In our first COVID lunch gathering, two second-year MPP students reported on their summer policy internships.

Jessica Hitzman spent the summer of 2020 interning at the Legislative Finance Committee (and has been hired on as a regular employee for the fall semester!) She spent most of the summer internship working on a workforce policy project, where she researched what other states were doing for their workforce during the pandemic, and contributed to projections of what the workforce will need after the pandemic. A University of Chicago study about which jobs will be slow to come back and which ones will be in demand supported recommendations for making sure there will be plenty of training for certain high-demand areas (healthcare) and finding ways to let people know their best options for in-demand jobs.

 Mary interned with the City of Albuquerque’s Environmental Health Department, working on the city’s new Climate Action Plan. One of Mary’s roles was to research what other cities were doing to implement their Climate Action Plans successfully. She read 13 different climate action plans from cities across the country, focusing on cities with similar demographics to find ideas and best practices. Her favorite recommendation is to create a business incentive to get the private sector to buy into the Action Plan, so when they meet certain standards the businesses will be acknowledged and get a plaque to hang in their business.

 The MPP Brown Bag Lunch Series, which meets monthly via Zoom, provides an informal gathering place for students and faculty to share experiences, information, resources and experiences related to the program and the wider policy community.