Sam Pal, a Computer Science major and Technology and Management minor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, shares her enriching internship experience at MongoDB, where she worked on the Node.js Driver team. Her role involved maintaining the driver, implementing new features, and engaging with users to address their needs, which significantly enhanced her understanding of MongoDB's internal development processes and the Node.js language. Pal describes her favorite project as revamping the test runner for the Node.js Driver, a task that allowed her to gain ownership and contribute meaningfully to the team. She praises MongoDB's open and supportive culture, which encourages feedback and idea-sharing and values learning and growth, evidenced by her opportunity to attend MongoDB World 2019. Pal reflects on the challenges she faced, such as starting with minimal experience in Node.js, and the personal growth she achieved through mentorship and collaboration with knowledgeable and passionate colleagues. Additionally, MongoDB's leadership transition announcement reveals that Dev Ittycheria will retire as CEO by November 2025, with Chirantan "CJ" Desai set to succeed him. Desai is recognized for his experience in scaling companies and is expected to guide MongoDB through its next evolution, leveraging his expertise to propel MongoDB into its next phase of growth.