My first public policy meeting finally took place on 9/26 (last Friday). I was extremely nervous leading up to the meeting because I had to introduce the speakers with a short bio. I wasn't sure how many people would be there and I wanted to make sure I could speak fluently without stopping because I wasn't sure what to say. It was very nerve-racking because on the day before the meeting, two of the speakers were substituted with other employees from their organization. I then had to scramble to try and get a bio and a picture for them so I could introduce them. The meeting seemed to go well and there wasn't many people there so I wasn't as nervous. It also helped that I introduced myself to almost everyone there and they were very friendly.
Some of you might be thinking, "Why is this such a big deal?" My supervisor, who is also the CEO of the Chandler Chamber, places great emphasis on getting all of the proper information prior to the meeting and making sure that everything is in order. I understand that it's important to get everything right before a meeting, but it was a very stressful day. Personally, I feel like it's because she doesn't have time to micromanage. She is pretty busy and doesn't have time to watch over everything that I'm doing. It can be stressful when she gives me something to do, but then becomes very upset because I didn't complete that task exactly the way she wanted me to. All that aside, she gave me some helpful criticism and I'll be much more prepared for the next meeting on 10/10.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Managing Time
Ever since I transferred to ASU last summer, it's been very interesting trying to manage my time well. I've been taking 18 credit hours per semester while working part-time and needless to say there's not much time to waste. Last fall was definitely an eye opener because I had more school work than I ever had at the community college level. Some nights were definitely spent in Hayden Library with my eyes glued to the computer screen, trying to crank out papers and other assignments due the next day. Spring semester was slightly easier only because I already knew all the time I was going to need to sacrifice in order to be successful in my classes. I admit, I was humbled at times during that semester but I persevered.
This semester is like nothing I've ever experienced before. I now must manage my time between school, work, and the internship. Three days a week, my day will start at 8 a.m. and I usually don't get home till after 10 p.m. Those are the days that I do the internship and then I go straight to work afterwards. On school days I'm only out of the apartment from 3 p.m. to maybe 9:30-10 p.m. Sometimes I have to work Saturdays and that leaves even less time to do homework. The key is to always do homework whenever there is time, even if there's little of it. In retrospect, I probably should have done this internship over the summer.
This semester is like nothing I've ever experienced before. I now must manage my time between school, work, and the internship. Three days a week, my day will start at 8 a.m. and I usually don't get home till after 10 p.m. Those are the days that I do the internship and then I go straight to work afterwards. On school days I'm only out of the apartment from 3 p.m. to maybe 9:30-10 p.m. Sometimes I have to work Saturdays and that leaves even less time to do homework. The key is to always do homework whenever there is time, even if there's little of it. In retrospect, I probably should have done this internship over the summer.
Making Adjustments
It's been almost a month since I started my internship with the Chandler Chamber of Commerce. I've been learning more about the "office" environment than I ever knew before. It's so much different working in an office in comparison to my job as a pharmacy tech inside of a busy grocery store. The office is much quieter and obviously less populated than my normal work environment. As a pharmacy technician, I'm subject to being pulled from many different
directions at any given time because there are customers all around me. In the office, I essentially only have one person telling me what I need to do or asking me to perform various tasks.
As much as I've been known to gripe about working in retail, I surprisingly miss the daily customer interaction when I'm working in the office. I only get to talk to a few people in the office because everyone else is in a different department and I never really have a need to chat with them. The rest of my interactions are via email or telephone and I don't really feel that personal connection when I have to communicate by these means. Although I can sit in the office and do my work in peace, it's not quite the environment that I want to venture to after graduation. It seems I still have a lot of thinking to do in regards to future careers.
As much as I've been known to gripe about working in retail, I surprisingly miss the daily customer interaction when I'm working in the office. I only get to talk to a few people in the office because everyone else is in a different department and I never really have a need to chat with them. The rest of my interactions are via email or telephone and I don't really feel that personal connection when I have to communicate by these means. Although I can sit in the office and do my work in peace, it's not quite the environment that I want to venture to after graduation. It seems I still have a lot of thinking to do in regards to future careers.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
A Typical Day at the Chamber
I work at the Chandler Chamber of Commerce three days a week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I usually come in around 9:30 and will stay till 1. If there's an event that day (which is usually Friday) I will arrive a few hours earlier as these events may start at 7 or 8 a.m. I start my day by logging in to the computer and checking email to see if there's any updates I need to review or people I need to get back to. I'll usually receive at least one email in regards to the How We Stand document and from there I'll update the document and update the list of people that have responded. After that I'll start reviewing the document to see if there are any grammatical errors or sentence structuring issues that need to be addressed. As you can tell, I spend a great deal of time handling the How We Stand document. The draft is quite large in size at the moment, which is why I spend most of my day reviewing it (at least for the time being).
