Workforce Development—IT Student Employees

Janna Septembre

Janna was a PACE intern in Web Services and student worker supervisor Lisa Berelson was effusive in her praise. “I trained Janna to be a fully functioning member of the Web Services Team at UMass Boston. Her ease and adaptability made her a pleasure to work with. She was able to pick up on a plethora of concepts and skills and showed strength in learning how to troubleshoot, as well as interacting well with other team members and client interfacing. During her internship, Janna displayed a positive attitude and constant willingness to learn. She was able to grow, adapt and pivot with ease and flexibility. She will be sorely missed!”

Allison Gross

Allison worked in Client Services as a graphic artist and made many important contributions to the UMass Boston website and IT publications while a part of our team. She was always ready to pitch in whenever student worker supervisor John Mazzarella needed her to complete work on a project, and her talent as a graphic designer was evident in everything she did. In fact, you can see Allison’s beautiful graphic design work in the publication you are reading right now!

Devarshi Brahmbhatt

Devarshi began working in the Classroom Technology and A/V Services office in the late summer of 2021 and quickly played a crucial role in the post-pandemic return to campus. She immediately hit the ground running and helped student worker supervisor Christopher Rennie test and clean up all the systems that hadn’t been used in nearly two years. She has continued to demonstrate an unwavering dedication to her work, always being one of the first to volunteer to assist others in need. For these and other reasons, Devarshi won a 2022 Student Leadership Award.

Lara Kheireddine

Lara has been a vital member of the IT Training and Communications team since her start as a student employee in October 2018. According to student worker supervisor John Mazzarella, Lara could always be counted on to be consistent in her work tasks, following procedures properly, and interacting with clients in a professional and timely manner. Whenever there was a task that required detailed data analysis, John would always ask Lara to work on it as he could rely on her to be organized, efficient, and punctual. In 2020 Lara was awarded one of IT’s annual Student Leadership Awards and to show what a great student employee career she’s had, she won the award again in 2022.

Yensis Pena Gonzalez

Yensis officially joined the Web Services team through the PACE Apprenticeship Program in September 2020 and has been a major contributor to IT since he started. Student worker supervisor Lisa Link said, “Yensis was always incredibly professional and reliable both in written correspondence and conversations with clients, often arriving early for meetings, and taking the initiative to research challenging technical issues before asking any questions. He has not only been a stellar team player for IT but also a creative contributor whose work benefited the entire UMass Boston community. Yensis has exceeded expectations in professional customer service, high quality technical expertise and unique contributions to IT.”

With praise like that, it’s no wonder that Yensis Pena Gonzalez was also a 2022 Student Leadership Award winner.