08/12/2026
Kiko Yoshihira (CAS'27) is helping make Boston's transportation system more accessible for all.
A rising senior majoring in political science and environmental analysis and policy, Kiko is currently completing a summer internship at the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) with support from SISP. At the MPO, Kiko is working with digital population maps to help update the Language Assistance Plan, a policy document helping ensure equitable resource access for people with Limited English Proficiency living in the Boston metropolitan area.
“I use census and housing data sets to map the population of limited English speakers in different parts of Boston, and then, using this data, the MPO–Metropolitan Planning Organization–can figure out what languages to translate information on maps and stuff into: think Vietnamese, Spanish, Chinese. I mean, the Boston area is so diverse and has a lot of good public transport, but communities need to be able to understand their public transportation and also communicate about it. So community engagement is a really big part of what MPO does because if a certain community opposes, like, creating a bus line where they live, or wants to create a bus line, they need to be able to communicate that. So community engagement materials–like maps–need to be accessible to everyone, to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Basically, we make sure they are translated into different languages that are present in the populations living in the areas of the maps.”
