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What did Kai do this summer?

Kai talks about his internship, time with family, visits from friends, and baseball experience this summer

Kai talks about his internship, time with family, visits from friends, and baseball experience this summer


Seeing old friends (and meeting some new ones), catching up with Profs, and getting back into the swing of things all make returning to campus an exciting time. As the fall leaves begin to change colors across campus, it seems like a good time for me to reflect on what I did this summer. I’ll break my summer down into four components: internship, friends, baseball, and family.

Lake Michigan
Promontory Point in Chicago, where I often took walks with family

 

I was fortunate enough to spend the summer in Chicago. I had never been to Chicago before (outside of flying through O’Hare Airport on my way to Carleton from my hometown in Virginia), but everything lined up for me to spend the summer in the Windy City. My family moved to Chicago and I landed an internship in the Loop. I have briefly talked about my previous work experiences on the blog here and there, but a quick synopsis: I previously had an externship at Oregon Metro (Portland’s regional government) and an internship at the Metropolitan Council (Twin Cities’ regional government), both in urban planning.

This summer, I worked as an Associate Consultant Intern at WSP – the top-ranked international design firm. It was an invaluable experience to work in public sector consulting with a focus on my area of interest: public transit. I had the opportunity to work on major infrastructure projects across the US! Some of my cool projects included:

  • Composing the $600 million MEGA grant application for the $6.5 billion Interstate Bridge Replacement/Light Rail extension project
  • Developing funding strategies for Chicago Metra’s 10-year budget and $1.5 billion Capital Delivery Program
  • Building financial models and plans for three new bus-rapid transit projects in San Antonio and Indianapolis
  • Drafting a chapter for the Transportation Research Board’s report on intermodal passenger facilities

I learned so much from working on these projects, and I have my liberal arts education to thank. My problem-solving and writing skills, my ability to learn and adapt on the fly, and my passion for creating better places for people to live all combined to make for a successful summer. Plus, the 42nd Floor office view was pretty sweet:

office view
View from my desk!

Another great part of the summer was having my Carleton friends around in Chicago. I grabbed lunch with Sanjiv every Friday, as he worked on the same street as I did. Plus, four of my friends stayed over at my apartment at different points in the summer. We got to explore Chicago together, went to Lollapalooza, and caught a few Cubs and White Sox games as well.

Wrigley
Wrigley with friends!

 

Speaking of baseball, I played on a competitive summer baseball team with players from a mix of D1, D3, and JUCO schools. I also woke up early in the mornings before work to go on runs and follow the lifting regimen our coach made for the summer.

 

Grandpa
Me and grandpa

 

Perhaps most importantly, I got to spend lots of time with my family this summer. I lived with my parents one final time before I graduate (and get my own place!), which was really, really nice. I also visited my grandparents and other family in Japan and South Korea for the first time in 4+ years. It was a fun trip to wrap up what might have been my best summer yet!


It seems like just yesterday that Kai (he/him) first arrived at Carleton. Yet now, he is a Senior Political Science & Psychology major and Public Policy minor. Kai loves Carleton’s friendly campus culture, spending much of his time hanging out at Sayles, taking walks around the Lakes or in the Arb, volunteering for Project Friendship, and pitching/playing infield for the baseball team.