How I got to intern for the City of Avondale?

When I started the Public Administration program, I was awarded the Marvin Andrews Fellowship. Besides coming back to school, I have to admit this was one of the best things that could have happened to me. The fellowship provided a paid internship with a city so that I could learn first-hand what city management entailed. Before this, I had no idea what a city manager was or did and I didn't know that all these different departments existed to help run a city. I was pretty clueless back in 2007.

I started off in the City Manager's Office for the first year. There, I was encouraged by my supervisor to visit each department, get to know the director/staff, and become familiar with their functions. So, I did. I found out right away that I was interested in Planning, Engineering, Economic Development, Grants Administration, Intergovernmental Affairs, Human Resources, Finance, Social Services, Code Enforcement, Youth Services, Parks and Recreation, Courts, and City Clerk's office. Therefore, I made sure to volunteer for any project that came up in those areas. It payed off because I got to work on such things as ordinances, business recruitment, grants, pamphlet for one of our Congressmen, national search for our City Engineer, cost-benefit analysis for annexing a county island, intergovernmental agreement with a school district, update our record retention schedule just to name a few.

Being in the City Manager's Office allowed me to participate in their weekly meeting with the City Manager. This was great exposure for me because it gave me the opportunity to get to know all the department directors. I had access to them and their issues which I used to turn into projects for myself. This worked out great because they got to know me on a professional and personal level.

Mid-year I realized that Avondale would be unable to extend my internship past May of 2008. Fortunately for me, all the networking and volunteering I had done paid off because the Water Resources Department had requested an intern and wanted me to transfer over to their department. All I can say is "thank God for enterprise fund"! I did not know then how lucky I was to be going to a department that has money.