Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) is a member-owned utility company that provides electric service to communities across Virginia. This internship with REC was my first professional experience in the cybersecurity field, and it provided a strong foundation for my career. During my time there, I worked closely with their Security Operations Center (SOC) team to monitor security events, respond to incidents, and support proactive threat detection strategies. My responsibilities included responding to cybersecurity threats, conducting endpoint security, mitigating email threats, and performing malware analysis. I also helped administer and maintain security platforms such as Automox, Proofpoint, and PagerDuty. In addition, I conducted research using OSINT tools, documented security incidents, and proposed solutions to enhance operational awareness, such as implementing a phishing button and developing automated runbooks. I also assisted with network device management tasks, including deploying Sysmon logs, configuring switches and routers, and installing patches on Windows and Mac devices. This first internship allowed me to apply what I had learned in the classroom to real-world scenarios and grow both my technical skills and professional confidence.