Ethan Ribeiro Santos ’26 - Pfizer, Inc.

From Building Computers to Securing Systems

Ethan Ribeiro Santos ’26 discovered his interest in computers at a young age. A senior and commuter student at Rivier University, Ribeiro Santos is a Cybersecurity Management major currently completing a cybersecurity internship at Pfizer, Inc., in Andover, Massachusetts.

“I started working with computers during my freshman year of high school, when I built my own to play video games competitively,” Ribeiro Santos says. “That’s when I began exploring the deeper possibilities of technology and realized it was something I wanted to pursue as a career.”

Guided by online videos and independent research, Ribeiro Santos spent years gaining hands-on experience by taking computers apart and learning how they function. That curiosity made Rivier’s Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity Management a natural fit, allowing him to build technical knowledge while honing practical skills that carry over into real-world experience.

“My coursework at Rivier helped prepare me for my Pfizer internship,” he says. “A lot of it was related to the cybersecurity world and IT, with a lot of information on using operating systems like Windows or Kali Linux. My classes gave me a base knowledge of where to start and how to use these platforms at my internship.”

Pfizer, a biopharmaceutical company that became the main distributor of the COVID-19 vaccine, also conducts medical research and develops science products. After learning the company was seeking interns, Ribeiro Santos applied, interviewed, and accepted an offer to join its Automation, Reliability, and Standards IT team (ARSIT).

Working on the engineering side of operations, he monitors systems and responds when issues arise to troubleshoot outages, assess system performance, and support the reliability of platforms used across the company.

Beyond his day-to-day responsibilities, the internship pushed Ribeiro Santos outside his comfort zone. After creating a chatbot to improve website navigation within ARSIT, he took the initiative to lead a multi-department meeting to propose expanding the tool across the company. Despite some initial nerves, he was pleased the idea was met with an overwhelmingly positive response, with many departments expressing interest in implementing their own chatbot.

As he prepares for life after graduation, Ribeiro Santos is focused on entering the job market and building on the skills he gained through his internship at Pfizer. He plans to pursue a career within the U.S. government, drawn to opportunities that would allow him to apply his cybersecurity expertise in service of a larger mission and make a meaningful impact on a national level.