Blogs: Project Onramp
As long-time members of the local life sciences community, we were thrilled when the leaders of Life Science Cares reached out to us to help us tell the story of Project Onramp, an initiative that connects students from low-income backgrounds to life sciences companies in Massachusetts, helping increase their talent pool and boost diversity. We interviewed the Project Onramp interns and their host companies. Then, we delivered their stories in a beautiful testimonial blog format for the website. These stories serve in multiple digital formats, but most importantly they demonstrate the impact of Project Onramp. You can read all the interviews here: Meet Our Scholars - Project Onramp - Life Sciences Internships (projectonrampma.com) A snapshot is below.
Gerard Hill (2021)
Home town: Boston
College: Northeastern
Internship: Triple Ring
After Gerard Hill graduated high school, he decided he wanted to do something in engineering. He wasn’t exactly sure what; he just knew engineering was his passion. So he spent the next four years working hard at Bunker Hill Community College, getting his prereqs in so he could eventually transfer over to Northeastern.
Today Gerard is a Northeastern University Mechanical Engineering student. However, focusing on his classes and the transfer made it challenging for Gerard to do anything but study.
“I hadn’t done much outside of my classes, and I wanted to get that hands-on experience,” Gerard explains.
When his advisor suggested he apply for a Project Onramp internship in the summer of his junior year, Gerard leaped at the opportunity. What he didn’t know at the time was that this internship would become his “dream job.”
Triple Ring Technologies is an incubator in Boston which helps tech startup companies through the commercialization process. Over the twelve weeks he was there, Gerard worked alongside another intern to create posters detailing the company’s various projects. These posters are now in the company’s lobby, used as a marketing tool.
Gerard interviewed Triple Ring engineers to create the posters, and in the process, he discovered the business of engineering. He learned about all of the steps needed to bring a product to market – from manufacturing, to implementing confidentiality agreements.
“I was always so focused on the engineering and never thought about how products are sold. This experience gave me better insight into how these products are marketed,” Gerard explains.
The internship was also an exercise in project management, collaboration, and independence. Gerard’s supervisor was there every step of the way, but she still encouraged Gerard and his coworker to determine which steps to take on their own. He credits the team at Triple Ring for the great summer experience. Welcome emails, informational interviews, and weekly meetings with his supervisor made all the difference. He also recognizes the Triple Ring staff member who helped him learn some difficult parts of 3D software, which is something Gerard says, “I could see myself doing in my eventual career.”
Gerard went into the Project Onramp internship looking for an opportunity to be hands-on, and learn things he could not in his engineering classes. He got that and so much more. His transformative experience at Triple Ring gave him a dream job to aspire to, and a path forward.
