Victoria Dashevsky is currently working as a laboratory intern for the Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design. She applied for the Distribution Packaging Internship Program in spring 2020. After CPULD’s labs were given essential status and allowed to re-open under strict COVID-19 guidelines in June 2020, all three Distribution Packaging Interns came back to campus to work in the pallet testing lab for the first part of their internship. Victoria has continued to work in the lab throughout this fall semester and quickly made herself a valuable team member.

Victoria is a senior from Alphretta, Georgia, and will graduate in spring 2021. She says she went to a very typical high school that had an amazing choir program that she was very lucky to be a part of. She also told us that she chose to come to Virginia Tech “because I was looking for an out-of-state school and fell in love with the Hokie spirit when I came to visit.” Victoria is a packaging systems and design major and has added a minor in psychology because she has “always been amazed at how humans feel and wanted to take classes to learn more.”

Victoria has always been close with her family and told us that she missed them a lot over her first few months at college. Victoria has one older sister who currently lives in Hawaii. When asked to share a funny story from her childhood, she told us about a visit to Sea World. She got bitten by a dolphin during a feeding experience. Although she was fine, it startled her mom so much that her mom dropped a bunch of sardines on her head, and she had to go through the rest of the day smelling like fish!

During the pandemic, Victoria has spent a lot of her free time trying out new recipes and honing her cooking skills — she especially loves pasta as “it’s very versatile and, in my opinion, the best tasting of foods.” She has also kept busy exploring nature and taking part in all the outdoor activities around Blacksburg, in particular, hiking the local mountains and enjoying the fall colors. In fact, she told us that “the best part of my time here at Tech has been my time on campus just spent enjoying the beauty of it, especially as the leaves change colors in the fall.”

Victoria doesn’t have a post-graduation job lined up yet but hopes to find something in the supply chain logistics and/or distribution fields. She’s happy to have earned her ISTA Certified Packaging Laboratory Professional Technologist certificate during her time as an intern. Victoria has two favorite classes. The first is Dr. Laszlo Horvath’s Global Distributions class because, she says, it really taught her all about how packages can get damaged in the shipping process. She also enjoyed Dr. Dan Hindman’s Wood Mechanics class. “I have never been the best at math, but this class helped me understand why the math was being used. I was able to better understand the math in this class because of the real-life examples the professor provided.”

Victoria’s advice to future packaging students is “do not be afraid to try and make new friends and join new clubs; that’s how I have made some of my best friends.” 

Image 2. Victoria helping to construct pallets for a test.

Image 2. Victoria helping to construct pallets for a test.
Image 2. Victoria helping to construct pallets for a test.

Image 3. Victoria working with the stretch wrapping equipment.

Image 3. Victoria working with the stretch wrapping equipment.
Image 3. Victoria working with the stretch wrapping equipment.

Image 4. Victoria during a videoing session in the pallet lab.

Image 4. Victoria during a videoing session in the pallet lab.
Image 4. Victoria during a video shoot in the pallet lab.

Image 5. Victoria helping build a unit load of pails to be tested.

Image 5. Victoria helping build a unit load of pails to be tested.
Image 5. Victoria helping build a unit load of pails to be tested.