Dietrich College Interns Make Community Impact in Pittsburgh

Sixty students, 40 sites and one mission: the Pittsburgh Summer Internship Program (PSIP) is reshaping the way students engage with the local community. Based in Carnegie Mellon University’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the program connects students with the Pittsburgh region by funding internships with small businesses, startup companies or nonprofit organizations.

This type of experiential learning allows students to delve deeper into their professional interests and gain hands-on experience with various industries. Zoë Brown (DC 2025), Vionnie Khong (DC 2027) and Bo Xie (DC 2027) are three Dietrich College students who participated in PSIP this year. 

“­­­­PSIP provides students with so much more than a typical internship. Students benefit from hands-on support throughout the hiring process, personalized experiences at local startups and nonprofits and ongoing professional development opportunities among a cohort of peers. The benefit of this program to students and their host sites is unmatched,” said Kim Piatt, director of experiential learning in Dietrich College.

Will Weiner and Zoë Brown

Zoë Brown

Majors: Music, Film and Media Studies
Minor: German Studies

Brown was an intern for Xpogo, a company dedicated to growing the sport of extreme pogo sticking founded by CMU alumni Nick Ryan (DC 2011).

She hit the ground running by publicizing the pogo world championship event Pogopalooza, held June 21–23. At the event, attendees watched a 20^th-anniversary documentary Brown created.

“We did a lot of interviews with the pogoers and other employees who work for Xpogo, and we used a lot of the footage that had already been collected,” Brown said.

Brown made sure the event ran smoothly and took videos and photos to incorporate into future advertisements. After Pogopalooza, Brown created and edited a sponsor reel for Xpogo to inspire more people to invest in future events.

“Through the PSIP process, [I was allowed] to look through different jobs that are available,” Brown said. “I found [Xpogo] pretty quickly and thought it was really interesting just because it wasn’t a standard [office-based workplace] experience. Ultimately, I did really want an internship where I was going to get a really unique experience, and Xpogo is definitely one of those.”

Brown felt that her supervisors prioritized her interests when giving her assignments. She also felt welcome to ask questions. 

“[Nick and Will] were able to incorporate different projects that they had going on and allowed me to work on them because they saw that I had an interest in them,” Brown said.

Brown’s dedication to Xpogo did not go unnoticed.

“It has been great working with Zoë this summer and to have had PSIP interns for the past three years,” said Will Weiner (DC 2013), Brown’s supervisor. “I know I can count on Dietrich College students to feel comfortable with and successfully take on the wide variety of work that we do at Xpogo, which ranges from highly artistic to highly technical. In turn, it is also fulfilling for me to show them our very non-traditional business and help expose them to the possibilities of what ‘work’ after CMU can be.”

Brown’s experience helped her learn how to balance work and home life, as well as how to navigate a work-from-home and in-office schedule. 

When speaking about the PSIP community, Brown said “it was really nice to be in a room full of people who are going through the same process as you and learning how to navigate the workplace.” 

Brown said PSIP seminars also helped students develop specific skill sets or improve upon current ones.

“On top of that, Bryce [Yoder] and Kim [Piatt] are amazing when it comes to answering questions if you’re stuck or have a concern,” Brown said. “[I felt like] I could go do things, ask questions, take risks and learn how it is that I want to operate in the workplace in the future.”

Vionnie Khong and Shawn Fertitta

Vionnie Khong

Majors: Economics, Statistics & Science, Technology and Public Policy

Khong was a public realm experience intern at the Oakland Business Improvement District (OBID), an organization dedicated to fostering a thriving and inclusive community that aims to provide support for Oakland businesses, residents and visitors.

She began each day with a check-in meeting with her supervisor and OBID Director of Public Realm Experience Shawn Fertitta. The staff at OBID consists of two people, so they needed to be all on the same page. After that, Khong helped to improve the accessibility of OBID’s website. Increasing accessibility ensures that the public can explore what local businesses are up to and how they contribute to Oakland.

