Internship Blog: Qianyu Mo Post #4

 Tour! Tour! Tour!

Doing internship in the municipality under the Local Government Academy program is an amazing and rewarding opportunity to get to know more about the local governments. It is important to know how the borough operates itself routinely, what the borough’s condition is, what problems largely arouse residents’ concern, and how to work out effective solutions. Thankfully, my dear manager gives me a lot of opportunities to get diverse experiences and to broaden my horizons.

Today I just arrived at the office as usual at 7:30 am. Surprisingly, after the short morning coffee time, the fire chief of the Borough was asked by my manager to take me out and have a tour about the Borough. Tours made me excited!!! I could get away from the ordinance paperwork for a while. Lol

First of all, we went to the fire department which was right next to the borough office. Borough of Churchill has twenty volunteers in total. They are all trained systematically and professionally by the State with fire certificates. Our fire chief Ralph taught me to recognize different kinds of equipments in the fire trucks. There were 65-pound draws of life, 30-pound manic, 150-feet pump panels, and cribbing. There are pipes in different colors and different lengths for different functions. On the right side of the truck, the equipments are used for the normal fire. And equipments on the left side are designed based on the seriously rescue situations. These are what we called pumper truck and pumper rescue truck. In addition, even foams that are used to put out a fire are divided into two types. One is for typical fires, and the other is especially for chemical fires.

Fire Truck- Pumper Truck & Pumper Rescue Truck

 Moreover, we also paid a visit to our compost storage place. Ralph introduced both the rock salt that we use to maintain the road in winter and the compost that we collect and sell back to borough residents in a low price.

 

 

I did learn a lot outside the office. They are out of range of zoning ordinance. But I gained the memorable experience not only for the knowledge but also an idea going that “ Love what you are working for!”

Internship Blog: Qianyu Mo Post #3

Casual Friday- Dress down!!!

As I mentioned in the previous posts, this three-month internship is my first formal “job” in the United States. The career life here can be totally different from the life of career in China including different cultures, customs and business languages. But still, I do agree that it is a precious opportunity for me to start over and learn new things having ideas in different cultures and habits.

 See, Casual Friday is just like a new term and a culture shock that surprises me a lot.

It was my last day of the first week and also the first casual Friday in my internship period. My colleague Sandy did tell me that Friday was a different day to dress in a casual way with jeans. But still, with an uncertainty, I wore a piece of denim skirt, and came to the office as usual. And I finally knew what the exact dress code on Friday was. Lol Well…Sandals and jeans should be the best couple on Friday. In this day, people usually do their works in an easier mind with less stress different from other weekdays. Casual dress makes contributions to people working in a pleased mind and the relaxed atmosphere in the workplace. 

 It is a new experience for me, a beginner of the workplace again. Moreover, I could not imagine that my first week was over so fast. I had already got my work started which is a twelve-week big zoning ordinance project for the Borough.

Internship Blog: Qianyu Mo Post #2

 First Day of My U.S Internship

Greetings all!!!

It has been a long time for me to write my internship stories down to you since the introduction piece. Here I am going to talk about the very special first day of my internship in Borough of Churchill.

Yes. It was a very special experience for me indeed. This internship is my first job in the United States. It is a brand new start for me not only to work with American folks but also to work for local government being an “official”. And I have to say it impressive for me that I was informed to have a workshop meeting in the evening as I got to the office at 8 am the first day. I didn’t even know any detail things in the Borough in the first day! How could I join the workshop?! What a surprise!

I went back from China on May 29, and spent two days adjusting the jet lag and making preparation for the first day on June 1. To be honest, time was limited. And I did worry a lot about I couldn’t understand what my manager and colleagues say exactly and the culture of the workplace. Fortunately, my manager Craig and my colleagues in the office Sandy, Donna, Ralph were very nice giving me warm welcome. “Here will be the place just like your own home. Be comfortable.” Sandy told me that and gave me some useful instructions of the office and its supplies stationary. 

My desk in the meeting room

As a zoning ordinance intern in Churchill, I started to read and try to get familiar with the code book of the Borough. I wasn’t assigned to some specific tasks in the first day but just kept reading. During the day, I was introduced to a lot of different people who came in the Borough office such as policemen from the police department next to our office, officer of code enforcement from TCVCOG, tax collector and so on. And around 7 pm council members came to the office for the monthly workshop meeting. There were seven people in total including the council president in the whole council. Council members have a monthly workshop meeting on the first Monday evening every month. In that workshop meeting, my manager introduced me, and then they discussed some issues such as the ADHOC committees update, pension committee update, meeting with school superintendent update, Garrick Drive residents concerns, property maintenance and bills. Actually, a lot of content they talked in the meeting were really new for me. It was not an easy thing to catch their words. But thankfully, I got the meeting agenda at advance. Doing some research before the meeting really helped.

With the workshop ending at about 8:30 pm, my first day came to an end as well. Way to go!!! Lol

 

Ready for the workshop meeting!

Internship Blog: Qianyu Mo Post #1

Introduction 

Greetings all!!!

Hello! My name is Qianyu Mo, an international student originally from Guangzhou, China. I’m studying for a Master of Public Administration (MPA), and focusing on urban affairs and planning at the Graduate School of Publis and International Affairs (GSPIA) from the University of Pittsburgh. My interests are in dealing with urban development problems and issues technically and practically. As an international student, I have already been in Pittsburgh for eight months when 2015 spring term ended in April. Having finished my first year graduate school study, I started doing my three-month summer internship in the Borough of Churchill which is under the Local Government Academy (LGA) program from June 1.

When it comes to how to get my current internship offer in local government, it was just a drama. Lol. I started looking for the summer intern jobs at the end of March after the GSPIA DC Career trip. I went to the Local Government Academy summer internship fair. It was there that I met managers from different municipalities, talked to them and sent them resumes. Although LGA provided a lot of summer internship positions related to my urban planning majors, I didn’t even imagine that I could get chances for an interview and even an offer! At first, I received an interview chance from Charleroi Borough, Washington County the day after the career fair. I went to Chaleroi Borough for the interview for special programs coordinator. However, after the interview I gave up for it was too far for me to go to work taking me an hour to commute. 

 

Parking meter in Charleroi

Charleroi Borough Building

And because there were no more contacts in later days, I anxiously began to look for other internships placing no more hope on LGA. What’s surprising, I got a phone call almost half a month after the career fair from Borough of Churchill for summer internship interview. With a thankful mind, I went there for the interview. The manager and I talked for a while, and he just gave me an offer all of a sudden. Wasn’t it like a drama to me? That’s my first summer internship offer!!! I couldn’t be excited more!!!

Borough of Churchill building