Batch 4: Due 10/22

1. For my interview I interviewed one of my supervisors, Tim Shaw. Tim Shaw was up until recently, the District Director for Senator Huff's team, in addition to working for Senator Huff for over 10 years, Time Shaw serves on the La Habra City Council, was former mayor of La Habra and also serves on the OCTA board. With much service throughout the 29th District, Tim Shaw is very well-known and liked, his responsibilities include, making appearances at events in representing Senator Huff, dealing with constituent case work, and prepares out-reach events within the district.  Tim says he always had an interest in public service, though it wasn't until grad school at George Washington University in Washington D.C. that he decided he wanted to return to his hometown to work for the city and get into more local representation. For the position of Tim Shaw, a degree is mandatory and an experience in the public service field. He also is required to be a resident of the city he represents and is a resident of the 29th district of California. Tim Shaw says his advice would be that you can never start early enough to start gaining experience within the public service realm. Tim also thinks that education will get you very far and will make you more qualified. As someone who worked closely with Tim Shaw, I would be very interested in his position because he is always involved with the public and going in and out of the office to be active and involved directly with the public.

2. Because I interviewed Tim, I have come to find I respect him in so many ways, as a professional and also as as good person. Tim has a great work ethic and has a passion for public service and constituents, he always has a positive attitude and willingness to teach.

3. Leadership played a major role in my internship because most of the time I was the most experienced intern because I had been working there the longest. Therefore, when newer interns would come in and out throughout my time there, I would be in charge of teaching them the day-to-day tasks like how to answer and use the phone properly, teach them about case work, teach them how to do weekly clippings, and how to send e-mails. My supervisor's and co-workers display similar leadership roles with teaching interns like me how to do my tasks. I also refer to them when I am confused or lost about a case work situation.

Batch 3: Due 10/8

1.  Every Monday at the district office of Senator Bob Huff, the capitol office would hold a conference call with the district office for organizing and planning all things related to the Senator. We would go over many things such as scheduling meetings and appearances, legislative updates from the capitol, the monthly newsletter, casework, correspondence updates, outreach events, and any other reminders or comments. These meetings were very interesting, as it connected the district office with the capitol office.

2. I have attended many of the job fairs at the Downtown Phoenix campus where the job fairs usually focus on public sector jobs, these are interesting because there is one convenient place for potential employers who are seeking educated employees seeking jobs in the public sector. These job fairs that are hosted by career services are very helpful and informative, and as someone who graduates in spring, I feel as if I should take full advantage of career services.

3. My favorite thing was to work outside of the office, at events, specifically outreach events were the most fun. Outreach events were events that the Senator Huff staff would plan for the community. This summer I was able to work a few outreach events, and my first one was a Facebook event, where Facebook professionals came to speak to small business owners within the district to teach them how they can advertise their business through Facebook. This was interesting to meet so many small business owners from within the district that learned a lot of information from this event.

4. Another outreach event I got to work was a "Senior Scam Stopper" hosted in our City of Diamond Bar, at this event we invited all people, but focused on reaching out to the elderly crowd so they could learn about information and defensive mechanisms to avoid identity theft or fraud. It was a great turn out and it seemed to be very helpful and informative to the crowd.

Batch 2: Due 9/24

1. I interned at the Office of Senator Bob Huff, who represents the 29th District of California. This district includes parts of Orange County, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County. As the Senate Minority Leader of California, the senator has a Capitol Office and a District Office, as an intern at the District Office I mostly dealt with constituents and acted as a "District Representative" to the people. As a District Representative I stood in for the Senator at public events such as ribbon cuttings or fundraisers, I also worked with constituents on more personal levels with constituents in case work, where constituents would refer to the senators office with their concerns. 

2. During the internship, I found that I enjoyed attending public events as a District Representative. I enjoy being able to talk to people, and hear their concerns and talk about the situations, opposed to dealing with case work, where most communication takes place over e-mail.

3.  I found that many people really value the effort of the Senator to appear or have representatives at events. It seemed like the constituents that were passionate about their beliefs and took their role as a citizen seriously, were the ones that expressed their concerns the most and showed up to events put on by the Senators. As a district representative I valued these people and it made my job enjoyable. 

4. A typical day in the office, would usually consist of going through newspapers and online articles to see what issues were making headlines in the district, so we could be aware of what was going on. This would usually take a few hours as I would read through the San Gabriel Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Orange County Register, and The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. After this I would see what case work I could help resolve or help refer people to help. There was a lot of calls, e-mails, and writing that came along with Case Work.

Batch 1: Due 9/3

I am Brianna Patton, but many call me Bri. I am a senior here at Arizona State University earning my degree in Public Service Public Policy with a certificate in Public Leadership and Ethics. I will be graduating in May of 2016. 

I was able to do my internship with the California Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff who represents the 29th Senate District of California.

Through this internship I hope to achieve 3 goals:

1. To gain a better understanding of case work with constituents.
2. To gain a larger professional network.
3. To learn if this type of work is something I would like to do long-term.