When I'm not reviewing How We Stand, I'm doing anything else that Terri (my boss and CEO of the Chamber) asks me to do. She's usually in a meeting or on the phone when I come in, so I may not hear from her initially. When I do, she will usually have me contact certain people via email/phone or review other documents that need tending to. I also have to look at the schedule and make sure that the speakers that are coming to future meetings have been confirmed. I'll reach out to the speakers to confirm, get their bio/head shot, and update the schedule to reflect my progress. Since Britta (other public policy intern) is leaving, I'm sure there will be other things that I will have to do on a daily basis, but I haven't been assigned those tasks quite yet.
When I'm not reviewing How We Stand, I'm doing anything else that Terri (my boss and CEO of the Chamber) asks me to do. She's usually in a meeting or on the phone when I come in, so I may not hear from her initially. When I do, she will usually have me contact certain people via email/phone or review other documents that need tending to. I also have to look at the schedule and make sure that the speakers that are coming to future meetings have been confirmed. I'll reach out to the speakers to confirm, get their bio/head shot, and update the schedule to reflect my progress. Since Britta (other public policy intern) is leaving, I'm sure there will be other things that I will have to do on a daily basis, but I haven't been assigned those tasks quite yet.
Free Write 9/16
Things have been going very well so far. I'm steadily becoming acclimated and learning everything I need to know. The other intern that has been mentoring me (Britta) has been extremely helpful and helping me become familiar with the things I need to know. However, we only work together once a week because we mostly intern on different days. Tomorrow is her last day and luckily she left me a sheet with other things I need to know/do so that was extremely helpful. I feel much more comfortable about my daily responsibilities than I did when I first started. It can just be a little stressful at times because I don't have someone watching over my shoulder telling me what to do, but I've been getting a general idea on the tasks I should be focused on when I arrive at the office.
Lately, I've been reviewing and editing the 2015 How We Stand document that the Chandler Chamber of Commerce will be putting out soon. As I may (or may not) have mentioned before this document basically talks about the issues within the City of Chandler as well as regional issues and our stance. The Chamber reaches out to many people for input and as these people respond I take their input and incorporate it into the document. I'm also getting ready for the next Public Policy meeting that will be taking place on 9/26. It'll be my job to introduce the speakers and in preparation I'm putting together a small PowerPoint with speaker bios.
Lately, I've been reviewing and editing the 2015 How We Stand document that the Chandler Chamber of Commerce will be putting out soon. As I may (or may not) have mentioned before this document basically talks about the issues within the City of Chandler as well as regional issues and our stance. The Chamber reaches out to many people for input and as these people respond I take their input and incorporate it into the document. I'm also getting ready for the next Public Policy meeting that will be taking place on 9/26. It'll be my job to introduce the speakers and in preparation I'm putting together a small PowerPoint with speaker bios.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Free Write 9/10/14
The first day of my internship started last Thursday. Coincidentally, last Thursday was the 2014 Education Forum that the Chamber of Commerce was hosting. The three university presidents (ASU, NAU, U of A) were there and talked about the future of education. It was definitely an interesting first day because I showed to up an event that was being attended by at least 200 people. Basically, I helped make sure that guests knew where to pick up their name tags and once the event started I was able to sit in. It was a great experience though because I got to meet President Michael Crow and have my picture taken with him.
Once the event was over, I headed to the office to start my training. I'm supposed to be taking over the spot of another Public Policy intern named Britta. She was interning over the summer, but is leaving within a week to head back to school in Chicago. My goal is to pretty much pick her brain and learn everything I need to know before she's gone, otherwise I won't have anyone to help me. My boss (feels weird saying that as an intern) doesn't really micromanage, so I have to make sure I know what I'm doing because I won't have someone watching over me. That's why I really value any of the time I get to work with Britta because I can ask all the questions I need answers to. It's a little intimidating because she does the day-to-day tasks with ease, but I'm not quite there yet. I'm hoping by the time she's gone, I'll have most of it down by then.
