We have an active internship program here at the City of Eden Prairie. I don’t know if it’s more active or less active or about the same as other cities, but I do know that we seem fortunate every year to attract a good crop of interns, who then produce a lot of work for us.
Our most recent intern class is pictured in the photo on the left. I’ll name them left to right. Maggie Habashy was student at the University of Minnesota. She recently graduated (I hope). She interned in our Communications Division. Jeff Mills graduated from the University of Minnesota in December. He has a degree in Urban Studies. He is an intern in my office. Kristin Klecker is a graduate student in Human Resource Management at the Carlson School. She interns in our HR Office. Alex Vollmer is a student at the University of Minnesota. He interns in our Environmental Protection office. And finally, Christi Paulson is a student a Bethel University. She interned last fall in our Communications Division. She is still in school this spring, but had to wrap up her internship because she plays on Bethel’s collegiate softball team.
We train our interns. We want them to understand how city government works. Not because all of them are bound for careers in city government. Most of them aren’t. But gaining an understanding of how our organization is structured is helpful to them as they learn about how other complex human organizations function. Maybe an organization where they’d like to work someday.
Interns are not the same as summer seasonal workers. I believe that we have a higher professional duty to our interns that includes helping them learn about their chosen professions and teaching them how to interact successfully with people in a workplace setting. I want our interns to leave here with good experiences that help them get good jobs so that they can make positive contributions to our society and to our country.
