An On-Ramp to Opportunity

mission driven

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Perry Bitter Photograph: Michael J. Clarke

Fall 2024

Seated at a round table in Room 507 of the Massachusetts State House, surrounded by stacks of file folders, 16-year-old Perry Bitter is doing her part to help the wheels of government turn. “There’s a lot of important information here,” says Bitter, an intern for State Senator Robyn Kennedy (D-Worcester), as she organizes dozens of requests for bills and amendments that could one day impact the citizens of Massachusetts. “Working here is a really good opportunity for someone my age to learn about real-world issues.” Bitter herself knows a thing or two about real-world issues. Growing up in California, she spent part of her childhood in foster care, and during one 18-month period, she lived with four different families. In 2023, she moved cross country to join her grandmother in Boston. It was here that her social worker told Bitter about iWorks—the pioneering paid summer internship program founded 21 years ago at the Sawyer Business School’s Moakley Center for Public Management to connect young people like Bitter with career opportunities. Working in partnership with the Department of Children & Families (DCF) and Communities for People (CFP), iWorks provides young people ages 14 to 21 with four weeks of job training and financial education, followed by paid six-week internships with local nonprofits, community organizations, and government agencies. Since its inception, the program has graduated more than 630 students. When Program Director Dacia Gallow calls iWorks “life-changing,” one of the lives she’s talking about is her own. A 2016 iWorks graduate, she says the program “gave me the confidence, direction, and stability I needed at that time in my life.” A year later, the Moakley Center hired her, and in 2022 she was named the program’s director. Bitter, as well, has seen her sense of possibility expand. In her State House role, she attended hearings, briefings, and floor sessions, and created a slide show presentation on a proposed bill of rights for people experiencing homelessness. “Just being exposed to this type of environment has opened my mind and broadened the scope of my entire life,” says Bitter, now a junior at the Woodward School in Quincy.

By Tony Ferullo

iWorks’ founding mother

iWorks was the brainchild of the late Sandy Matava, MPA ’81, longtime and beloved director of the Moakley Center and an instructor at the Sawyer Business School. Prior to joining Suffolk, she served as commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (now the DCF) from 1983 to 1991, where she saw firsthand the need to provide more on-ramps to meaningful employment for vulnerable adolescents. “Sandy was a driven and passionate individual, and the students adored her,” says Brendan Burke, who succeeded Matava as director of the Moakley Center following her retirement in 2023. “She sincerely cared for them and did whatever it took to see them succeed.” Matava also worked tirelessly to ensure the iWorks program had the resources and support it needed to thrive. (A President’s Circle member of the Summa Society, Matava and her partner, Bill Brouillard, JD ’75, were also tireless in their philanthropy on behalf of Suffolk faculty and alumni working in public service.) Burke recalls that at Matava’s retirement party, a common theme among the many tributes was that “if Sandy asked you for something and you said, ‘I don’t know,’ she had a way of getting you to say ‘yes.’”

Before they embark on their internships, students attend classes taught by Gallow, Moakley Center Director of Administration Nicole Rivers, MPA ’98, and job coaches Yu Shan Hsieh, BSBA, ’23, now in her second year of Suffolk’s MPA Program, and Raequan Victorine, an undergrad at Iowa State University. The students study résumé- and cover-letter writing; interview skills; and professionalism and workplace etiquette. There’s also an entire session devoted to banking and money management, something Kevaughn Sanchez, 15, of East Boston, appreciated. “I never knew what direct deposit was, but I do now,” says Sanchez, who also learned the most fundamental rule of financial planning: “When you spend money, it goes fast.” On interview day, Sanchez, Bitter, and 22 other students gather at Suffolk to meet with prospective employers—including the Boys and Girls Club of Boston, the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth, and the Mission Hill Healthy Neighborhood Collaborative—and answer questions about their backgrounds, interests, and availability. By the following week, students receive their placements and then report for their first day on the job. Sanchez’s assignment is close to home, working as a support intern for the Paris Street Community Center in East Boston, where he helps clean the facility, works with the center’s food bank, and organizes events for children and young teens. “This job has taught me to be on time, dress the right way, focus on whatever you’re doing, and show respect to everyone,” says Sanchez. Every two weeks, Sanchez and other interns meet with their iWorks job coach and a company supervisor; it’s their chance to reflect on their internship experience, ask questions, and get constructive feedback on their own job performance. Genesis Baez went through the iWorks program in 2023 and never left, impressing the Moakley Center staff so much that they hired her. As a senior intern, she provides administrative support for iWorks, as well as for the center’s many certificate programs and events. This past summer, she took on an additional role as a bilingual job coach. “Working at the Moakley Center has given me the resources to be who I am,” says Baez, who, like Bitter, has spent time in the foster-care system. “It was a little scary when I first started the program last year. But now I’m eager to learn and try new things. I have the confidence to stand up for what I believe in and to be myself.” It’s a sentiment that Perry Bitter echoes when she delivers a short but heartfelt speech at iWorks’ August graduation ceremony. “This is something I did for myself and no one can take away from me,” she says with real feeling. “I’ve learned hard work is a beautiful thing, something you can be proud of.” For Gallow, the program director, witnessing this kind of transformation makes all the hard work behind iWorks worthwhile. “Many of our students come from tough, challenging backgrounds,” she says. “We hope they can apply what they’ve learned to become the best person they can be.”

Gaining competence and confidence

Senior intern Genesis Baez, who completed the iWorks program in 2023, now works as an administrative assistant and bilingual job coach at the Moakley Center. “Working here has given me the resources to be who I am,” she says. “I have confidence to stand up for what I believe in and to be myself.”

Intern Perry Bitter spent the summer interning at the Massachusetts State House for State Senator Robyn Kennedy of Worcester. “This is something I did for myself,” she says. “I’ve learned that hard work is a beautiful thing, something you can be proud of.”

Kevaughn Sanchez worked as a support intern at East Boston’s Paris Street Community Center, helping to clean the facility, maintain its food bank, and organize events for children and young teens. “This job taught me to be on time, dress the right way, focus on whatever you are doing, and show respect to everyone,” he says.

Team iWorks (front row, from left): senior intern Genesis Baez; Moakley Center Associate Director Rae’Niqua Victorine, MAAP ’23, MPA ’23; intern Samanta Torres; Moakley Center Director of Administration Nicole Rivers, MPA ’98; senior job coach Yu Shan Hsieh, BSBA ’23, MPA ’25; iWorks Director Dacia Gallow; job coach Raequan Victorine; (back row) Brendan Burke, director of the Moakley Center for Public Administration.

Since it was founded 21 years ago, the iWorks program has graduated more than 630 students, including the Class of 2024, whose accomplishments were celebrated at an August ceremony.

At the ceremony, senior intern Genesis Baez (left) is congratulated by Moakley Center Director of Administration Nicole Rivers, MPA ’98; senior job coach Yu Shan Hsieh, BSBA ’23, MPA ’25; and job coach Raequan Victorine.