Two students have recently been selected to be 2013-14 participants in the NYMTC/UTRC September 11th Memorial Program Academic Initiative, a program which began in 2005 to honor three NYMTC staff members who died in the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001: Ignatious Adanga, Charles Lesperance and See Wong Shum. These students include Emily Grace Heard from Columbia University and Homer Hill from Hunter College.

Emily Heard, a MS Urban Planning candidate at Columbia University’s GSAPP, will perform her internship at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council. Emily’s project will be the Long Island Community Planning Initiative for the East Side Access Project. Her work will include supporting the development of a Community Planning Initiative in anticipation of the significant impact that the MTA East Side Access project will likely have on specific Long Island communities in the interrelated areas of station access, parking and transit-oriented development. Emily will conduct one-on-one outreach to Long Island municipalities to develop these approaches and work directly with willing municipal officials; research the likely community impacts of the completion of the East Side Access project; and aid in the development of an organizational partnership for the initiative.

Homer Hill, a Masters in Urban Planning candidate at CUNY Hunter College, will perform his internship at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council. Homer’s topic will be Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission Reduction Implementation Planning, which will involve development of selected regional transportation strategies for reducing GHG emissions, including evaluation of potential strategies for implementation by NYMTC member agencies.