Meet Cooper C.

Planning Student Intern
City of Edmonton, Housing and Homelessness

Summer 2019 (8 Month Term)

“I have had two internships through AWE, both of which challenged me tremendously and have elevated my curiosity to solve societal problems that appear as unsolvable on the surface (so far, this has included issues of accessibility and poverty). My most recent experience took place at the City of Edmonton in the Housing and Homelessness section. Our role in solving homelessness is to create the conditions of success to develop more affordable housing in the city. That said, the portfolio is large, urgent, and politically charged. I felt positively challenged every single day and I had the support of a motivated team. I believe my expectations for the level of care, thoroughness, and empathy toward my work have been raised to levels I did not perceive before. ⠀

I must say, however, that there were plenty of failures, set-backs each week that have taught me so much about myself, what I currently tolerate, and how I may move forward to be more useful to the people around me. Even though university courses have lots of opportunities to fail and learn, internships have aided me more directly in learning about how I collaborate with others, and how I take responsibility in the work setting to move a team or idea forward. AWE has directly shaped who I am today and has set me on a bright path forward, soon-heading out of university and into the world.”

Cooper Csorba is in his fifth year in the School of Urban and Regional Planning. He recently completed an 8-month internship with Housing and Homelessness at the City of Edmonton as a Planning Student. There, he collaborated with a dynamic team of planners, social workers, and analysts to help address the supply gap of affordable housing and work toward a number of initiatives and programs to solve Homelessness in Edmonton. Over the internship, he helped by building materials for public engagement events, gathered evidence through research to inform city council decision making, taught other City of Edmonton sections on the current state of Homelessness, and built a methodology for a new database to keep track of all affordable housing units in Edmonton.