Columbia University Facilities and Operations (CUFO) hosted 11 local high school interns this summer as part of an annual matching program run by New York City Career and Technical Education. The high school intern program, which started as a community commitment, has grown and evolved into a longstanding and productive partnership. Throughout the six-week program, students spent four days each week embedded within one of CUFO’s teams to gain hands-on work experience. They also spent each Friday on leadership and professional development with CUFO’s Human Resources team.
In a closing celebration of their work, interns shared what they learned and their future career aspirations with their mentors and Facilities and Operations leadership. Some of the skills interns learned included pivot tables and advanced functions in Microsoft Excel, in-the-moment flexibility and problem solving when facilitating a large event, key components of a construction contract, construction site safety, and how to create an AI agent.
