Exploring Career Pathways at BART with SRA Scholar Monet Boyd
SRA Scholar Monet Boyd is currently an Urban and Regional Planning major at Cal Poly Pomona. After spending an amazing summer at BART last year, she’s returning to her role this year as an intern at BART’s Real Estate and Property Development Department.
BART, or Bay Area Rapid Transit, connects the San Francisco Peninsula with Berkeley, Oakland, Fremont, Walnut Creek, Dublin/Pleasanton and other cities in the East Bay. For more than 45 years BART has provided fast, reliable transportation to destinations across the Bay Area.
We recently connected with Monet to learn more about her BART internship, how her internship aligns with her career goals, and what she’s excited about this summer.
To your knowledge, what does your summer internship role entail?
My internship role will entail: community engagement on AB 2923, draft materials for outreach events for BART Transit Oriented Development Projects related to AB 2923, and create a centralized database of TOD program performance for ongoing monitoring and reporting.
What career/profession would you like to pursue after graduating?
After graduation, I would like to pursue a career in transportation planning with a focus on transit-oriented developments.
Did your internships help you with identifying a career path/professional goals?
Absolutely! Urban Planning is very multi-faceted and there are a lot of sectors that I could go into after I graduate. My internship at BART allowed me to hone in on transportation planning and transit-oriented developments. I learned so much about the needs of various communities and how BART is a necessity for various households. BART showed me that I love community engagement, research, as well as the technical aspects of transportation planning.
What are you looking forward to most about your summer internship?
I am looking forward to doing more research on AB 2923 and learning more about how the law will benefit Bay Area natives. I am also very excited to engage with the community and explain more about the transit-oriented housing projects that BART will be developing.
What’s one valuable lesson you’ve learned through your internship experience(s)?
Never be afraid to ask questions. I challenged myself to ask more questions last year.
At BART people used a lot of planning and engineering jargon and some words were new to me. I asked what some words meant, why BART chose certain options, as I wanted a full understanding of all of my tasks and environment. I also found that a lot of my colleagues were more than happy to answer my questions or connect me with someone that had more information.
In your opinion, what are the 3 greatest benefits to interning?
- You get to apply your knowledge: internships allow students to apply all of the knowledge and skills they have obtained in school and apply it to your jobs. Even some of the skills that you gain from your extracurricular activities, you can apply to internships and jobs.
- Understanding what you like/dislike: By working for BART and other agencies, I learned that I really enjoy community outreach and engaging
- Networking opportunities: You can build a network of people that can connect you to more opportunities