Khong worked on a variety of other projects, and she was particularly passionate about connecting directly with business owners to incorporate their reflections into OBID’s website and advertising initiatives. Through these conversations, she was able to gain a better understanding of why owners decided to set up their businesses in Pittsburgh and how their passion for the city translates into the work they do.

Public realm experiences are crucial in citified areas that may pose accessibility challenges for some people. During the summer, Khong explored ways to improve the user and customer experience in Oakland.

“I am working on a project to learn more about accessibility routes and ways to get businesses into the Pittsburgh-Oakland area,” Khong said.

To do this, she took inventory of community suggestions from business owners and Block to Block, an organization for which people are hired to clean Oakland’s roads and keep the neighborhood visually appealing.

“One thing about being in the Oakland area is that you don’t really think about the things that go into a neighborhood,” Khong said. “You usually go and walk around and just [realize that there is a restaurant right next to you]. But then you go in and talk to the owners and see their stories behind [their establishment] and you see how Oakland has helped improve the lives of people.”

Khong also reflected that PSIP was a great way to gain professional experience.

“I would most definitely recommend for students to do PSIP [because] learning about the internship process and doing it on a smaller scale is going to be really important [for the future],” said Khong.

“Vionnie, our public realm experience intern, is an incredible asset to OBID’s team, particularly through her exceptional data analysis skills that we use to support operational efficiencies within the district. She is one of the brightest people I know, bringing immense energy and passion to her work. Her dedication and expertise make her a standout contributor. Vionnie truly makes CMU and PSIP proud,” Fertitta said.

(l–r) Ani Kapuria, Max Holmes and Bo Xie

Bo Xie

Majors: Information Systems, Artificial Intelligence

Xie was a software development intern at Conduit, a startup company focused on creating technology to improve worker retention in the service sector.

For the first two weeks of his internship, Xie enhanced Conduit’s website. He also edited code for the company’s mobile app and created website design ideas on Figma.

“A lot of the work I’ve done has been to reshape some of the React code to fit the mobile version of [Conduit’s] app. [Conduit] designed most of the application for the desktop user. So, what I did was edit some code to make the mobile version work as well,” Xie said.

In addition, Xie dabbled in design work for Conduit.

“I am trying to come up with some designs to gamify our app to make it more appealing to both the employees and the employers who would be using the app,” Xie said.

When asked to describe his internship experience in a few words, flexibility came to Xie’s mind. He was engaged in multiple projects at once, navigated the environment of an early stage startup and worked a hybrid schedule.

“For this internship, I feel like I have really gotten invested in what the company is doing because of the startup [aspect], the small team and the frequency of communication. I feel like I am a part of this project, and I’m invested in so many aspects of it, and I really want to see this project, or this company, succeed,” Xie said.

Through his internship, Xie also had the opportunity to connect with other startup companies.

“At our office, we have had two or three Pizza and Pitch [events, during which] there would be people [at Conduit’s office] who were startup owners in the Pittsburgh area who were there to network,” Xie said.

Xie shared that he did a lot of reflection over the summer through PSIP’s guidance sessions, workshops and counseling.

“[PSIP] is an amazing program because it’s targeted at people who have not done an internship before,” Xie said. “I’ve had a lot of fun in Pittsburgh in the past few months. It’s a great chance to explore the city. Also, you get paid, and that’s amazing for a first internship.”

Xie also expressed that living off campus for the summer and managing his own living space, meals and money was a huge learning experience and contributed significantly to his personal growth.

“I can’t put into words how much I’ve matured and understood how a work-life [balance] works — and PSIP has been there for me and I’m very grateful,” Xie said. “I definitely would recommend this [program] to everyone.”

“Working with Bo has been a fantastic experience. He is bright, creative, driven and really gets what we’re doing on an intrinsic level. I’ve seen a lot of personal and professional growth from Bo this summer as he’s thrown himself into his work,” said Max Holmes, co-Founder of Conduit and one of Xie’s supervisors. “He’s a credit to himself, Carnegie Mellon and the Pittsburgh Summer Internship Program, and I hope we get the chance to work together in the future.”