For 12 years, Vertex has worked with Boston Public Schools to bring in students for its annual summer intern program. Students have worked with teams across the company in areas like medicine development, public policy and investor relations. But, this was the first summer that Vertex CEO Reshma Kewalramani had her own intern.
After graduating from East Boston High School in June, Cindy Alfaro Martinez spent six weeks this summer interning with Vertex’s Office of the CEO and the community affairs team.
At first, Alfaro Martinez said she wasn’t sure about applying for her first STEM-related internship. Her interests were mainly in communications and public speaking. But, her high school advisor explained that even though Vertex is a pharmaceutical company, its employees work in a variety of areas.
“I definitely had to take a step out of my comfort zone and just be open minded about the different opportunities that there are in the world,” Alfaro Martinez said.
Alfaro Martinez was one of the Boston students applying for jobs through the Boston Private Industry Council as part of the Mayor’s Summer Jobs Program. Her six weeks of full-time work at Vertex included mornings in the Learning Lab and afternoons with supervisors and mentors.
In the Learning Lab, Alfaro Martinez said the students performed experiments related to diseases Vertex is targeting. For one project, they completed a presentation on whether or not Vertex should focus on another disease area.
After lunch, the interns would meet with their managers or mentors, which were assigned based on their areas of interest, or attend company events.
With the community affairs team, Alfaro Martinez supported Vertex’s partnerships with local organizations, including one with Year Up to help young adults who have not completed college prepare for careers in research, development and medicine. Alfaro Martinez said she helped prepare a celebration for young people who completed the program and were accepted for full-time roles at Vertex.
“I think participating in something like that is very impactful for me just because I’m coming from a background where a lot of students don’t get to go to college, so getting to play a role in celebrating that with them is very important to me,” Alfaro Martinez said.
Alfaro Martinez also met several times with Kewalramani. During one of her meetings with the chief executive, the pair were discussing the interns’ recent enrichment trip to Wellesley College.
Alfaro Martinez loved the college’s botanical and edible garden, and she and Kewalramani discussed the potential of bringing a greenhouse to Vertex. Alfaro Martinez turned this idea into her capstone project for her internship and presented the pros and cons of her proposal.
“I immediately felt a connection with (Kewalramani) because she’s the first woman to ever be a CEO (at Vertex), especially of color,” Alfaro Martinez said. “So that’s something I would want to relate to in the future, perhaps creating my own real estate company and just doing that all myself.”
Alfaro Martinez is a first-generation high school and soon-to-be college student. She will start school at Boston University this fall and is a recipient of the Thomas Menino Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship offered to select graduates of Boston public high schools.
While Alfaro Martinez still has interests in a variety of industries, including communications and real estate, she plans to apply for another internship next summer at Vertex.
Alfaro Martinez said she came away from this internship with a new appreciation for the diversity of careers within STEM industries, as well as an appreciation for the importance of diving into new experiences and putting herself out there through meeting new people and not being afraid to ask questions.
“I think kids a lot of the time think that just because an internship doesn’t have to do with what they’re going to do in the future that they shouldn’t try it out,” Alfaro Martinez said. “I think it’s very important to keep an open mind and just try out new things every day.”
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A previous version of this story included the incorrect location of the botanical and edible garden Alfaro Martinez visited.
