Month: August 2017

As my internship comes to a close, I have experienced a multitude of emotions. When I tell people that I work in a morgue, I receive many cringes and disgusted faces, which, unfortunately, I expected. There are many hardships that come with this job. I see dead bodies every day. If that isn’t enough, I observe autopsies, I discharge bodies to the funeral home, and I witness the lives of the decedent’s family crumble before my eyes. It’s challenging to get called on a case and have no idea what to expect when I open the front door to the decedent’s house. There is honestly no aspect of this job that has not been challenging. However, it is also extremely rewarding, which most people probably would not think. One of the forensic pathologists I have talked to put it perfectly: We are the people that are trusted by families to treat their deceased love one with respect, dignity, and honor. We are expected not to abuse a corpse and treat them with the upmost respect, no matter their past. We are the ones that determine the cause of death and inform the family; we can help give them closure.  It is more rewarding than most people would think. Not everyone could look at deceased bodies all day and treat them with dignity, but I am proud to say that the employees here are some of the people that can.

Brittany Ruch
Forensic Chemistry

After interning at the American Lung Association for a few months, the most rewarding part of my job was hearing stories from the Lung Heroes. Lung Heroes are the people who inspire, encourage, and are the reasons why we raise money for lung diseases and raise awareness for the importance of lung health. As a Special Events Intern, I worked directly with people in the community and heard countless stories of people affected by lung disease and how the work of the Lung Association is necessary. There is a very rewarding feeling about doing work for a non-profit that has such a profound impact in the lives of others in the community I live in through the programs, training classes, and events. The most challenging part of my internship was trying to explain and convey the importance of lung health to others. Most people don’t know, but lung cancer is the #1 killer of men and women in the United States, and is nearly preventable. The struggle between addiction and fundraising for lung disease is a hard conversation to have with some people, because it has such an impact on so many lives. Overall, I loved the experience I had at the American Lung Association and loved the culture of the organization! I learned a lot of transferable skills at my internship that I am excited to continue to use in my future career.

Caitlin Tulaney
Human Resources

This internship has had many rewarding parts to it. I have met some remarkable people, and I have learned a countless number of things about the government, policy and how computing is essential in these fields. Some of the people I have met are the Secretary of Transportation, Stephanie Pallock and the Governor Charlie Baker.  Governor Baker remembered who I was when he saw me after the talk he gave to all the interns, and I was in disbelief that he even remembered who I was. All of these things have been very rewarding, but I believe the most rewarding part is seeing the progress of the work I have done with my boss on website audits, setting up a network shared drive for the Secretary’s office and working on Bills that need to be passed in the state. Working on such projects has truly allowed me to fully become immersed in my experience at the Department of Transportation. I have learned a lot about how working for the government really is, how long things take, and how someone with my technical skills can fit into this field. This has truly been a one-of-a-kind experience. The most challenging part I encountered was leaving my comfort zone and truly expanding my horizons to work. While I was able to work on computer related activities, I also worked with many different individuals from all departments within MassDOT on countless projects. I worked on collecting data on printers in the entire Commonwealth, I’ve worked on Autonomous vehicle legislation, and I’ve worked with taxi companies, uber, and lyft to try and regulate how we treat each entity. The challenge with all these different projects was keeping them all in check about what I was working on each time, which really helped me build my time management skills. Working with people to agree on what we should do also helped me learn how to compromise with coworkers. This internship was nothing but beneficial for me, and I truly am grateful for this opportunity.

Alexander Pinarreta
Computer Engineering