Meet Deep Patel, the summer 2021 Mayor’s Office of Policy & Planning Fellow

The Initiative on Cities (IOC) is proud to announce that Deep Patel has been selected as the summer 2021 Mayor’s Office of Policy & Planning Fellow. Deep was initially awarded a summer fellowship with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority in Manchester, England. However, the fellowship was cancelled this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Instead Deep will spend the summer working with Boston Mayor Kim Janey’s Office of Policy & Planning.

Deep is a rising senior in BU’s Kilachand Honors College and College of Arts and Sciences double majoring in Economics and Political Science. Born and raised in New York City, Deep’s interactions with his local and city level officials in the New York metropolitan area have been instrumental in developing his passion for law and policy-making. He aspires to attend law school upon the completion of undergraduate studies and his policy interests include voting rights, criminal justice reform, environment and sustainability, urban planning, and education reform. Deep currently serves as an undergraduate research assistant at BU’s CERES Institute for Children and Youth and was also one of the inaugural students of University of Miami Law School’s Undergraduate Summer Legal Academy. His work as a Political Affairs intern for the Borgen Project has also helped him cultivate his interest in equity-driven and intersectional legal work. In his free time, Deep enjoys watching American football and basketball, reading books, going on hikes, and learning new languages.

We asked Deep a few questions about his interest in the fellowship, and what he’s looking forward to:

You initially had been accepted to the Manchester, UK Fellowship, which unfortunately was cancelled due to COVID-19. What about this new opportunity is particularly interesting to you?

As an intern in Mayor Janey’s Office of Policy & Planning, I will have the opportunity to apply many of the lessons and techniques I have learned within my coursework at BU to help Boston transition out of this especially difficult time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayor Janey’s office is paving the way for Boston to reopen, recover, and renew the city’s economy as we move into this new period of the pandemic and I am so excited to be a part of this legislative journey! From my work with the municipal government of Chelsea over the past spring semester, I have learned quite a bit about how city governments assess a problem, examine previous interventions to see what did and did not work, and propose new solutions that are fitting to the city’s unique circumstances. Mayor Janey’s Office of Policy would provide me with an exceptional chance to be thoroughly engaged in this process from start to finish for various pressing issues such as vaccine distribution, returning children to schools safely, and working to aid disadvantaged workers and businesses disproportionately harmed during the pandemic. This opportunity also excites me because the Mayor’s Office of Policy is filled with welcoming, passionate, and well-connected people whom I can greatly learn about policy and social issues from. Given that their research and policy work emphasizes public health, equity, and intersectionality, this is undoubtedly an incredibly fulfilling way for me to gain experience in my academic and professional areas of interest. Most importantly, it sounds like a perfect way for me to help Boston and its community transition back to normalcy and improve city life!

How did you first become interested in Policy & Planning?

Growing up in NYC, I was always intrigued with the local and municipal government as they impacted so much of my life without me even realizing it. As I began to get older and began to focus my academia on this area as well, I realized that one of the most prevalent issues in creating effective policies on an urban level is communication. Time and time again, I saw that the bureaucracy of the government created an informational gap between the nuances of the problems that the city’s residents experienced and the policies that elected officials passed. Moreover, living in a city as large as New York allowed me to observe firsthand just how much life varied across different parts of the city due to socioeconomic and racial disparities. Access to key resources like healthcare, welfare, and even adequate COVID-19 testing during the pandemic was much more difficult for those residing in minority and low income neighborhoods. Once I entered college, I understood the true scope of this problem as it was not just unique to New York, but present in Boston and so many other cities around the country. Upon seeing how these disparities have impacted both my friends and family members, I knew I wanted to somehow work to close this gap and create an equitable future for the cities I call home. With this in mind, I began to intern and work for groups such as the CERES Institute for Children and Youth where we assist city officials in examining the efficacy of their past policies in an effort to create the most effective policies for achieving positive youth outcomes. It was during this experience and after developing these cumulative understandings that my interest for policy and planning grew.

What are you most looking forward to this summer? 

I am really looking forward to working on crucial city-wide projects and learning from some of the brightest minds and leaders within Mayor Janey’s office. We are currently in an especially unique time with vaccination rollout and starting the process of slowly transitioning back to normal in Boston, and I am ready to help the City of Boston create and implement innovative policies that improve the lives of Bostonians and uplift the greater Boston community. It is in tough times like these that some of the most fulfilling work can be accomplished administratively, and recognizing that, I am ecstatic to contribute to the work that Mayor Janey’s Office of Policy is currently doing. Furthermore, having the unprecedented opportunity this summer to give back to the city that has given so much to me is also something that I am thrilled to do! Finally, the ability to work alongside the dedicated staff of her policy office to create economic and social policies will give me a chance to further develop and apply the teachings from my coursework at Boston University to create substantial change.