Internship Grant Recipient Profile: Nicholas Martinez...

by Angela Sun

Apply for the Tufts Career Center Summer Internship Grant! A total of 40 grants will be awarded this year, at a value of $3500 each. Grants will be awarded in the categories of Non-Profit/ Public Sector, AS&E Diversity, Entrepreneurial Leadership, and Innovation in Science & Technology. To help you prepare for your application due March 29, we will be presenting a three-part series featuring last year's internship grant recipients.

Nicholas Martinez is a Mechanical Engineering major from the class of 2014. Last year, Nicholas was awarded an Entrepreneurial Leadership grant to work at Rock Health.

1. Tell me about Rock Health, and what did your internship consist of?

Nicholas Martinez

Rock Health is an incubator company that works with startups specialized in the digital health field. Last summer, the practice was run out of Harvard instead of San Francisco. I enjoyed the internship because I got to do a lot of different kinds of work. I helped with logistics such as scheduling mentor office hours and meetings, but also got to work with start-ups in product development. I researched what would be the most efficient, cost-efficient, and smallest parts to use in a device, and helped create 3D CAD prototype models. Working alongside HBS and Sloan graduates exposed me to the business side of start-ups.

2. What projects did you get to work on at your internship?

I got to work a little more closely with two teams in particular. The first team is called Neumitra and they are designing a device that you wear on your wrist (it will eventually be embedded into a watch) that monitors your stress levels in real time. One can also link this device up to their phone so that when they get stressed, the phone can respond with a message, music, or suggest a game. It is really cool technology and I was in charge of helping them find individual parts that would be used for the device.

The second team was Podimetrics and they are designing a bathroom floor mat that helps to detect diabetic foot ulcers. Foot ulcers cause thousands of amputations every year yet are highly treatable if diagnosed early. This mat scans the foot while the person brushes their teeth, does their make-up, shaves, etc. and determines if there is a problem area developing. If so, the device sends a red flag to the person’s doctor and the doctor then has them come in for a check-up. I worked with them on some of their design criteria. One of their biggest problems is that they want the mat to be as inconspicuous as possible and thus, the design and layout of the mat is extremely important.

2. How did you secure your internship?

I had a distant family connection to Rock health as one of my mom’s friends had been an advisor there in the past. She knew that I was very interested in opportunities to apply engineering to the healthcare field, so she introduced me to the company. From there I went through a series of interviews, which included two phone interviews and one in person.

3. How did you apply for the Tufts Grant? What do you think made for your successful application?

The application was actually pretty easy for me to write because I was very passionate about the internship and the questions for the application seemed to set me up well for showing this passion. I was interested in Rock Health because I knew that I would gain experience in a lot of different areas working with a lot of different teams. To me this is the goal of an internship in that I was able to obtain a large variety of skills in an area that I knew I wanted to work in.

4. What have you gained from the overall experience?

This experience has confirmed that I do indeed want to get into the healthcare field and help others. I'm excited about this growing field in which a lot of cool new technology will be emerging. Also, from my experience, I have given more thought to getting an MBA at some point later in my career. From watching the startups, I have realized how valuable a person with both technical knowledge and business knowledge is.

5. Do you have any advice for students applying for the grant/ starting internships?

If I were to give advice to someone applying for the grant, I would just say that being passionate about the internship will give you the best chance of getting it because it will show in your application

The application for the internship grant can be found here.

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TIP Spotlight: Scott Blumenthal A14

Throughout the summer, we will be featuring the stories of current Tufts students. You'll find internships like these (and many more!) in the Tufts Internship Profile (TIP) Book, coming this fall. The TIP Book is a collection of internship descriptions and advice provided by Tufts students for Tufts students. Watch your Career Center eNews for more information.

