The University of New York City (CUNY) and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced the start of the application process for the 2025 summer internship program, which offers students from the 25 Cuny campus the opportunity to carry out full -time remunerated internships in various MTA agencies.
Since its launch in 2022, the program has generated great interest, with more than 34,000 applications for 110 places in the 2024 autumn edition, doubleing the figure of the previous year. In addition, the MTA has hired 52 interns for full -time positions in all its agencies.
“By together with the largest urban public university with the largest transport network in the country, the Cuny and MTA internship program provides students with an incalculable work experience, while supporting such an important system in our lives,” said Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, chancellor of Cuny.
Lisette Camilo, administrative director of the MTA, stressed that “through this internship, Cuny students acquire invaluable knowledge in learning how the largest transport system works in the country.” For her part, the MTA personnel director, Mersida IBRIC, said that “our association with Cuny allows us to find the next generation of transport leaders between a diverse group of applicants who provide unique perspectives, while offering students to students work experience in the real world.”
The internships are available in NYC Transit, Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North, Construction and Development, and bridges and tunnels, in areas such as Law, Finance, Technology, Engineering and Communications. Students who work full time can access medical benefits through the Cuny Research Foundation. In some cases, interns can continue working part -time once the school year starts.
Many students who have gone through this program have managed to develop key skills and apply their knowledge in real scenarios. Among them is Sualeha Tahir, a student of Baruch College, who helped plan the sale of discarded materials from the MTA, such as seasonal signs and old chips. Alex Rian Fiano, Queens College, has worked with materials from the MTA files, while Dylan McKinley Straker, Kingsborough Community College, has collaborated directly with workers in the streets and tunnels. On the other hand, Maria Antonov, also from Baruch College, has worked in the Construction and Development Department, where he provides technical support for contractors, designers and engineers throughout the system.
The internship program is part of the increasingly narrow collaboration between the two institutions. In the past, the Macaulay Honors College of Cuny and the MTA celebrated the first “dataton” of the University, in which groups of students analyzed public data of the MTA to propose solutions to key challenges. One of the winning teams based its proposal on figures for the evasion of rates on the train to define how to promote the Fair Farer transport discount program of New York City.
The application deadline expires on February 28 and those interested can apply through the website https://www.cuny.edu/about/ad administration/Offices/ocip/students/mta-internship-program/.
