Fall 2026 Internships

Managed through the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning (CITL), the CGS Internship Program offers students two types of paid internships: research and professional. Both provide valuable real-world experience.

Research internships involve mentored research conducted by CGS students in collaboration with a CGS faculty member. Professional internships are CGS-approved opportunities that students identify and pursue independently.

Below is a list of CGS interns and an overview of their projects for the fall 2026 semester.

Kareem Ahmed
Mentor: Greg White
Kareem Ahmed will manage CGS’s social media platforms to give prospective and current students a window into everyday life at CGS. Responsibilities include maintaining the social media content calendar and developing creative ideas for posts and short-form videos to complement existing content.

Grace Barron
Mentor: Divya Menon
Grace Barron will research how artificial intelligence should be understood and used in information systems, with a focus on perceptions of trust and AI’s potential to function as a covert tool of power in relation to knowledge. Responsibilities include reviewing literature by AI experts and drawing on philosophical scholarship about trust, power, and knowledge.

Julia Brauner
Mentor: Michael Holm
Julia Brauner will assist Professor Michael Holm with research on the history of human rights in the first half of the 20th century. She will review book reviews and abstracts to identify promising sources for closer examination, then conduct more in-depth research to inform Professor Holm’s prospective book.

Veronica Buzzi
Mentor: Kate Nash
Veronica Buzzi will examine how gendered language affects U.S. health care and scientific research. She will explore how language in clinical research, medical case reports, and patient descriptions may contribute to disparities in research funding, clinical trials, and the diagnosis and treatment of women. She will review feminist and medical literature on the relationship between language, gender, and health, then produce an exploratory essay based on her findings.

Sydney Casey
Mentor: Sandy Buerger
Sydney Casey and another student will study bacterial strains found in marine sediments and their growth rates when isolated from their natural environment. They will collect samples from the upper, oxygen-rich layer of marine sediment at the beach and record environmental data, including temperature and tides. In the laboratory, they will prepare and examine samples, documenting the bacteria present and their growth patterns.

Kristina Demeo
Mentor: Sam Deese
Kristina Demeo will work with Onjoli Palmer on the Democracy on Earth project, led by Professor Sam Deese. Each student will research and produce two videos about democracy and/or environmental justice in regions including Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Oceania, the Arctic, and East Asia. They will also help organize the Breaking the Feedback Loop online symposium in late October.

Luke Devine
Mentor: Tom Whalen
Luke Devine will assist Professor Tom Whalen with research for a book about the 1960 presidential election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. The project will examine the presidential campaign and the candidates’ positions on issues including foreign relations.

Mia Edwards
Mentor: Divya Menon
Mia Edwards will help build an archive of artworks, including key information and scholarly sources, for a selection of pieces Professor Divya Menon plans to include in a book manuscript.

Bridget Eng
Mentor: Davida Pines
Bridget Eng will work with a fellow intern and CGS faculty to develop e-Portfolio resources for CGS students. The team will offer office hours, provide guidance and tutorials, and visit classes to introduce students to available resources. Bridget will also help create online materials, including videos and blog posts, that explain how to use Digication and encourage students to engage with e-Portfolios.

Dhruv Errla
Mentor: Naz Habib
Dhruv Errla will work with MonitorHQ across its Business Development and Systems & Operations teams, supporting efforts to identify and evaluate vendors for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Business Development responsibilities include researching the competitive landscape, building prospect lists, and drafting outreach materials. Systems & Operations work will focus on documentation, workflow organization, and tools such as HubSpot.

Julia Ferrara
Mentor: Chris Coffman
Julia Ferrara will assist Professor Chris Coffman in his role as editor of a scholarly journal focused on the Grateful Dead. Her responsibilities include tracking article and review submissions, coordinating peer review, fact-checking articles, standardizing citations, and preparing manuscripts for publication. She will also contribute to advertising and outreach efforts to increase the journal’s visibility, working alongside Professor Coffman and a fellow intern.

