U.S. Army Captain Alyssa Cummin will soon complete her Master’s in Infrastructure Planning and Management degree. Just over two years ago Alyssa started her academic journey at UW. When she discovered the online MIPM program she thought, “This is a great opportunity and I want to get my master’s degree in an area that interests me instead of a standard MBA.”

Balancing Military Service and School

Most MIPM students work regular 9 to 5 desk jobs while attending online courses in an asynchronous format. For Alyssa however, she has served her country overseas as a Captain in the US Army Reserves. She planned logistical training for African militaries in Nigeria, Somalia, Djibouti, Tunisia, Morocco, and Malawi. Twenty-eight months and many countries later, Alyssa is graduating with both rich academic and practical experience in critical infrastructure management. “The hardest part of this degree was identifying my capstone project,” Alyssa explained. Ultimately, Alyssa selected the logistics infrastructure of Africa as her topic.

For Alyssa, managing her time during the degree program while also working was essential. “I adopted new habits, Alyssa shared. “I know I work best in the mornings so I started waking up earlier than usual to complete homework prior to leaving for work and I took advantage of my lunch breaks to squeeze in homework time.”

Achieving Goals

Alyssa also volunteered as a high school swim coach over the past two years and enjoys training for triathlons. During this past year Alyssa completed her first Iron Man triathlon, finishing 3800 meter swim, 112 mile bike ride and a full marathon in 13 hours and 28 minutes. When asked how she was able to successfully complete the program despite all the deployments, travel for work, and physical training she said “I was surprised myself when I realized how much time there actually is in a day when we want to make the time to achieve our goals.”

Article researched by Morgan A. Zantua.

Master of Infrastructure Planning and Management (MIPM) student, Danté DiSabatino, is working on King County’s 2020 update of the Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP). In fact, his team recently implemented the first Youth Summit on climate change. The summit was held at UW’s SCAP Public Workshop on Saturday, October 12th. Most importantly, it gave young people in King County the platform to voice their opinions about addressing climate change within our region.

King5 News subsequently featured the King County Youth Summit in a recent segment:

To summarize, SCAP is King County’s 5-year plan to reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for climate change impacts. Significantly, it focuses on supporting resilience in communities disproportionately impacted by climate change. Danté is presently working with a team of colleagues, including King County Climate Engagement Specialist Jamie Stroble, to solicit public feedback and cultivate strategic community partnerships.

“More often than not, youth haven’t had a seat at the table as stakeholders in governmental processes.” Danté explained. “The youth of today, and many of their surrounding communities, will be on the frontline of climate change. As as a result, they need to be part of the conversation and will be impacted by their government’s actions or lack there of around climate change adaptation, mitigation, and preparedness.”

A Global Movement

The SCAP Youth Summit is part of a much larger movement amplifying the voices of young people around climate change. Beyond King County, youth all over the world vehemently represented their concerns during the Global Youth Climate Strike on September 20th. Youth climate activists joined together in many major cities to march in support of taking urgent action. Likewise, young people in Seattle also participated, taking time away from their studies to stand in solidarity.

> To learn more about the Master of Infrastructure Planning and Management (MIPM) program, visit the website here.
> To learn more about King County’s 2020 update of the Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP), visit the King County climate action website here.

Master of Urban Planning (MUP) student, Asela Chavez-Basurto, dove into professional practice during a summer internship at Sound Transit. She took on real-world planning projects in Seattle, further exploring the dynamics of collaborative teamwork. Specifically, Asela joined the Sound Transit Planning, Environment and Project Development department. As a result, she focused much of her time on alternative transportation. She worked to assess and improve the Sound Transit bike program in particular.

The internship experience

Asela managed two projects that studied morning peak-hour bike ridership. Notably, she focused on studying bike commuting trends at busy light rail stations. The projects included conducting time-intensive bike count surveys. Subsequently, Asela employed the help of multiple volunteers to successfully complete this work. Through this process, she provided key leadership in the field. Asela specifically organized survey schedules and directly trained volunteers to collect data. Above all, she gained valuable perspective in a project management role. Accordingly, Asela integrated classroom lessons with her growing on-the-ground knowledge. Most significantly, she completed work that has a measurable impact for her community.

“For me, the most valuable part of my internship experience has been the opportunity to apply my skills directly,” Asela shared. “I’ve spent the last year acquiring knowledge, and this was the chance to translate all of that into tangible work that’s useful to others.”

Looking at the bigger picture

Asela is originally from Mexico, where she initially studied architecture. She’s lived in the Seattle area for the past five years. Presently, Asela in her 2nd year in the University of Washington MUP program. After graduation, she wants to focus on addressing the larger, interconnected issues around urban design and planning.

“Architecture gave me valuable skills and experiences, but I felt it did not include the kind of problems I was passionate to resolve,” she explained. “To me, site analysis and user input were as pivotal as design styles. I observed that sometimes buildings were built for the architects and not its users and I wanted to have a broader impact.”

Ultimately, Asela learned about professional practice directly. In addition, she shared the insights she gained with others. She presented her work at the 2019 Sound Transit Intern Presentations. This annual event, open to the agency’s entire 800 plus workforce, gives interns a platform to showcase their projects.

“My most memorable experience at Sound Transit [was] giving my internship presentation,” said Asela. “I loved sharing my experience at the department and the projects I worked on. The presentation was an opportunity to introduce myself, my goals, and my contributions.”

Laying a strong foundation

For planning students like Asela, the combination of academic and internship experience is often helpful for career preparation. That is to say, internships can compliment academic learning. They offer an important glimpse into professional practice. Moreover, having the opportunity to contribute to team projects, and accordingly network with established professionals, can create rich opportunities post-graduation.

“Through the MUP program, I’ve acquired knowledge of regional regulations and professional processes that allow me to understand the current issues and potential solutions. It’s not difficult for me to know where my contributions could fit into the work of the agency and also on the development of the city and the region; this inspires me to work hard every day.”

> To learn more about the Master of Urban Planning (MUP) program, visit the website here.