This summer, we’re featuring real-time reflections from CIPA Fellows completing internships at organizations across the globe. This week, we’re hearing from Samantha Cherney (’14), who is concentrating in Economic and Financial Policy.
Sitting down and reflecting upon the weeks I’ve spent at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Operations this summer makes me realize how much I have learned and done in such a short period of time. The Mayor’s Office of Operations considers itself the internal consultants for the City of New York, which means we are working on a wide variety of projects and interacting with 
numerous other agencies and departments. It does not seem like there is “one type” of project. I am currently part of four project teams, each of which is grappling with a distinct and interesting policy issue. For example, one project consists of analyzing accident, tort, and workers compensation data in order to better help the city agencies minimize these massive costs. Another project involves a staple of New York City life – the street vendors, and an attempt to better regulate these thousands of itinerant sellers. I’ve had meetings with immigrant store owners in Queens, as well as city representatives at City Hall. One of the most rewarding projects involved helping with Open House events for individuals whose homes had been destroyed in Hurricane Sandy. At several events in Staten Island and the Bronx I had the opportunity to meet hundreds of those impacted by the storm.
The office is small, consisting of ten project managers and several interns. This means that in each of my four projects I’m working in a small team, interacting constantly with the managers, as well as the Director of Operations. It also means that the work I get to do is (usually) substantive and challenging. Coming from a law and humanities background, I chose CIPA to help me hone some more rigorous analytical skills, and this internship has definitely increased and expanded my skill set, both hard and soft. Several of my projects involve a large amount of data, and I have spent a lot of time analyzing this information with Excel, and using Microsoft Vizio to present material in a visually appealing manner.
In addition to gaining familiarity with these tools and others, I think the most valuable elements have been teamwork and time management. Having clerked for a judge before CIPA, I was very used to solitary work. Having multiple meetings a day, both internal and external, has been great. Not only is it fun to sit with a group of intelligent people and discuss the intricacies of a policy issue, I think that it has helped prepare for a more engaged career path. My clerkship also had me working on one memo at a time, to which I devoted my entire focus. Now, I try to work on at least three projects a day, which has been a bit of an adjustment. I am learning to switch gears and not ignore a project just because I have not received a flurry of emails about it that day! I am excited to apply these skills to my second year at CIPA and in my career upon graduation.