End of Internship Article
By Rylie Wieseler, Office of Process Improvement Intern
May 5th, 2023
With my internship coming to an end, I can’t help but be grateful for the amazing people who I was fortunate enough to have shared space with and the growth opportunities I experienced. From day one, I felt welcomed and supported by the entire Office of Process Improvement (OPI) Team, which speaks to the culture of camaraderie that Gary Vansuch and Michelle Malloy have worked hard to establish. Each new intern is paired with an experienced Intern Buddy who shows them the ropes. However, beyond a mentor, my Intern Buddy, Samantha Millison, became a close friend. Having both worked retail for the same company, we instantly connected, and our early conversations marked an auspicious start for my next nine months.
From left to right: Kayley Smiley, Rebekah Roux, Rylie Wieseler, Samantha Millison, Stephen Barela
Gary is well known for his series of mantras, one of the most infamous being “an intern’s first job is to learn.” As such, every intern is allotted multiple learning opportunities, and one of my most memorable is the series of Bus rapid Transit (BRT) planning sessions I helped facilitate. Bus Rapid Transit is a massive infrastructure project aimed towards updating and improving Colorado’s bus transit system by 2030. With CDOT in the lead, the OPI team has helped bring together a coalition of Colorado agencies to work together on this effort. From the initial brainstorming discussion to the drafting of a Partnership Agreement, I have been able to sit in and take notes while also learning about state government dynamics. It seems rare as an intern that your work feels impactful, but being part of the initial planning process for BRT is an experience that I will remember fondly, and I look forward to seeing a revamped bus transit system in the next seven years.
Beyond BRT, I was heavily involved in one of our office’s largest projects, the Innovations Challenge. This Challenge is designed to identify and share the best innovations from all over CDOT while also inspiring friendly competition. Although I joined at the tail end of the 2022 Innovations Challenge, I still learned a lot about event planning and just how much work goes into creating an organization-wide event from scratch. Given that it was the first ever Innovations Challenge, there was a certain level of creativity involved, and with my colleague Lubna Jamal, I designed road signs, certificates and announced the statewide winners during the 2022 Final Showcase. During the latter half of my internship, I became the project lead for the 2023 Innovations Challenge, which included creating a work breakdown structure (WBS), communication and announcement templates, as well as kicking-off the submission period during a Transportation Commission (TC) session. This role was much more hands-on, and I have acquired invaluable project management, communication, and leadership skills.
Other notable projects that have defined my internship experience include my work with the Concept to Project (C2P) database–for which I contacted project members, cleaned up data, and updated an internal Power BI dashboard–and, most recently, the first ever Colorado Innovation Conference. Different than the Innovations Challenge, although from the same vein, the Colorado Innovation Conference was a statewide event meant to inspire and increase state employees' ability and willingness to share and try bold new ways of doing their work. This Conference was a collaborative effort between multiple state agencies and was not exclusive to CDOT. Working with the project team, I helped vet potential speakers, created standardized materials and surveys, and provided technical assistance as a producer. Coincidentally, this three-day conference fell during the very last week of my internship. I guess you could say I went out with a bang!
In addition to major projects, presentations and outings were integral parts of my internship experience. With the OPI team, I presented at several virtual and in-person conferences sharing information on CDOT’s first decade of Innovation and Improvement, our LEI database, and C2P. Most memorable is our presentation for the 2022 Colorado Lean Summit, also known as the infamous bowling alley incident. Presenting is already hard enough, but presenting right next to a bowling alley was a challenge I never thought I would encounter. If nothing else, at least I learned how to project my voice.
From left to right: Gary Vansuch, Rebekah Roux, Kayley Smiley, Stephen Barela, Rylie Wieseler, Samantha Millison, Lubna Jamal
However, the 25th Annual Project Management Institute (PMI) Mile-Hi Rocky Mountain Project Management Symposium is a close second. Another in-person conference, it was wonderful and mildly terrifying presenting C2P in front of hundreds of people, and the opportunity to attend a professional conference of this magnitude was unforgettable.
From left to right: Rylie Wieseler, Samantha Millison
In terms of outings, I was fortunate enough to visit both Winter Park, where we learned about their rural bus system, and the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Network Services office in Golden. ITS and Network Services is part of the Division of Maintenance and Operations, and it was wonderful touring the facility and getting to see the behind-the-scenes work that is done to ensure timely dispatch on our highways.
From left to right: Samantha Millison, Rylie Wieseler, Ruth Kadima, Griffin Brown, Brenda Yang, Matt Draper
As I reflect on the past nine months, I can confidently say that I’m leaving the Office of Process Improvement not only with newfound confidence and invaluable skills, but also close friends. I am extremely grateful for Gary and Michelle, and the dedication they have both for public service and mentorship. They are strong advocates for the value of interns, which has spread throughout CDOT. Although I was just an intern, and sometimes that meant doing menial intern tasks, I could tell that my role and my work was valued in the organization, and I couldn’t have asked for a better first “big girl” job.
From left to right: Gary Vansuch, Stephen Barela, Rylie Wieseler, Kayley Smiley, Samantha Millison