Summer Centered: Michael Carr ’19 Explores Urban Policy in Philadelphia

A summer intern for the Philadelphia consulting firm Econsult Solutions (ESI), political science and growth and structure of cities double major Michael Carr ’19 is eager to familiarize himself with the business—and apply the skills he’s picked up in his classes on local urban policy.

"I really hope to learn the ins and outs of consulting and figure out if this is a path I could see myself continuing on,” Carr says.

Through his internship at ESI, which is made possible by the CCPA’s Whitehead Internship Program fund, he’s learning how to draw digital maps, extract data from spreadsheets, and analyze corporate reports, among plenty of other things. Most importantly, however, the men's varsity soccer team captain is developing an understanding of how urban centers run and expand.

"Because ESI specializes in fields such as transportation, development, real estate, and urban-policy matters,” Carr says, “much of the work [it] does relates to my studies. It has been so interesting to see topics covered in courses like ‘Economic Development’ and ‘Urban Policy’ through a different lens as a team member at ESI.”

A course he took last semester on ArcGIS, a geographic information system frequently used in urban-planning initiatives, has already come in particularly handy.

"I’ve gotten to apply those skills firsthand,” Carr says, “as creating maps is one of the multiple projects I get to work on in a typical day at ESI.”

As a rising senior, Carr sees this internship as a good segue from college life to a career.

"This internship will help me in the short-term by hopefully generating some ideas for a good thesis,” he says, “but also will inform my decisions about jobs and provide a good stepping stone into whatever the future holds.”

"Summer Centered” is a series exploring our students’ Center-funded summer work.