. He saw in her the qualities that turn interns into colleagues: reliability, curiosity, independence, and a genuine passion for the work. So when job openings emerged, he did not hesitate to encourage her. What happened next stunned even him.
Within three weeks, Allie received three separate job offers from three different ORNL facilities. “Her energy, her drive and her commitment… drove that,” Don said. “That made me proud.”
For Allie, the offers meant more than employment—they were validation. “Just really feeling like a part of the team… I just never felt like that,” she said. “It’s made me feel very fulfilled.”
As she prepares to begin her full-time position at ORNL, Allie carries a new understanding of what is possible—not just for herself, but for others like her. “I’ve felt welcomed, encouraged, and supported to become part of the team,” she said. “It has been a really eye-opening experience.”
Don hopes she will pay that forward. “I hope that she gives other people the opportunity that she got,” he said. He believes that with her energy and leadership, she will one day be the one opening doors, helping students who grew up thinking ORNL was not for people like them realize that it absolutely can be.
Allie Davis’s journey is a reminder of what happens when talent meets opportunity—and when opportunity is deliberately extended to those who may not see it for themselves. It is a testament to the power of mentorship, the strength of community college pathways, and the transformative impact an internship can have on a student’s life trajectory.
“It’s been the best thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “It’s truly an accomplishment.”
Her main internship project challenged her to master 5S process improvement—a system she had never heard of when she arrived. She studied it at home, learned how to apply it in REDC’s complex environment, and created a solution that now benefits operators daily. The cabinet she designed and fabricated streamlines essential operations. “Don texted me and was like, ‘Your cabinet is a big hit,’” she said, still surprised by the impact of something that had seemed small at first. “It really streamlined this operation… it saves everyone a bunch of time and headaches.”
In that moment, she realized something profound: she could make meaningful contributions here. She belonged. As the internship progressed, Allie grew rapidly—technically, professionally, and personally. She noticed the difference not only in the lab but back in her college classrooms. “You could just tell there was a difference between people who’d been out in the field and those who hadn’t,” she said. She learned to think for herself, solve problems without taking the easy way out, and operate with a level of confidence she once struggled to imagine.