Once the event was over, I headed to the office to start my training. I'm supposed to be taking over the spot of another Public Policy intern named Britta. She was interning over the summer, but is leaving within a week to head back to school in Chicago. My goal is to pretty much pick her brain and learn everything I need to know before she's gone, otherwise I won't have anyone to help me. My boss (feels weird saying that as an intern) doesn't really micromanage, so I have to make sure I know what I'm doing because I won't have someone watching over me. That's why I really value any of the time I get to work with Britta because I can ask all the questions I need answers to. It's a little intimidating because she does the day-to-day tasks with ease, but I'm not quite there yet. I'm hoping by the time she's gone, I'll have most of it down by then.
Chandler Chamber of Commerce
The organization that I'm interning with is the Chandler Chamber of Commerce. From what I've gathered so far, the Chamber of Commerce advocates for local businesses and supports related public policy. Local businesses are not automatically members of the Chamber, but they can register. The Chamber is always looking for ways that day-to-day operations can improve for local businesses and what they can do to help. For example, the Chamber is currently working on the 2015 version of their document How We Stand. Basically, this document covers different areas such as Energy & Efficiency, Education, Environment, Transportation and many others. Within these different areas, the Chamber will talk about the legislation, initiatives, development and other things that they support to improve business in Chandler. This is just one thing that they're working on and as I progress in my internship I will gain a more detailed understanding as to what they do.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'll discuss what I do there as an intern. Technically speaking, I am a Public Policy intern. There are other interns in the office, but they fall under different areas and there are currently only two Public Policy interns. What I'll be doing is helping to set up future Public Policy meetings by contacting various individuals from different organizations and trying to get them to talk about whatever topic is relevant for the next Public Policy meeting. For example, the next meeting will be about transportation so we'll be having three people that work in the field come and talk on the subject. One of my jobs is to reach out to these people and ask them if they can speak on whichever date we're working on next. Once I've confirmed speakers for the next meeting, I'll get a bio and picture so that I can put together a PowerPoint to introduce them during the meeting. Another thing I'll be doing is editing the 2015 How We Stand document. Myself and others review the document to make sure it flows smoothly and if we receive input from other organizations I have to make sure I edit that all in as well.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'll discuss what I do there as an intern. Technically speaking, I am a Public Policy intern. There are other interns in the office, but they fall under different areas and there are currently only two Public Policy interns. What I'll be doing is helping to set up future Public Policy meetings by contacting various individuals from different organizations and trying to get them to talk about whatever topic is relevant for the next Public Policy meeting. For example, the next meeting will be about transportation so we'll be having three people that work in the field come and talk on the subject. One of my jobs is to reach out to these people and ask them if they can speak on whichever date we're working on next. Once I've confirmed speakers for the next meeting, I'll get a bio and picture so that I can put together a PowerPoint to introduce them during the meeting. Another thing I'll be doing is editing the 2015 How We Stand document. Myself and others review the document to make sure it flows smoothly and if we receive input from other organizations I have to make sure I edit that all in as well.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Introduction
Hello, my name is Benjamin Terrazas and I'm a senior studying Public Service and Public Policy with a concentration in Public Leadership and Management. I transferred to ASU last summer and at the time I was brand new to the PSPP program and knew little about it. Since that time I've gained priceless and extremely valuable knowledge about life in public service.
I very recently interviewed with the Chandler Chamber of Commerce and am about to start my internship there. It's my first internship so I'm excited to see what the Chamber of Commerce offers. I'm hoping to learn the inner workings of Chamber of Commerce and everything that entity is responsible for. I'm also trying to meet as many people there as I can so I can gain as much insight as possible. I definitely want to find out if working for the Chamber of Commerce is something I'd be interested in doing after I graduate.
I very recently interviewed with the Chandler Chamber of Commerce and am about to start my internship there. It's my first internship so I'm excited to see what the Chamber of Commerce offers. I'm hoping to learn the inner workings of Chamber of Commerce and everything that entity is responsible for. I'm also trying to meet as many people there as I can so I can gain as much insight as possible. I definitely want to find out if working for the Chamber of Commerce is something I'd be interested in doing after I graduate.
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