June 19, 2019
Our internship program is an important part of who we are, and it’s a chance for us to come together as a firm to make a positive impact – not just on individual students, but the future of the profession.
Today’s university students are tomorrow’s industry experts. By giving them a positive learning experience, we are advancing the industry, establishing important connections, living out our values, and giving these incoming industry professionals a taste of what it’s like to be a part of the Kittelson team.
Our internship program was founded in 1990 under the direction of Wayne Kittelson and continues today through the hard work of our intern mentors and programming team, who line up events and activities to get these talented students connected as quickly as possible with our work and people. Intern projects mirror those of entry-level staff at Kittelson; we believe assigning real responsibilities coupled with thoughtful mentorship is the best way we can provide a formative career experience that will guide students to more confidently find their place in the profession.
We are very excited to welcome this year’s wave of Kittelson interns, who represent ten different universities and join us in ten different Kittelson offices.
Baltimore: Kaitlyn Schaffer
Hailing from Pittsburgh, Kaitlyn Schaffer is pursuing her Masters in Civil Engineering at Georgia Tech, where she also completed her undergraduate degree. (Our resident Tech alum Pete Jenior is excited to have another Georgia Tech student joining the Kittelson ranks and kindly prepared a poster that includes all of the Tech alums at Kittelson.) Kaitlyn joins us after recently hiking in Patagonia and running the Pittsburgh half marathon. Kaitlyn is particularly interested in pedestrian and bicycle planning.
Bend: Steven Kochvar
Steven Kochvar joins Kittelson from the Chicagoland area after wrapping up his sophomore year at Rice University in Houston. Steven is excited to be integrated into the transportation consulting world and is looking forward to getting involved in a large breadth of projects. He is particularly interested in transit systems, design, and multimodal planning. Steven has already started exploring Bend, including hiking the iconic Smith Rock. In his free time, you’ll likely find him biking, exploring, or singing with an a capella group!
Boise: Mary Richards
Mary originally hails from Beverly, Massachusetts, and got her Bachelors degree in Environmental Chemistry from Middlebury College. She is currently attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is working towards a dual Masters degree in Geography and Regional Planning. For her thesis, she is evaluating employer commuter benefits in Cambridge and how those benefits can lower SOV rates. Mary is hoping to see exposure to a broad range of projects this summer, with specific interests in transportation equity, accessibility, public transit, complete streets, and neighborhood livability. Outside of work, she enjoys running, baking, and traveling.
Boston: Polina Polikakhina
Polina Polikakhina joins Kittelson from Portland State University after wrapping up her fourth year. Polina brings experience with traffic operations and traffic impact analyses, and is particularly passionate about Complete Streets. She is looking forward to getting involved in bicycle planning and design projects. Polina is an avid rock climber, tango dancer, and bike commuter in Portland.
Oakland: Megan Morrow
Megan traveled cross country to join Kittelson Oakland from Tufts University, where she is completing a Masters in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning. Before beginning grad school, she worked as an Executive Assistant and Project Manager for two years at Superpedestrian, a transportation technology startup that created the Copenhagen wheel (she is the proud owner of a Copenhagen wheel and promised our team a demo!). Her love for transportation stems from a semester she spent in Copenhagen and has since led her on adventures living in Boulder, Boston, and across the United States on a bike. She is originally from Rhode Island and is looking forward to spending a summer on the West Coast.
Orlando: Emily Chen
Emily just completed her third year at the University of Virginia, where she is working on her Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering with a Minor in Urban and Environmental Planning. With a background in both engineering and planning, she is looking forward to getting involved in the exciting projects the firm has to offer as she continues to expand her technical knowledge. She is originally from Greenville, South Carolina (near the Blue Ridge Mountains) and enjoys hiking, running, and cooking. While in Orlando, Emily is excited to explore all of the outdoor activities and attractions “City Beautiful” has to offer.
Portland: Bryce Grame
Originally from Kalispell, Montana, Bryce Grame joins us from Montana State University as an incoming junior. In addition to studying civil engineering, he is working on a minor in statistics and is currently the president of his student chapter of ITE. Bryce enjoys running, biking, being active in his church, and taking road trips (ask him about his spring break road trip through Utah). He is also an avid sports fan and was excited to move to Portland during an exciting week for the Trail Blazers. After completing an internship with WSDOT last summer, he’s looking forward to learning and expanding his skills in design, traffic operations, and planning.
Portland: Dimitryan Shadrin
Dimitryan Shadrin joins Kittelson from the CECOP program in Portland. Dimitryan grew up farming in Oregon and was introduced to the construction industry at an early age. Between the ages of 16 to 20, he worked various construction jobs, after which he became a supervisor for a construction company. His experiences in the construction industry led him to an interest in studying structural and transportation engineering, which he is currently doing at Portland State University. Dimitryan’s hobbies include fishing, hunting, hiking, camping, and woodworking. He is looking forward to learning more about transportation and Kittelson as a whole, especially when it comes to operations and design
Portland: Hana Herndon
Hana Herndon just finished her sophomore year at Georgia Tech, where she is majoring in civil engineering. Hana originally hails from Orlando. She is also a cross country and track & field athlete at Georgia Tech, adding her name to a growing list of collegiate athletes who now work at Kittelson. In April, she broke a school record in the 5,000 meters, running the race in 16 minutes and 12 seconds! Hana is primarily interested in multimodal planning work.
Reston: Kyla D’Sa
Kyla D’Sa danced her way from Portland, Oregon to Washington D.C. to attend George Washington University studying civil engineering with a concentration in transportation. She has always advocated for working on behalf of her community, and is finding that passion fulfilled in transportation engineering. She is an active member of the DC chapter of WTS where she is on the planning committee for TransportationYOU for both the DC and international chapters. In her free time, you can find Kyla at the dance studio, continuing to explore all that D.C. has to offer, and traveling.
Tampa: Joceline Suhaimi
Joceline Suhaimi is an incoming senior at UCLA studying Civil Engineering. She fell into the transportation industry as a college sophomore when she joined the UCLA chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Since then, she has gained an interest in transportation policy and economics, multimodal planning and design, and big data in transportation. She is excited to spend a summer in Tampa and to bring the skills she learns back home to California. In addition to transportation, Joce enjoys martial arts, going to concerts, and craft coffee. She also makes a mean butter chicken.
Wilmington: Paige Highstone
Paige is a rising senior at the University of Florida, where she is majoring in industrial engineering and pursuing a minor in urban and regional planning. She is originally from Cocoa Beach, FL (which brings the Wilmington office’s average hometown-to-office distance down from 1700 miles to just 1450 miles!). At UF she is on the leadership board of the student WTS chapter, and was actually introduced to Kittelson through fellow Gator and 2018 Wilmington intern Gadi Dreyfuss! Outside of work, Paige enjoys thrifting, and as a dedicated cat parent, brings our office pet total up to two dogs, one cat, and a plant! We were glad to see our Wilmington team wasted no time taking her to their favorite local lunch spot (as featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives).
Welcome to Kittelson, all! For more information on our internship program, visit our internship page.