Looking Back

Looking back on my internship experience is very overwhelming; in a good way. I accomplished SO much in such a short amount of time (5 months). I still honestly cannot believe that last Saturday was my final day working with my office and my final event. Tree Lighting and the Parade of Lights was a perfect way to end my time. I worked the event from 8 in the morning to 11 at night and it felt like it flew by. In the morning I was in charge of the display in the Downtown Chandler area. One of my big projects was working on making a display for the Tumbleweed Tree. I found and ordered three lighted displays that would work outside for an extended period of time. I later assembled them when they arrived and placed the informative posters that I helped design and write.

My displays

 Later in the evening I helped manage our volunteers who were assisting with the parade, and helped get parade entries set up and ready to go. An exhausting evening, but it was perfectly pulled off.

When I consider the entirety of my experience I definitely gained so much. Here are my original goals:

1. I hope to achieve a broader knowledge of working at a city level. More specifically how the different city departments collaborate and interact together to produce results for their citizens.

2. Learn what exactly it takes to effectively run a department, and all the intricacies associated with it that most are not aware of.

3. Gain valuable skills in areas such as leadership, management, organization, and cooperation to take with me in whatever path my career takes me.


I worked with not only so many different people in the Recreation department, but many people outside of it as well. Part of being able to help a citizen organize a special event is being able to get approval from different city departments. The same is true for our own events. During the Tree Lighting event there was a miscommunication between our department and the traffic control that resulted in a major street not being shut down at the correct time. Luckily we had people in the area that realized what was happening and where able to tell us so that we could then contact traffic control to get the issue resolved quickly. It could have very well been the case that without our relationship with traffic control that this problem could have taken a longer time to resolve, at the risk to event goers, or that another bad situation could have resulted.

Running the Special Events department, or any department for that matter, is no easy task. Aside from the basic job description of being in charge of special events you are involved in writing city code, managing staff, managing equipment, being the go-to person for special event related questions, being the liaison when it comes to organizing special events, and being involved with committees to lend your expertise to name a few. Much like school you can be in charge of five different projects at a time and still be responsible for the basic duties required to run your department. I learned how to better organize my time and how to stay on top of my work. I learned that getting the job done often requires going above and beyond what is minimally required of you to excel at your job. I learned that you need to be flexible when things go wrong, but that you also need to be responsible for your shortcomings. Above all I learned that nobody gets to where they are without trying, and that sometimes means taking risks. For someone like me, who often focuses on perfection, it was difficult to learn these things, but I believe it will make me a stronger boss when the time comes.

One big skill I learned was that of being confident. I had the chance to go out to lunch with my boss this week and discuss my experience and where I was going from here. She commented that when I first started I was very timid and a little unsure of myself, as was to be expected. Right around the middle of September, though, she noticed that a change occurred in me, I become more confident in my work; I asked less questions and took charge of my projects. Something clicked in me and I became not just an intern, but a valuable member of the team. This was reassuring to hear because throughout my time I often felt unsure of myself or if I was making the right decisions. I definitely felt more confident in my role, but still was very critical of myself.
I also gained so much from interacting with so many different people. It felt odd to sometimes delegate tasks to people that were older than me and more experienced, but I just kept in mind how I would want to be treated when working with both staff and volunteers. I made many new friends and was met with respect with every event I attended.

This experience was one that I can take with me wherever I go in life, and one that I am grateful to have been given to help make my way in the world.

That's a wrap!