Name: Lily Goltz
Class Year: Class of 2023
Major: Physics and Growth and Structure of Cities
Hometown: Damariscotta, Maine
Internship Organization: New Castle County Land Use Department
Job Title: Geographical Information Systems and Preservation Intern
Location: Remote, based in New Castle, Del.
Award: Julia Heimowitz Greenbaum '55 Fund for Social Justice
What’s happening at your internship?
This summer I am working remotely for the New Castle County Land Use Department in Delaware, working primarily on a project updating the historical building datasets and maps so they can be accessed more easily by the public and other departments who wish to use the information.
Why did you apply for this internship?
I was interested in doing an internship with GIS this summer as I took Intro to GIS this past semester with Jennifer Hurley and enjoyed the process of making maps. I wanted to continue this work into the summer to broaden my knowledge and experience the environment of working in a government office putting the skills I learned in the class to real life.
What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?
I am finding that my work is impacting a larger group of people than previous jobs I have had. When working on a simple project, you can be in communication with a multitude of people rather than the small group of people you work with on a daily basis, and from this I have learned the importance of communication and independence. I have independently had to reach out to people I have never met before for materials and interact with them in order to get the job done. Learning how to interact with people in a professional way that you have never interacted with before is a very important skill and I am glad to have learned it.
What is most rewarding about your internship?
The aspect I find most rewarding about my internship is finishing tasks that have a greater impact on the community. All of the work I am completing is compiling into a larger source for community members to access and then share their opinions on, so every small map I make I know is going to a greater cause.
Visit the Summer Internship Stories page to read more about student internship experiences.