Intern Profile: McKenzie Kelly
Photo courtesy of McKenzie Kelly.
McKenzie Kelley spent the semester interning as a research analyst for the University of Vermont’s Office of Sustainability. In this role, she has done both data collection and data analysis. She is a computer science and biology double major with a minor in statistics.
The primary projects she worked on are focused on making campus more walkable.
Abby Bleything, the Sustainable Transportation Program Manager at the Office of Sustainability, is McKenzie’s supervisor. In McKenzie’s internship, the day-to-day work looks like lots of spreadsheets and some fieldwork, especially if the weather is good. Her projects include analyzing the energy efficiency of university-owned vehicles.
Her biggest project is to record the foot traffic in the Davis tunnel versus the on-street crossing at Main Street. Julia Lenz, another Communities of Practice intern, is also working on this project. They coordinate their data collection by standing at both crossings for the same period of time and recording the number of people that use each. They are attempting to see if it would be worthwhile for the University to implement more tunnel crossings across campus in the future. McKenzie has noticed that the tunnel gets much more use when it is colder or precipitating.
McKenzie’s favorite part of the internship is the flexibility she has in her work. Abby Bleything provides McKenzie with projects, but she gets to choose how to approach them and how the data will be analyzed. She has learned that she enjoys the data analysis far more than the on the ground fieldwork.
This semester, she has gained many skills for her future careers. She has gained confidence with soft skills such as communication and professionalism. She also has gained a lot of perspective when it comes to sustainability. McKenzie argued that when we build infrastructure for cars, “we’re really forgetting about a huge majority of pedestrians, so I think that this internship has made me a more grounded person in my day-to-day life.”
Prior to this internship, McKenzie focused much of her sustainability work on food systems and agriculture. She is a vegetarian for environmental reasons. In terms of transportation, she thought about not driving as much or carpooling when possible. This semester, she has learned about the role of legislation and local government in making changes in sustainable transportation systems.
Her advice to future interns is this: “Don’t be shy to try something new out if you think you might be interested. If it doesn’t work out, then you’ll learn something more about yourself.”
