Interns last summer in BU’s new Launchpad program included Kareemat Adeagbo (ENG’29) [from left], Yunming (Teddy) Huang (CDS’29, COM’29), Sophia Nguyen (CAS’29), and Luis Hernandez (CAS’29)

Internship

BU Launchpad Connects Rising Sophomores with Valuable Summer Internships

Members of this year’s inaugural cohort reflect on what they gained from the program

Editing videos for a nationally reputed media outlet. Connecting one of the oldest museums in the country with government officials. Those were just two of the many internships—at places like Boston City Hall, the Museum of Science, public media GBH, and Boston Medical Center (Boston University’s primary teaching hospital)—that 31 rising BU sophomores participated in this summer. The students were the inaugural cohort of BU Launchpad, a new initiative that provides paid 10-week summer internships to first-year students in their fields of interest.

The program reflects one of the goals of President Melissa Gilliam’s strategic framework: building a world-class community of talent along with student confidence, professional skills and networks, and career-readiness. 

Internships are a vital pathway to employers and careers. Mentors—experienced professionals as well as BU faculty and staff—guided students in their field of interest. Students also engaged in pre-internship orientation, check-ins during the internship, and post-internship reflection and planning for next steps. 

“We’ve known for a very long time that what happens in the informal learning space can inform what happens in the formal space,” Gilliam said in announcing Launchpad last spring. “You can fail and make mistakes that you then learn through and bring back into the classroom. So it’s a dynamic formula for success.”

“Part of what students need is opportunities,” she added. “And so if you have connections, if you have a network, bring those people in. Parents are going to be a really important part of giving 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds who are new to the workforce a chance, because they can see that in their own young person.”

From an employment-preparation perspective, “The genius of Launchpad is in the timing, cohort design, and mentoring,” says Steve Koppi, assistant provost for career education. “For example, a Launchpad mentor might help a student practice their approach to networking, how to go about making connections, and informational interviewing at their internship—all incredibly valuable skills.”

“It’s the total package, concentrated in one outstanding summer experience,” Koppi says.

In terms of fostering academic excellence, Sarah Hokanson, associate provost for academic initiatives and operational excellence, says that “experiential learning opportunities are an important part of how our students can make connections between their academic work and the world around them. Providing an internship opportunity early in a student’s career will not only allow them to develop a career-ready mindset and build their professional skills, but also make a difference on their starting salaries once they leave BU and the future professional networks available to support them.”

BU anticipates expanding Launchpad to hundreds of interns next summer, with continued growth in the future. BU Today spoke with four interns about what they did—and gained—in this first iteration.

Kareemat Adeagbo (ENG’29), Museum of Science

A Renaissance woman who is majoring in mechanical engineering, minoring in philosophy, and planning a pre-law study track, Adeagbo initially wanted a robotics or tech-related internship in line with her major. But working as a government relations intern at the museum “has truly been a refreshing change of pace for me,” she says.

As part of her internship, Adeagbo created an Excel repository that mapped connections between government officials—federal, state, and municipal—and the museum’s priority initiatives. “I also did legislative research,” she adds. “Day-to-day, that meant researching officials’ jurisdictions and committee assignments, tracking legislative activity relevant to the museum’s interests, and keeping that database current so the team could quickly identify who to engage on a given issue. I have learned how to efficiently clean large data sets to map out stakeholder information. Also, I’m much more comfortable reading and synthesizing legislation, pulling out what’s relevant to an organization’s interests.” 

The internship afforded Adeagbo an unexpected prism on her engineering interests: “Seeing how legislative and institutional processes actually move—or stall—gives me a more grounded sense of the policy side of engineering projects, which is directly relevant to how I think about infrastructure work, like the borehole well project BU Engineers Without Borders is building in Tinet, Kenya.” [She’s on the student group’s international e-board.] “This kind of policy fluency will matter a lot if I end up doing robotics or engineering work that intersects with regulation, procurement, or public-sector clients.”

