We've partnered with the Macaulay Honors College at CUNY on New York: City Designed, a year-long program open to to Macaulay students across the eight city colleges, offering a seminar course in the fall semester, a place-based workshop in the spring, and cohort-based summer internships at some of New York City’s top city agencies, nonprofits, and private-sector design and architecture firms. Now in its third year, NYCD aims to equip students with a deeper understanding of the city’s design and the skills to take power as residents of the five boroughs, as well as create access to jobs in the planning and design sectors.
Sarah Chacko, a current NYCD intern working with the Design Trust for the summer, sat down with three of of the program's alumni to see where they are now and how the opportunity impacted the beginning of their career journeys:
Daniel Berlinsky
B.Arch, The City College of New York Class of ‘26, 2025 NYCD Cohort
Daniel interned at TenBerke Architects, where he worked on Request for Proposals submitted to academic and institutional clients. One project he found particularly interesting was a conceptual study of an NYC library. One of Daniel’s most notable takeaways from the City Design internship is the unique experience that the program provided. He highlighted how the Design Trust team took the interns on trips across New York City to visit places like the Department of City Planning, the Parks Department, Grand Central Partnership, and QueensLink. “It was really cool just to be in the room with agencies and organizations that I study and admire,” Daniel shared, “and get to actually know what they do and how they make the city function.” The program also gave Daniel the opportunity to extend his internship at TenBerke for an additional year.
Daniel’s advice to students interested in the City Design program would be to take advantage of Macaulay’s multidisciplinary network. He felt that this program was exactly the opportunity he needed, giving him access to firms and agencies that he wanted to engage with. He also highlighted the diverse academic backgrounds of students in his cohort, emphasizing that students do not need to be studying architecture or urban planning to still be able to engage and learn tremendously from the program.
Daniel is currently an Urban Design and Public Art Fellow at the Public Design Commission, NYC’s design review agency. The PDC holds monthly hearings where a team of commissioners including architects, urban designers, and institutional members review city projects. The hearings are live-streamed and can be accessed here: Public Meetings.
Shivani Ramsaran
BA/MA in Psychology, The City College of New York Class of ‘25, 2024 Cohort
Shivani interned at the Department of City Planning in the Urban Design office, where she helped promote the DCP’s Principles of Urban Design guidebook. She worked on developing presentation materials to share with a diverse audience including city agencies, nonprofits, and people attending DOT’s Summer Streets events. Looking back at the City Design program, Shivani appreciates how the internship engaged her in more community and neighborhood-facing work, and allowed her to encourage people to become more civically engaged. She hopes to use the knowledge gained from that experience to navigate the next steps in her career.
Shivani would encourage interested students to not overthink applying for the program. “I went into this program as a psychology major. I knew nothing about urban design, I knew nothing about city planning. But I did know that I felt a deep connection to New York City and wanting to make the city a better place for minorities, people of color, and people who face economic instability… If you're applying to this program, have an open mind and just know that there are so many opportunities for you to explore your own interests and try out different things depending on where you're placed.”
Shivani recently completed an internship as a Communications and Development Intern at the Center for an Urban Future, an organization that has worked with both the DCP and the Design Trust. CUF hosts events and puts out policy reports centered around economic equity in NYC. Shivani contributed to the outreach, research, and coordination of these events. The CUF recently held their third annual Economic Mobility Summit on July 15th, with this year’s theme of "Leveraging Affordable Housing to Advance Economic Mobility in NYC." The recording of the event can be accessed here: Leveraging Affordable Housing to Advance Economic Mobility in NYC | Center for an Urban Future (CUF).
Naia Timmons
BA in Urban Studies, minor in Sociology, Hunter College Class of ‘25, 2024 Cohort
Naia interned at 3x3 Design, where she worked on design and development processes for the Supporting Parks and Revitalizing Communities Study (SPARCS), an initiative that analyzes how free park programming impacts community health and well-being.
The City Design program had a significant impact on Naia’s career, as she went on to receive a part-time role and eventually a full-time position at 3x3 after her internship ended. Naia’s key takeaways from her internship experience include both personal clarity and valuable hands-on experiences. As someone who had been considering grad school, working at 3x3 helped her to narrow down her intended field of study. Naia also benefited from the experiences outside of the classroom that this internship gave her: "A lot of the work that I originally did was very boots-on-the-ground, which is something I wasn’t used to in college. The urban planning things I did in school were more abstract and theoretical, so getting first-hand, tangible experience was really amazing", she noted.
Naia wants prospective applicants to know that the City Design program changed her life and perspective regarding her professional goals. She recommends anyone interested in seeing how the city works to apply, and notes that the unique trips and tours, as well as the seminar offered by Macaulay in the fall, make it a well-rounded experience for interns.
Naia is currently working as an Engagement and Communications Design Associate at 3x3. Some of her current projects include a joint city initiative to co-design inclusive workforce development programs for people with disabilities, and the Greenspace Connections initiative, a project co-led by the Design Trust that looks at how the green spaces in NYCHA housing can be revitalized. 3x3 hosts free events at various parks across the city, which can be found at 3x3.
Sarah is a 2026 Macaulay City Design Intern at Design Trust, where she contributes to projects that improve urban environments and address environmental challenges across New York City. She is an Applied Physics major with a minor in Interaction Design at Queens College and is interested in the intersection of sustainability, infrastructure, public service, and design. Through her work at Design Trust, Sarah is excited to explore innovative approaches to addressing urban challenges while furthering her goal of pursuing a public-focused engineering career. Meet the rest of the 2026 New York: City Designed Cohort here.