Meet Our 2025 Interns

2025 is another fortunate year for DARTCC as we welcome a dedicated team of seven interns who are helping us move our mission forward.

Each student brings their own unique background, perspective, and passion to our work. Coming from across the country, these emerging leaders infuse our organization with fresh ideas, valuable insights, and a shared commitment to animal welfare and community preparedness.

From software development to outreach and training design, our interns are contributing meaningfully to every aspect of DARTCC’s programs—especially our efforts to expand the Emergency Animal Shelter App (EASApp™) and launch our new Training Module.

We are truly grateful for their involvement and proud to have them on the team.

Iris Ornek

I am a rising junior from Wisconsin, and I go to Brookfield East High School. I love spending my free time outdoors. I run cross country and distance track for my school, but I also run and hike for fun. I am also a cross-country captain. I am also a new member of the National Honor Society and part of the executive board in the Spanish Honor Society chapter at my school. 

I also enjoy creating art and improving my language skills, having received a Scholastic Art Award (Silver Key) in sculpture and both a Gold and Bronze medal in the National Spanish Exam (Levels 2 and 4).

I hope in the future I can study environmental science and make an impact on our society. I also hope to pursue research, something I am excited to focus on over the course of this internship. DART Command Central piqued my interest because DARTCC works closely with natural disaster response groups and animal volunteer groups. I saw a connection to my interests in global warming/climate change because of its impact on extreme weather and natural disasters. I also have loved animals since I was a kid, and if I were to face a dangerous situation such as a natural disaster, I would hope that my bunny was safe. 

This is my first internship, and I am super excited to start my role in researching for the organization. With my research, I hope to help the organization secure investors and increase awareness of the issues that the app can help resolve.

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Havish Sripada

Havish SripadaHavish Sripada is a dedicated student from Portland, Oregon, who attends Jesuit High School and has dual enrollment at Portland State University. He enjoys computer science and math and is the lead programmer of a First Tech Challenge robotics team 12808 RevAmped Robotics. He is also an internationally recognized chess player with the FIDE Master title. He has also done numerous volunteering and outreach with companies such as the Oregon Robotics Tournament & Outreach Program. 

He chose to work at DARTCC because he was inspired by the story behind the company and the underlying mission behind the innovative application that the company focuses on developing. DARTCC’s quest truly resonates with Havish due to personal incidents. At the beginning of 2024, a fire broke out in Havish’s house and forced him to move to a rental. Understanding the regular occurrence of disasters in our world, he recognizes the importance of developing simple and efficient ways to deal with these emergencies. Havish believes that the EASapp will save many animal lives, and he wishes to participate in this vision.

Havish believes working in this internship will provide him with invaluable professional experience in software testing, something he will use throughout his life in his future programming projects. He hopes that developing these technical skills, as well as other useful skills such as teamwork, project management, and time management, will help him be more successful in his other activities such as robotics.

Havish hopes to help DARTCC by testing their software to make sure the application will run smoothly with minimum errors. Applying his prior experience of software testing from robotics, he hopes to learn how to methodologically test various segments of code in a way that makes it easy for programmers to pinpoint mistakes in their logic. Havish hopes that he will make a difference in the application’s performance during his time at DARTCC, and will continue to work hard to ensure a smooth launch of the EASappTM.