High School Intern Presentations Illustrate Busy, Informative Summers

Not every teenager gets to ride along with a city code enforcement police officer. Or walk on an iconic bridge while it’s still under construction. Or point radar guns at speeders from clever hiding spots. Yet that’s just a small taste of the experiences the MTC high school interns had this summer while working at transportation, planning and public works agencies throughout the Bay Area.

The 47 interns gathered in the MTC auditorium Aug. 6 to give presentations on their work and to celebrate the culmination of the intensive eight-week program.

For many of the young adults — all students or recent graduates from local high schools — the internships were eye-opening introductions to the transportation field.

“Most people don’t consider public sector work, and transportation is not a high visibility field,” said Charlotte Favre, 16, an intern at the Presidio Trust Transportation Department. “The internship let me explore a new area of a new field.” Favre, a rising junior at John O’Connell High School in San Francisco, conducted a commuter survey for the shuttle system in the Presidio.

Several of the interns commented on the thrill of having a paid job for the first time. “It was exciting to be in a professional environment, especially since we’re still kids, just becoming adults,” said City of Suisun City intern Keezha Sanga, 18. The incoming UC Davis freshman worked on a train depot remodeling project during her internship.

During their presentations, the students reminisced about field trips and projects in their communities, but also spoke about the value of working in an office and learning how to use mapping and design software. Of course, they didn’t entirely escape the traditional intern duties — one young man joked about being the office’s unofficial spider killer.

For some students, the internships allowed them to explore career opportunities they never knew existed in the transportation field. Josef Starc, a rising Oakland Technical High School senior, spent his summer at the East Bay Bicycle Coalition campaigning for better bike paths, but said he had not previously given much thought to “the advocacy aspect of transportation.”

At the end of the event, MTC recruiting manager Ann Macaulay said this year’s collection of presentations was the best she has seen. The MTC high school internship program is highly selective. The 47 interns were chosen from a pool of over 700 applicants. Find out more about the program.

–Natalie Orenstein