cityofboston.gov - Official Web Site of the City of Boston

Ariel Vonk

GIS Co-op

As a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) co-op from Northeastern University, I have had the opportunity to learn the functionality of local government, as well as how to work independently on short-term and long-term projects with the cooperation of other city departments. Having the chance to work with the GIS team in DoIT has shown me the importance of GIS in a modern municipal setting and the ever-advancing power of geographic software that the city has at its disposal.

My work has been focused on an asset collection project for the Boston Department of Parks and Recreation in which data has been collected for every asset located in Boston parks. I gained extensive experience with GIS software while editing and cleaning this data, as well as knowledge of how government contracting functions and the importance of interdepartmental relationships. I have also worked on various projects for the Boston Transportation Department, making more traditional maps to be used for the City’s new initiative to ease traffic congestion in the Innovation District using Smart Parking and Time to Destination signs. I have enjoyed my time as a co-op with the city and hope other students take advantage of this great opportunity.

Steve Eicher

Graduate Intern with the IT Security Team

Current Position: Graduate Intern with the IT Security Team

My name is Steven Eicher and I am a Graduate Intern with the IT Security Team within the Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT) at the CIty of Boston, and I currently attend Northeastern University. I have had a very positive experience working with the CoB’s IT Security Team, learning a great deal of information not only in my field, but also in taking part in and managing projects, as well as learning how municipal government functions.

Not only has this internship helped me learn practical applications of my education, it has also given me an opportunity to learn how to use incredible tools to counteract possible cyber-security threats. While I have learned a lot about the various tools that we use at the City of Boston, I have also learned about higher level planning. For one of my projects, I had to complete a high-level Internal IT Audit process. Not having any IT Auditing experience, I got a chance to look into an area with which I was not too familiar, and see through a project from start to finish, as well as follow-up this project with subsequent ones. Overall, I have enjoyed my time at the CoB and have had an excellent opportunity to build on my education with practical, important experience in one of the nation’s most technologically innovative cities.

Ray Mejia

Training Team Intern

Current Position: Technical Trainer, DOIT

During my internship in DOIT with the Technical Training Team, I was able to gain an unvalued amount of experience working on multiple projects. My favorite project was developing training courses for City of Boston employees. The training allows the employees to improve in their day to day jobs to better serve the constituents of the city.

Maggie Poyant

GIS Co-Op

My favorite project during my time as an intern was the mapping of the 2012 election results. I took real time information, incorporated it into a user-friendly web map, and helped publish the data on for citizens all over the city to see. It was awesome to see a live, usable product come out of my work.

Kristie DeSena

Web Team Co-Op

Current Position: Mayor's Youthline Supervisor

During my co-op as a Web Team intern, I had the opportunity to work on projects with many different departments. My favorite project was definitely working on the first Food Truck Challenge. I was able to take the lead role on several aspects of the project from the planning stages to featuring the winning trucks on cityofboston.gov. For the project, I created public surveys for each round of voting results, organized and laid out the profiles for semi-finalists and finalists, and got to meet the winners and take photos of them. It was really exciting to know the winners before the general public and be a part of the first contest of its kind.