My local government experience began without even knowing I wanted to work in public service. In my last two years of high school, I was accepted into an accelerated community college program for information technology (IT). Having IT as my original career path, I needed an internship in that field. After applying for several internships provided by the program, I ended up working as an IT intern for New Braunfels Utilities. In this experience, I got to learn a bit more about information technology, but began to really learn about the inner workings of local government and became fascinated by it. Learning about public budgeting, city council meetings, and the structures of local government entities eventually became more interesting than IT. During my senior year of high school, I applied to Texas A&M to go into Political Science, with the eventual goal of going to the Bush School.

This first local government internship experience provided me with critical skills like networking, time management, and working in the public sector. I learned about the importance of networking through establishing a LinkedIn, keeping a time journal, and meeting important city leaders. By constantly interacting with older colleagues, I was given great advice and many learning opportunities for how to act in a traditional job. I was also able to set up my first networks within municipal government in various networking events my boss brought me to. Having to complete many projects also taught me the importance of time management. I did this by intentionally documenting my time in a weekly time report I submitted to my IT program. Finally, simple experiences and opportunities were provided for me to learn the distinctions between working in the public versus private sector. Ultimately, this internship provided the foundations for a career in public service and the work experience and network to find my next internship.

My next internship allowed me to get solid experience within a medium-sized city department. I wanted to have some more extensive municipal experience before going into the Bush School in Fall 2019 semester. So, during the Spring 2019 semester, I cold emailed many city governments inquiring about potential internship opportunities. Looking back, it might not have been the most professional idea, but nevertheless, the City of San Marcos allowed me to join the Public Works department as an intern for the summer. The 2019 Texas legislature had passed new laws regarding public infrastructure requirements and San Marcos established my project-based internship to update City documents and processes regarding this new legislation. I had the opportunity to complete these projects and more in my time at San Marcos during the Summer of 2019.

In this experience, I learned how to work independently and guide my own work. My supervisor would only check in with me once every two to three weeks and I was not used to having so much flexibility. At the beginning, I was confused and shocked due to the amount of freedom I had with developing the projects. However, I grew tremendously in being able to set my own timelines, guidelines, etc. as long as I accomplished the goal the department wanted me to. In total, I ended up completing four projects, including updating right-of-way ordinances, packaging an RFP for an Outage Management System (OMS), developing an environmental coal-tar sealant ban, and developing a design manual for telecommunication contracts. Though my ideal work environment would have included a bit more guidance, I believe I did my best with the projects I completed and I had a phenomenal experience in my San Marcos internship.

As COVID shut down universities and internship opportunities in Spring 2020, I quickly became stressed about how I would fulfill my Bush School internship requirement. Luckily, I was able to reach out to a City Manager I had shadowed and networked with at the end of the previous summer. I moved home as it was announced that the remainder of the semester would be done virtually. At the end of March 2020, I began to slowly go in to the City of Balcones Heights to work at what would eventually turn into my full time internship. I was blessed to serve for a few extra months before the summer and thus learn and do more with the City. Balcones Heights was and has been the smallest municipal government I've worked with, having only 4,000 people. This opportunity was tremendous in that I got to see an array of different departments and projects at once. I also got to work in the City Manager's office daily and learn crucial management and leadership lessons.

Through the diverse set of projects I worked on, I identified that in the short-term, I want to start my career in either Economic or Community Development upon graduation. In this management internship, I found how crucial intergovernmental relationships are. I was tasked with updating the City COVID policies as the local, regional, and federal guidelines changed. With this, I sat in on a call with regional city managers and elected officials almost daily. I also worked on standardizing and filing job descriptions, which had been outdated for nearly thirty years. The most impactful experience I had was serving on an Economic Development committee which gave out small business grants to small businesses that did not qualify for federal stimulus or aid. I helped create an application process, read and processed applications, and got to determine which businesses qualified or not. Having these diverse experiences and a tangible impact on a small community definitely solidified my desire to work in a smaller City in my career of local government public service.