Name: Alexandra von Koppenfels
Class Year: 2025
Major: Growth and Structure of Cities
Hometown: Bruseels, Belgium
Internship Organization: European Cyclists' Federation
Job Title: Policy Intern
Location: Brussels, Belgium
What's happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!
I have been working on updating and reimagining ECF’s new Cargo Bike Friendly Cities tracker, which is a first-of-its-kind dashboard that tracks and compares the availability and use of cargo bikes in 125 different European cities. It is estimated that up to 70% of European city deliveries currently being made by trucks could instead be made by cargo bikes. In fact, with many European cities implementing environmentally friendly policies like Low Emission Zones and reduced speed limits, it is often more profitable for companies to deliver by cargo bike, and many have made this switch, from small businesses to delivery giants like Amazon and DHL. The dashboard tracks indicators such as government subsidies, cargo bike share companies, city-led projects, cycling network and parking, manufacturers, and more. Once I was trained, I was given the lead on updating this project, which has been a lot of responsibility but also very exciting to come up with new ways to find and graphically present information.
Why did you apply for this internship?
I applied for this internship because after several semesters of my cities studies, where I was largely discussing theory, building background knowledge, and analyzing case studies, I was eager to be a part of a real-world project that could be a part of building a better future, where I could apply my knowledge in practice. Drafting policy suggestions and tracking rapid urban development in real-time has definitely fed this urge.
Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?
Being trilingual, I am used to working in different languages, but this internship has given me new opportunities and pushed me in new ways to use my language skills. When researching each city, I had to comb government pages, archives, and online newspapers in the language of that city (which often included more than one official language or an official dialect!). This meant I had to use either my existing knowledge of a language, translation tools, or a combination of both. I found some foreign languages easier to work with, such as ones that were linguistically similar to the ones I already spoke, and would begin picking up words and phrases that would help me enormously when skimming texts for relevant information. For other cities, I was presented with the challenge of working with an entirely new script, such as Scandinavian and Eastern European cities. Not only is this adding to my skillset in working with international policymaking, but as a potential linguistics double major, it fuels other linguistic interests as well. I am also excited to be gaining expertise in new technologies and graphic design, where I am building graphs and charts and creating new website layouts.
What is most rewarding about your internship?
What has been most rewarding about my internship is the fact that I’ve been given a lot of trust and responsibility in my role, and I feel like I am thriving and excelling at it. It is very fulfilling to know that you are directly fueling a first-of-its-kind project currently being presented and discussed at conferences around Europe. I feel satisfied knowing that I am not only working on a project promoting a fast-growing urban phenomenon in Europe, but that this phenomenon could have a huge impact in addressing the climate emergency.
Visit the Summer Internship Stories page to read more about student internship experiences.