An internship such as Launchpad’s “is a great way to explore a career interest in a low-stakes environment to pinpoint your specific career interests,” she says. “Such experience can be great to help build out your college experience—coursework, fellowships, research, clubs.”

Yunming (Teddy) Huang (CDS’29, COM’29), GBH

As the digital video intern for GBH public radio’s The World channel, Huang supported its YouTube and digital video production: editing short-form videos, posting content, writing/revising captions, analyzing YouTube audience engagement and trends, and brainstorming ways to translate stories into short-form videos. The job immersed him in the ABCs of communication—and of work culture. 

“Video editing is not only about cutting clips, but also about understanding the story behind the footage,” he says. “I needed to communicate with reporters, producers, editors, and team members to figure out what they wanted to express. At the same time, I was learning more about the professional habits and culture of working in media, such as quick communication, flexibility, and paying attention to both storytelling and deadlines.”

“This internship has helped me connect what I have learned in BU classes and student clubs with real professional work, and it has shown me the differences between school assignments and workplace expectations.

“I do not think I would have found this kind of opportunity without Launchpad,” Huang adds. “The internship market is very competitive, especially for students who are just starting to build professional experience. As an international student, it can also be challenging to adjust to a new environment while trying to compete for opportunities. Launchpad gave me a clearer and earlier way to apply what I have learned, gain real workplace experience, and start building a foundation for my future career. I would definitely recommend Launchpad to other rising-sophomore Terriers who want to start exploring their career paths early.”

Sophia Nguyen (CAS’29),
Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune’s office

Nguyen’s duties spanned notes-and-photo-taking at council meetings and hearings, attending community events, brainstorming policy ideas, and assisting with social media newsletters or recaps. “The office intentionally planned for us interns to experience different aspects of the work,” she says. “This experience has allowed me to explore different areas of public service and pour into what resonates.”

It also put her on the front lines of hot-button debates. “Working in politics means learning how to navigate curveballs, from recent Supreme Court decisions to the World Cup,” Nguyen notes. “In the midst of it all, I realized how much impact you can have by taking initiative—and even that takes time and consistency. I have seen and experienced that Boston extends beyond campus, in places like Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and Dorchester, and that has shaped my perception of diversity in Boston.”

Speaking with fellow interns ratified how Launchpad removed barriers for her, she says. “Many of them had to cold-email and create opportunities for themselves from the ground up. Securing an internship is one challenge, but being able to sustain it is another. Financial barriers like housing, transportation, and food prevent many students from accepting incredible opportunities, even after they have earned them. Launchpad helped remove those barriers for me, allowing me to fully invest in this experience and make the most of it.

“I would absolutely recommend this opportunity to rising sophomores,” Nguyen says. “Going into the program, I honestly thought it was too good to be true, having access to incredible career opportunities, completely free of charge, while being surrounded by such an amazing cohort of interns. Success does not have to be a lonely journey.”

Luis Hernandez (CAS’29), A Better City (ABC)

As a research analyst at this transportation, climate, environment, and development nonprofit, Hernandez helped develop policy-related projects and recommendations for ABC to consider advocating. He researched the MBTA’s train operations during the World Cup, which drew soccer fans from around the globe to Beantown, as well as heat safety policies for outdoor workers, which took on new urgency after July’s record-shattering heat wave.

Thanks to the internship, “I was constantly improving my networking, research, teamwork, and critical thinking skills. They all involve listening and working with others,” Hernandez says. Additionally, by exposing him to multiple fields, including government, finance, and transportation, the internship “has made my BU journey more exciting. Especially as someone who is currently undeclared [in his major], having that flexibility makes me feel relieved that I’m not walking a narrow path, but rather a path with space to maneuver, explore, and learn.”

He doubts he would have secured such an internship without Launchpad. “Not only is it a way to gain early experience within your professional career, it’s also an opportunity to grow in various ways. Launchpad is a life-changing opportunity because it allows you to have a glimpse of what the world might have to offer after college.”