Name: Scott Blumenthal
Class Year: 2014
Majors: Psychology and Economics
Hometown: Simsbury, CT
Internship organization: Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Boston, MA

1. Describe your internship organization.

Scott Blumenthal

As is surely the case for any unpaid undergraduate legal internship, a portion of my work consists of maintaining lists and databases, filing, transcribing interviews, and performing other clerical support duties. While such tasks may appear trivial, I view these housekeeping responsibilities as providing me with insight into many of the activities the Assistant District Attorneys perform in enforcing the law and providing for a safe community. I have also been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sit in on a number of forensic interviews with sexual abuse victims. The stories I hear are extremely upsetting, yet by being able to sit with the attorney and social worker assigned to the case, I become a part of their team and am able to give my input as well as help in piecing together the facts. It is thus rewarding to know that at least in some small way I too am helping these victims. A unique aspect of the District Attorney Internship Program is attending trials, visiting the police crime lab, and participating in the formal presentations offered by members of the office on substantive areas of law that the District Attorney's Office is called upon to enforce. Through my interactions with the office staff, I have been exposed to the often complex process by which precious legal resources are allocated to competing public demands. These many activities have allowed me to put my future education into context and also experience first-hand the intangible rewards that one derives from practicing law in the public sector.

 3. How did you become interested in this type of work? 
Lawyers usually get a bad rap; this combined with the fact that both my parents are lawyers seems to lead others to conclude, when talking about future careers, that I want no part of the profession. Ironically though, I’ve been fascinated by the law since childhood, in part due to a natural inclination to vigorously advocate for and negotiate topics important to me. At Tufts I have tested that interest through various courses, including two in political science which have provided valuable insight into intricate aspects of the U.S. and foreign governments and several landmark U.S. court cases. I have also taken a course in logic, which my advisor strongly recommended as preparation for the LSAT and to gain a sense of the work ahead in law school. Having always loved math, I was fascinated by the intersection of math and the logic of persuasion, and see this course as an important foundation for the study of law. Perhaps more significant, I have taken a Social Psychology course with Professor Sommers, during which I learned a great deal about his research in the legal arena. I was so intrigued that I pursued and became a research assistant for Professor Sommers (now my advisor) regarding the effects of racial biases on eye-witness testimony. Although any law office would have provided opportunities to learn more about a legal career, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office has stood out for specific reasons. Each lawyer with whom I’ve spoken has uniformly described practicing in the public sector as the most rewarding of their professional experiences. Building on this, the Suffolk DA’s Office is comprised of ten units focusing on different facets of law, and this variety has been extremely useful in guiding me toward specific areas of public sector practice that I find most intriguing. Indeed, and seemingly icing on the cake for me, I learned that in 2004, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley empanelled a blue-ribbon task force to address wrongful conviction based on racially biased eyewitness testimony, nearly the exact focus of my current research. It is thrilling to have this opportunity to observe the real-world implications of my psychology research.

4. Describe one highlight of your internship experience thus far?
Likely the best highlight of my internship experience thus far was the court case I watched in my first few weeks at the District Attorney’s Office – a murder trial that I followed from jury selection through to the judge’s final sentencing. Not only was the case itself fascinating, but it featured our office’s First Assistant District Attorney Pat Haggan along with one of the most successful defense attorneys in Massachusetts, Rosemary Scapicchio. To watch two highly skilled attorneys in action was such an eye-opening and memorable experience, as I was not only able to learn about general court procedures, but I also picked up on many of the attorneys’ highly effective strategies and habits. After this one trial alone, I went from having zero court experience prior to this internship to feeling like I had been observing court cases for months, totally comfortable with the environment and with the various goings-on.

5. Is there anything else you’d like readers to know about you or your internship experience?
A great aspect of my internship at the District Attorney’s Office that one might not receive in a different law environment is the weekly “Brown-bag lunches.” These lunches consists of the interns gathering in one of the office’s larger conference rooms and eating lunch while listening to one of the attorneys talk to us on a range of topics, such as how they got to where they are today or some life-changing court case that they tried while working at the DA’s Office. One attorney went into the minute details of his experience convicting the “Craigslist Killer,” while another told us all about his handling of the Clark Rockefeller case (a court case that has since been written about in books as well as featured in a movie on Showtime). While these top attorneys in the office surely do not have the time to speak with every intern individually over the course of the summer, the brown-bag lunches provide a seemingly very personal interaction with them, providing us tremendous insight into the profession.

