Meet our Summer 2025 Intern: Cynthia Jacobson

The Great Lakes PRESERVE team had an amazing utility research intern this summer in Cynthia Jacobson, a rising senior at Princeton studying civil and environmental engineering. We sat down with Cynthia at the end of her internship and asked her a few questions about her time helping the team, her work with us, and advice and suggestions for PRESERVE.

Cynthia on a site visit to Crisfield this summer with Moonshot Missions team member, Nick Meurer

Why were you interested in working with Moonshot and PRESERVE?  

Moonshot is unique in that their focus is working directly with communities. I’ve spent most of my time in school building my technical skills, but this internship has also taught me so much about the people in the water sector and the relationships between them—the relationships between the public and private sector, the relationships between utilities and the people they are serving, etc. This type of work, while very technical, is so social and interpersonal in a way that I really enjoy.  

Tell us about your internship! What did you work on? What did you learn? What surprised you? 

I assisted with creating summary documents for PRESERVE onboarding calls- focused on identifying common struggles, individual strengths, and goals from each of the utilities that we interviewed. I then used that information and the notes from the in person meetings to organize our online forum posting schedule for the PRESERVE community website. The utilities are all in different places geographically and institutionally, so the online forum is super important to keep things intentional and organized.  

I also spent some time researching opportunities for expansion of PRESERVE- using GIS tools to analyze data from environmental databases. So many factors go into creating a cohort- size of facility, proximity to other facilities, peer advisors, watershed. I took all those factors into consideration and using GIS tools, I was able to identify new communities. Additionally, I’m working on adapting the Phosphorus Removal Guidance Document into an interactive course, which has allowed me to revert to my “student mind” to think about the best ways to convey information and translate it into a module form. The interactive course will be especially valuable for operators, helping them understand phosphorus removal strategies and reinforcing concepts that are critical for day-to-day operations. It also has strong potential to support workforce development across PRESERVE utilities by providing a standardized, accessible resource for training and onboarding staff. 

What’s special about PRESERVE? What should we do to continue growing and maintaining our community?  

I was really inspired this summer watching the team cultivate a sense of community so quickly among the utilities through the in-person meetings. The excitement and energy in the room really highlighted to me the need for programs like PRESERVE. And where there’s a need, there’s opportunity. For that reason, I’d say I would love to see PRESERVE continue doing in person meetings and expand to other states in the Great Lakes region. I also hope that tools like GIS can be used in the future for streamlining cohort development and expansion. 

For Cynthia’s senior year, she plans to work on her thesis focused on the water-energy nexus and geospatial/GIS work. She’s been inspired by her experience working with environmental data at Moonshot and hopes to incorporate that into her research as well. We’re so grateful for the curiosity, thoughtfulness, and creativity she brought to the team—and we look forward to seeing what she accomplishes next!