The Beginning

Hi, my name is Alison Mettler and I am a senior Public Administration & Management in Parks & Recreation major! I graduate in the fall and will probably go straight in to starting my masters for Public Administration here at ASU after I graduate. Hopefully I'll be able to work somewhere in the North West (Montana, Washington, Oregon, Idaho) once I'm done with school and manage a small lake/park. Ultimately my goal is to work somewhere in the National Forest department for the government and continue to help preserve our remaining national parks around the country.

My internship is with the City of Tempe in the boating department on Tempe Town Lake. My job is help with class registration (online computer skills & organization), do the grunt work/maintenance, and sit in on meetings so I can start to learn about government budgeting and what goes in to programming classes/events. I am also being given the responsibility of creating, planning, coaching, and executing a competitive high school rowing team that operates out of the cities boating facilities on Tempe Town Lake.

Three things I hope to get out of my internship are:
1) The knowledge of how much time and effort actually goes in to creating, planning, and executing special events (like Iron Mans, Half Marathons, and races).  Knowing how a city as big as Tempe, that is the host to many programs and special events, handles these things will be very useful for my future. Preparation, patients, delegating, and teamwork will play a very important role I'm sure, and I'm excited to see how it is handled.
2) Networking! Getting my name out there and making connections is definitely something I hope to get out of this experience.
3) Because of my position (which is basically the assistant to the assistant) I will be doing a lot of grunt work. From this, I will definitely be learning how much work goes in to running a facility properly and how much maintenance goes in to ensuring everything is usable for classes and events.