Harnessing the Tides of Change
This story appeared in the Winter 2021 issue of IMPACT.
On February 3, 2020, the City of Durham’s Budget and Management Services division held interviews for their annual summer internship position at the School of Government. Molly Gaskin ’21 was offered the position and excitedly accepted, looking forward to achieving her professional work experience (PWE) requirement and learning the inner workings of the City’s government through budget sessions, shadowing police officers, and going on solid waste ride-alongs. Then COVID-19 happened.
“Several parts of our job description and onboarding process instantly went out the window,” said Pat Madej ’16, Gaskin’s supervisor and senior budget and management analyst for the City of Durham. “The task of getting the actual work done felt easy but clearing these hurdles to organically meet with other staff meant we needed to get creative as we brought Molly into the department and organization’s culture.” In order to ensure Gaskin was still able to integrate into the organization, Madej created an “open-door policy” on Zoom and led daily full-team check-ins.
Additionally, Gaskin had the opportunity to lead an original qualitative research project examining whether departments considered equity implications when making budget requests. Before beginning, Gaskin had never conducted her own qualitative research.
“It was really great to be able to practice some of the techniques that we learned in our research course in an actual project that I got to see through from start to finish,” Gaskin said.
“Molly’s thorough research and fresh perspective provided us with really useful data that we will use to build on our process in the future,” Madej said. “My goal with hosting the PWE has always been to create a win for everyone, and I think we achieved that again.”
While Durham has hosted UNC MPA interns for many years, the Town of Holly Springs took the leap for the first time in 2020, hosting Clay Fleming ’21. Like Madej, Corey Petersohn ‘16 had a vision for Fleming’s PWE experience that would require re-working after the pandemic began. However, by the time Fleming started the position in May, the state had moved into phase two, so he joined Petersohn and the rest of the team in person with safety precautions.
Fleming’s experience was shaped not only by the pandemic, but also by the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement after the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. As protests spread around the country, Holly Springs residents began a movement of their own to demand that funds be allocated to purchase body cameras for the police department.
“I got to sit in on conversations with council members, the town manager, police, and IT, and everyone had varying perspectives,” Fleming said. “One of the biggest skills I took away is the ability to step back and look at an issue with a bird’s eye view to investigate what’s at the heart of what’s going on and understand people’s motivation.”
Despite the curveballs thrown by the pandemic, Petersohn, like Madej, feels the PWE experience was extremely valuable.
“This was the first time Holly Springs hosted a PWE, and it was a great learning experience for both Clay and us,” Petersohn said. “In the long term, by hosting an MPA intern, we are building the next generation of public service leaders. By offering these developmental opportunities to students, we are contributing to the diversity of their experiences and skill sets, from which we all can benefit.”
Interested in hosting a summer intern or learning about best practices for remote internships? Contact Kristin Pawlowski or click here to learn more.