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Need Funding For Your Summer Internship?

Have your eyes on a fantastic internship opportunity but worried about lack of funding? Lucky for us, Career Services offers internship grants to up to 40 Tufts students who land unpaid internships for this 2012 summer. The grant amounts to a $3,500 stipend and is available to those who can commit at least 350 hours of work. Of the forty total grants, twenty-five grants are for non-profit or public sector internships, ten are for Tufts AS&E Diversity Fund Internships, four are for entrepreneurial leadership internships (and start-ups), and one is for an Innovation in Science & Technology opportunity. The summer internship grant allows you to join a company that cannot afford to compensate you, but promises meaningful hands-on experience and professional growth.

I had the opportunity to talk to Jack Carter (’13) about his internship at Solventerra, a Boston-based start-up that develops and manages clean-energy and sustainability campaigns. Thanks to a Career Services summer internship grant, Jack had the chance to gain hands-on office experience, pioneer substantive clean-energy projects, and feel his contributions being valued and noticed. Read on as Jack discusses his experiences saving the environment—and embarking on some career development along the way.

1. What motivated you to apply for a Career Services’ internship grant?
I became connected to Solventerra through Greg Hering (E ’10), who received an internship grant during his time here. He told me that the company could not offer me a salary, but that I should apply for this grant and get some money that way. I was offered the internship a few days before the grant was due. One of the grant donors had specified that his grant should apply to a green energy company, and I was selected.

2. How did the internship grant facilitate your overall internship experience?
If I hadn’t received the grant, the internship couldn’t afford to pay me. I probably still would have done something with the company, but I would have worked part time for the whole summer, or full time for only four to six weeks. With the $3,500 grant, I could work there all summer. I had extra responsibilities, which taught me additional skills and look great on my resume. This experience is helping me as I apply for summer internships.

3. What was the application process like?
I found out about the grant three days before it was due. I needed two references. I received one from of my professors and one from my previous employer. There was a total of 2-3 pages of writing for around 10 different questions.

4. What inspired you to pursue an internship at Solventerra?
It was nice because I knew someone there through Tufts, and he assured me that I’d be doing some real work. I wouldn’t be fetching coffee for people, and that was really attractive to me. This is one of the advantages of working at a smaller company. It’s more likely that a startup won’t be able to pay you, but this is the reason that Tufts’ funding opportunities are so important. They allow students to pursue companies without worrying about compensation, focusing instead on their other benefits.

5. What were your main responsibilities as an intern?
I had two major projects over the summer. First, I was responsible for making the company’s new website, Solventerra.com. I had taken a web programming course in the spring semester, and the company was very happy with the new website. I created a form where people could describe their property, allowing Solventerra to assess its promise as a solar candidate. After I completed the website, I began to create solar panel installation layouts. I looked at topographical maps of potential sites and placed each solar panel individually, taking care to maintain proper distances from wetlands, shade sources, and property lines. I had to develop the workflow myself, integrating AutoCAD and other professional software. I designed eleven layouts, and saved Solventerra $2,300 per layout. Several of these projects have reached final planning stages and should be constructed according to my designs, which is an incredible feeling.

6. What would you say you learned from the job?
I learned engineering skills, along with basic office skills. It was my first office job. I participated in meetings and got into the habit of arriving on time, dressed professionally, five days a week. I met with clients and learned how to interact with professionals in meetings and at trade expos. I would highly recommend pursuing an internship at a smaller company, where interns can more easily shape their experience to pursue their individual goals.

7. Did your experience as an intern lend insight into what you can see yourself doing professionally?
I fully intend to make a career in energy. Last month I participated in the DoE Better Buildings case competition, designing energy efficiency improvements for a hotel. We presented our findings in Washington, D.C. I am currently seeking an internship in commercial building energy efficiency. This is a huge, emerging market. Before my internship with Solventerra, I had no idea what I wanted to do as an engineer. Now I have a real passion for energy efficiency, and Solventerra gave me the foundation of a career in the field.

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