Leo Magana: A Year of Variety
As we quickly approach the last few weeks of the school year, it has begun to hit me that in just a short while I will no longer be seeing my coworkers in the office on a weekly basis. This experience has been eye-opening and incredibly rewarding as I don’t know when else I would have had an experience such as this. I would say the most gratifying aspect was getting to know more about my coworkers and understanding more about how they got to working at the Mayor’s Office and why they are there.
In my last blog post, I made it a point that I would to get to speaking to more people outside of those I already met and I’m glad to report that I have executed on this goal. I’ve learned that people from all walks of life work in this place, even those that you would never expect to lead to a job at the Mayor’s Office. What I usually find when I ask them questions is that they are here because they wanted to make a difference in their community using the skills they had acquired elsewhere, and I believe they are truly making a difference every day. I believe it doesn’t matter if you’re a lawyer, a programmer, or a biologist (all of which currently work there) to make a difference there because a city has so many vast needs that to cater to all of them effectively it is vital that the office maintains such a diverse workforce. In fact, most people that I’ve worked with do more than one thing for the city. I’ve touched on this before, but everyone is willing to help with going to neighborhood clean ups even if they do not have to research these issues. They recognize the importance of their titles and the impacts it has on people to see them helping the community outside of the office. This work outside the office also gives everyone a wholistic view of the way the city works and who is impacted by the changes made via policies.
In order to be able to enjoy working in this environment, you must also accept being a lifelong learner as you will always have to learn about new issues you had never even thought about. This has by far been what I have enjoyed most about my own personal work. I have been able to work on researching policies regarding firefighters, park rangers, creating website designs, participating in city events, neighborhood cleanups, and more. I hope to remain in contact with my coworkers once my internship is over and hope to remain involved in weekend cleanups. Maybe one day I will also return to a similar place after working in industry for a few years.