Athena Gavilanes
Mentor: Jenni Austiff
Athena Gavilanes will study biological factors that influence amphibian breeding in human-made environments. The project examines soil and water conditions that may support amphibian breeding, with the broader goal of improving understanding of amphibian and reptile natural history and conservation in urban settings. The research will focus on Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and use data collected during the spring and summer semesters to develop preliminary conclusions.

Rodney Guo
Mentor: Jenni Austiff
Rodney Guo will contribute to a survey of amphibian and reptile biodiversity in the Greater Boston area. The project includes fieldwork at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, as well as laboratory work and sample analysis in CGS labs.

Olivia Huynh
Mentor: Tom Whalen
Olivia Huynh will assist Professor Tom Whalen with research for a book on the Kennedy political dynasty, focusing on John F. Kennedy’s 1946 campaign for Massachusetts’s 11th congressional district. The research will examine the historical context, campaign strategy, and personal factors that helped Kennedy, an affluent candidate, win support in a working-class district. Olivia will consult the JFK Library and other archives, review academic sources, and collaborate with Professor Whalen on the findings.

Manya Jain
Mentor: Sal Genovese
SIRF project: “Modern Life Has Stripped Us of Awe: Can Real-World Awe Experiences Measurably Restore Time Perception and Epistemic Curiosity?”
Manya Jain is working with CGS Professor Sal Genovese to explore whether real-world experiences of awe can measurably restore time perception and epistemic curiosity.

Marianna Kalogeras
Mentor: Donna Connor
Marianna Kalogeras will organize, document, and digitize more than 2,000 documents related to Boston University’s College of General Studies, spanning the 1930s to the present.

Leela Kapoor
Mentor: Chun-Yi Sum
Leela Kapoor will assist Professor Chun-Yi Sum in developing teaching materials for the “Politics of Museums” unit in SS 104. The work will include collecting data at Boston’s Museum of Science and the Boston Children’s Museum.

Rachel Kim
Mentor: Caroline Brinkert
Rachel Kim will observe and assist graduate speech-language pathology students during weekly adult stuttering therapy sessions at BU. She will continue managing the program’s social media by creating posts, announcements, and videos that raise awareness about stuttering and promote sessions and events. She will also support outreach and fundraising, including Giving Day, and contribute to research designed to improve students’ learning experiences, including qualitative coding of student responses and simulation transcripts.

William Lee
Mentor: Sandy Buerger
William Lee will collect marine sediment and seawater samples to prepare culture media and study bacterial growth. The samples will come from the ocean’s upper, oxygen-rich layer. In the laboratory, he will prepare low-nutrient agar plates, isolate bacterial samples from sediment, and culture them. After incubation, he will count colony-forming units (CFUs) and calculate bacterial growth curves.

Brontë Massucco
Mentor: Chris Coffman
Brontë Massucco will work with Dr. Chris Coffman, editor in chief of the Grateful Dead Studies Journal, as an editorial assistant. Responsibilities include organizing submissions for an upcoming issue, copyediting manuscripts, and assisting with layout design and conceptual organization as the issue moves toward publication.

Ava Min
Mentor: Meg Tyler
Ava Min will research humanities professionals, their careers, and how different sociopolitical environments have influenced their career paths and work. The research will be compiled into a digital archive that preserves their perspectives and experiences and highlights the relationship between sociopolitical contexts and the humanities.

Benjamin Ostrovsky
Mentor: Matt Parfitt
Benjamin Ostrovsky will support Professor Matt Parfitt’s research by designing prompts that generate writing intended to approximate a human writer’s voice and style. He will analyze the resulting text and compare it with human-written work using natural-language processing tools.

Onjoli Palmer
Mentor: Sam Deese
Onjoli Palmer will help organize the Breaking the Feedback Loop online symposium on October 27–28, including promoting the event to students and reviewing media materials such as recorded Zoom panels. She will also research and produce two original videos about democracy and/or environmental justice in at least two regions: Africa, East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, the Arctic, and Oceania.

