Every summer we are excited to host college students who are studying the field of transportation planning and engineering in our W+A Intern Program. This year we are pleased to have three student interns join our team during their summer break: Emilio Tognelli, Onyinyechukwu (Onyi) Iworah, and Sean Lyons.
We asked them to share a bit about themselves in this Q+A. Thank you, Emilio, Onyi, and Sean for sharing your thoughts with us!
Q: What interested you in the W+A Intern Program?
Emilio Tognelli:
I have always been interested in transportation and public transit; however, I’ve only really known the policy and planning perspective. My undergraduate degrees were not centered around engineering or TDM, so when I found an opportunity to intern at Wells, I thought it could be an option to expand my horizons and discover new interests. I was particularly drawn to the TDM team as they combined marketing with public transit, both of which I studied at school.
Onyi Iworah:
I originally started college as an undecided engineering student as I wasn’t sure what type of engineering I wanted to do. I started learning more about civil engineering and in particular transportation and decided to investigate further. Luckily for me, Wells + Associates had a table at my college’s career fair that gave me information on their intern program. Not only could I learn more about engineering and the technical side of transportation planning, but I could also gain knowledge on marketing and the social aspects.
Sean Lyons:
I am a civil engineer with a focus in construction and transportation. When I saw W+A, more specifically when I met with Katie and Brant at the career fair in the spring at Virginia Tech, I slowly began inching towards working with them for a position here. I then later received an email from Katie, reaching out to me for an interview, I was super excited since I had an opportunity to potentially try internship work that related to my field of studies.
Q: What aspects of transportation particularly interest you?
Sean Lyons:
Roadways, streets, and bike lanes. As a New Yorker who has spent the last twenty years living there, I can say with utmost confidence that the city needs dire help in reconstructing its entire transportation system. The level of services in some roads are so bad that even negative numbers for the TSI are generous. I want to try and fix the roads or at least make it easier to run through as people drive through the streets without much damage to the belly of the car.
Emilio Tognelli:
I love multimodal transportation. I think that the future of transportation is going to have an emphasis on various modes of getting around rather than single-occupancy vehicles. I think the most important thing is to properly plan and market these other options for transportation. Redesigning streetscapes and cities to be comfortable and cost-effective for all modes!
Onyi Iworah:
Public transportation systems such as buses, metro, train, and rail lines. As someone who has mainly lived in a car-centric area my entire life, I’ve always been fascinated with these types of transportation. Being able to explore your community without needing a car is really something I wish to be able to do more. That being said, in comparison to other countries with big urban populations the US hasn’t always done its best to meet the demand. Investing more in these systems would not only be better for the environment but people would save time and efficiency that gets lost from being stuck in traffic.
Q: Are there ways that you feel the intern program will intersect with or relate to your course of studies?
Onyi Iworah:
It’s one thing to have an aspiration for something and another to actually know how to achieve it. As someone who wants to work in transportation, it will be important to know how many different groups of people work to make our systems efficient. By letting us meet and work with people on their Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Team and their Engineering Team, Wells is giving me relevant hands-on experience that will let me foresee the kind of work and collaborators I would have in this field.
Emilio Tognelli:
At Virginia Tech I studied Environmental Policy and Planning and Communications. When I first learned about Transportation Demand Management (TDM) I thought it was a perfect intersection of my two areas of study. At school I always had the intention of finding a blend of the two fields, combining transportation/urban planning and communications, and with TDM I think I’ve found it to be quite a good balance of the two.
Q: What got you interested in the field of transportation?
Onyi Iworah:
Though it may sound kind of childish I would say YouTube. During the pandemic I got really into watching transportation and infrastructure videos of other countries such as Japan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Netherlands. I always found these videos very entertaining as not only did I learn about these systems, but I got to learn more about other countries too!
Q: What are some of your hobbies and interests outside of work and school?
Emilio Tognelli:
I really enjoy being outdoors; camping, backpacking, biking, or playing sports. I love getting outside, especially if it involves traveling or going somewhere new. In the past couple of years, I’ve visited 5+ national parks and did a bikepacking trip down the C&O Canal and have many more adventures in the works. The only catch is Virginia weather, sweltering temps in the summer and freezing in the winter, but in those few months with great weather it’s ideal!