Thirty-Two High School Students Start Internships at the NYC Department of Design and Construction

DDC Commissioner Feniosky Peña-Mora introduces interns to the agency.

Today, thirty-two New York City high school students selected for paid summer internships at the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) attended orientation at the agency’s Long Island City headquarters. The students begin their internships on Tuesday, July 5, and will participate in a summer work program that provides a behind-the-scenes introduction to the fields of architecture, engineering, construction, design, law, business administration, and finance with the more than 1,300 professionals at DDC. The session will end August 12.

The internship 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.

“There is tremendous opportunity to ignite passion in a young person that may launch a career into the fields of engineering, architecture and construction,” said DDC Commissioner Feniosky Peña-Mora. “Our goal is to expose students to the world of the built environment and provide them with the tools and framework to not only understands how things work, but also how best to make them work to the benefit of our city and the larger society.

“Demand for workers skilled in STEAM fields is continuously growing, and STEAM careers can offer higher pay at the entry level,” Commissioner Peña-Mora said. “We hope that in the future, many of these students will return to careers at DDC.”

“Our last class of interns left a very positive impression on us,” said DDC Community Partnerships & STEAM Initiatives Deputy Commissioner Lee Llambelis. “We 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. They are a very impressive group of young people.”

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.

In addition to experience in the STEAM fields, the students will also participate in workshops in resume writing and college readiness. Every other Wednesday, the interns will visit a DDC construction project site. The first site visit on July 6 will be to PSAC II, the City’s new Public Safety Answering Center in the Bronx.