This summer, we’ll be featuring real-time reflections from CIPA Fellows currently completing internships at organizations across the globe. This week, we’re hearing from Dana Westgren (’14), who is originally from Champaign, Illinois and is concentrating in Government, Politics, and Policy Studies.
This summer, I have the good fortune of working at Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office in Chicago, as a part of the Mayor’s Office Summer Fellowship Program. So far it’s been a great experience, opening my eyes to a lot of the intricacies involved in municipal government and politics as a whole.
At CIPA, I’m concentrating in Government and Policy, but I’m really interested in local government (especially as a possible jumping off point for my own political career!). After taking a few City and Regional Planning courses throughout my first year, I felt like this opportunity was a fantastic way to gain some real world experience in city government. All my previous experience has been private sector, so diving into the very political world of Chicago government has been completely fascinating!
There are around 25 students participating in this year’s Fellowship class, a combination of MPA, MPP, law students, undergraduates, and “Technology Fellows” who all bring unique backgrounds and experiences to the program. Though I’m from Illinois originally, a lot of the Fellows do not have a connection to Chicago, so they bring a fresh perspective to our various projects. I am currently writing from our office, where all the participants sit. Since we work in small groups on all of our projects, it makes a lot of sense and allows for collaboration. We each have 3-5 projects going now, on everything from the Mayor’s education policy to gun control to environmental sustainability in the city. I personally have four projects: a couple in education policy, one in economic development, and one involving agency oversight. This allows me to dabble across a few different policy streams; as someone with a background in business and economic development, learning more about education policy is especially interesting, particularly given the massive state of transition currently facing the city.
On each project we work directly with Mayor Emanuel’s staffers, who are all young, energetic, and super intelligent. It’s amazing to see the kind of work I could theoretically be doing only a few years out from CIPA graduation. They allow the Fellows to participate in several office events, including intramural sports teams and volunteer opportunities. I’m joining the softball team for sure; apparently last week they took on and beat Governor Quinn’s office. I’m sure there’s a lot of high level trash talk going on at these events! I am also taking my lunch hour every Tuesday and reading to underprivileged children at one of the local parks with a few other Fellows. We start in a couple weeks, and I can’t wait to meet the child I’ll be mentoring!
It’s not all work, though there definitely is a lot of that. Our Fellowship coordinators have put together visits to several agencies, brought in speakers (including the Police Commissioner and Chicago Public School Superintendent), and organized weekly happy hours to make sure we get the most out of our Chicago experience. Last week we even got to take a boat cruise on the Chicago River – despite my raging sunburn, it was a really great way to see one of the most gorgeous cities around. I may be biased, but Chicago is seriously beautiful!
This Fellowship program is incredibly organized and gives students the chance to really get our feet wet in the policy creation and implementation space. I am so grateful to be able to spend my summer in sweet home Chicago!