Bergmeyer x PIC Summer Design Internship Program

Interns and mentors gather around a wooden conference table during a video meeting in a modern office with glass walls.

Every summer, the City of Boston and the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC) work together to place thousands of Boston Public School (BPS) students in paid summer internships with companies and organizations throughout the city. This program, called the Mayor’s Summer Jobs Program, gives students a look inside the work fields that interest them, allowing them to begin to prepare for future employment.

Bergmeyer began participating in the program three years ago when the PIC reached out to the Boston Society of Architecture (BSA) about getting architecture firms involved in the program. Together with the BSA, Bergmeyer and several other firms in the city worked to design this internship, providing an immersive educational experience where interns get to experience and learn about architecture and design.

This past summer, Bergmeyer welcomed two Boston Public School students to work with our collaborative for six weeks:

Young woman in circular yellow-framed portrait against purple background, identified as senior at mathematics and science
Senior intern with long dark hair smiling at camera in circular yellow-framed portrait on purple background.

During Allie and Virginia's time with us in the Boston office, they had access to many of Bergmeyer's resources and design programs. They worked alongside our team to create design options for several retail and restaurant projects. The work they produced traversed several phases of the architectural design process and allowed them to experience the inner workings of the professional design field.

"I thought that the program was structured nicely, and every week we had a new design challenge to work on, and the challenges were put together well," says Virginia Lathrop. "They had me and Allie, the other intern, really think about problems in different ways, and we were also allowed to go behind the scenes and see what day-to-day life is like for an architect. So yeah, those are some cool parts of the internship."

Two designers review project concepts on a tablet during a meeting in a modern conference room with a large display screen.Top-down floor plan of a square media room with seating, storage, kitchen counter, double doors, and dimensions labeled.Three professionals discuss a design project at a conference table with laptops and audio equipment in a studio office.Two interns wearing hard hats and safety vests hold clipboards and equipment in an indoor construction site.Four interns sit around a table discussing with a mentor during a design internship program session.Interns and staff view a presentation on a mounted screen around a wooden conference table in a modern office with cityDesign sketch showing material palette with textured finishes and potted snake plant with yellow stripes in teal container.

Scroll through the slideshow to see some of the process work and moments from Allie and Virginia's internship with Bergmeyer.

"I have always been interested in the arts and science," Virginia shares. "I feel like architecture is a cool intersection of aesthetics, art, science, and engineering. I'm specifically interested in landscape in which you're often working with a lot of plants and natural elements so that even adds a biology aspect into it. Architecture is a place where I can combine all those interests. Bergmeyer was my first experience with an office culture; I've never had an internship like that before. It's an amazing place to work because everyone is very supportive. It's a very friendly, very supportive environment to work in."

While the internship program's goal is to provide an educational design experience, we also undoubtedly learn a lot from working with these bright and ambitious students.

“We had a terrific experience working with Allie and Virginia over the summer. It was great to see their enthusiasm for design and construction and to see their growth as young professionals," exclaimed Brian Fontaine, Associate and Senior Architect at Bergmeyer. "They both produced thoughtful designs and honed skills that will benefit them in their education and career paths in the design professions."

Although the summer internship has ended and Allie and Virginia are back in school, our door is always open for all interns we've been fortunate to work with, offering mentorship and support as their career paths unfold. We greatly appreciated the time that Allie and Virginia spent with us, and look forward to continuing our partnership with the Mayor's Summer Jobs Program.