Kaylee Pickering
Mentor: Michael Holm
Kaylee Pickering will continue research on human rights and human rights lawyers, building on work from the previous semester. She will read and analyze sources, develop an outline for a journal article, and contribute to drafting the article.

Sofia Pannozzo
Mentor: Kathryn Lamontagne
As part of a Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL) Undergraduate Research Experience project, Sofia Pannozzo will work under Professor Kathryn Lamontagne’s guidance to transcribe and analyze primary-source documents written by working-class Catholic women in 1950s Massachusetts. The work will help preserve and improve access to historical materials supporting scholarship on gender, religion, and social history.

Rebecca St Paul
Mentor: Davida Pines
As an e-Portfolio Tutor Intern, Rebecca St Paul will support CGS students and faculty with e-Portfolio use, including troubleshooting, creating instructional videos, and visiting classes to demonstrate the platform. She will also host drop-in office hours for students seeking e-Portfolio guidance.

Adriana Rivera
Mentor: Greg White
As a CGS Marketing and Communications Intern, Adriana Rivera will create and publish social media content, photograph CGS events, and write blog posts and articles for the CGS website. Her work will engage current and incoming students with the CGS experience and provide information about the program.

Alejandro Rodríguez
Mentor: Jenni Austiff
Alejandro Rodríguez will investigate amphibian and reptile biodiversity in the Greater Boston area to support conservation efforts in the face of urbanization. Tasks will include surveying frog populations, inspecting breeding grounds, and monitoring salamander populations, as well as fieldwork at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.

Joao Victor Santos
Mentor: Glenn Witecki
Joao Victor Santos will research Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) statistics across the 13 U.S. jurisdictions where it is legal. Using official Department of Health resources, he will compile state-by-state and year-by-year data on deaths, prescription requests, prescriptions filled, and utilization, along with available demographic and clinical details. He will verify and organize the data, create charts and graphs, and help develop an educational report, including a two-page summary for possible submission to the New York State Bar Association Journal and a longer report for the NYSBA Elder Law section.

Sameeha Shaik
Mentor: John Regan
Sameeha Shaik will work with Professor John Regan to develop reflection modules using the beta version of Digication’s AI reflection tool. The work will involve entering information about CGS courses and program-specific learning outcomes, creating and testing modules, administering them, and analyzing and evaluating the resulting data.

Sophia Sodhi
Mentor: Emmanuel Rivera Rodriguez
SIRF project: “Combatting Health Misinformation About Weight-Loss Medication: Creating Accessible Science Communication for Young Adults.”
Sophia Sodhi is working with CGS Professor Emmanuel Rivera Rodriguez to research health misinformation surrounding weight-loss medications and develop accessible science communication for young adults.

Shang (Shay) Sun
Mentor: Davida Pines
Shang (Shay) Sun will offer editorial and marketing assistance for Impact: The Journal of the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning. Goals include attracting more contributors, expanding the magazine’s audience, and organizing additional in-person events. Responsibilities will also include contacting prospective peer reviewers and helping coordinate the paper-submission process.

Kai Taylor
Mentor: Christopher Rhodes
Kai Taylor will research reproductive health and U.S. law, including prenatal options, surrogacy, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and related topics. The research will involve reviewing resources and written materials under Professor Christopher Rhodes’s guidance.

Logan Trainor
Mentor: Christopher Rhodes
Logan Trainor will research pronatalist policy, examining its potential benefits and drawbacks, its effectiveness, and legal and ethical questions concerning the rights of offspring.

Samuel White
Mentor: Naz Habib
Samuel White will complete a remote marketing and communications internship with MonitorHQ, attending weekly team meetings and supporting the marketing and communications team with social media, design, research, and client branding. The internship is fully remote and requires 10 hours per week.

Laura Zhang
Mentor: Joelle Renstrom
Laura Zhang will research how orchids have contributed to botanical colonization. By examining the history of the orchid trade, the project will explore the flower’s cultural significance, environmental adaptability, and contemporary impact. Laura’s work will focus on annotating and synthesizing primary and secondary sources.