NYC Department of Design and Construction Welcomes 26 2018 High School Summer Interns

July 11, 2018

NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) Acting Commissioner Ana Barrio today met the 26 City high school students who have been selected from almost 600 applicants for paid summer internships at DDC. The students will participate in a summer work program with more than 1,300 DDC professionals that provides a behind the scenes introduction to the fields of architecture, engineering, construction, design, law, business administration and finance. The program began July 5 and will end August 10.

The High School Summer Internship Program is organized in partnership with the NYC Department of Youth & Community Development through DDC’s STEAM education initiative, which was created in 2014 to establish a diverse and inclusive pipeline for New York City's youth to engage in architecture, construction, and engineering (ACE) industries. The agency also hosts a summer internship program for college students, a middle school summer enrichment program, as well as numerous educational programs. Overall, DDC STEAM has served more than 2,500 students since its inception.
“DDC selects highly motivated students from every borough, teams them with interested and accomplished professionals, and provides them with the tools to understand how to build for the benefit of New York City,” said Acting Commissioner Ana Barrio. “Demand for workers skilled in technical fields continues to grow. In the future, some of these students may return to careers at DDC.”

“Over the years our interns have left a very positive impression on us,” said DDC Community Partnerships & STEAM Initiatives Deputy Commissioner Lee Llambelis. “We have witnessed them grow in a variety of ways, from learning how to draw blueprints, to becoming adept at Excel, to developing networking skills. We’re extremely excited to see what this next cohort of interns can learn from their experience at DDC. This year our interns will be piloting DDC STEAM’s new Virtual Reality curricula and we’re very much looking forward to seeing their end product at our closing ceremony next month.”

This is the fourth year of DDC’s High School Summer Internship program. There are 11 male and 15 female interns, representing each borough and 24 different high schools. Each intern will be assigned a personal mentor from a DDC division, including Administration, Architecture & Engineering, Community Partnerships and STEAM Initiatives, Infrastructure, Office of the Chief Architect, Law/General Counsel’s Office, Program Management and Public Buildings.

As part of the program, interns will attend weekly educational workshops that discuss career paths in architecture, engineering and construction, college readiness and networking. This year students will part take in a new Virtual Reality (VR) workshop series where they will work collaboratively to create a culminating VR Video project focusing on community development. Students will also make weekly visits to a DDC project site, where design and construction professionals will guide them on the processes involved in managing and supervising complex municipal construction projects.

A recent study showed that students who participated in DDC STEAM programs were more interested in technical career fields, were more confident in their ability to do math and science and showed a greater desire to take additional math and science classes.
Other STEAM programs for public school students include the ACE Mentor Program and Introduce a Girl to Architecture, Engineering and Construction. STEAM also helps to coordinate DDC’s long-time college and graduate summer internship program.