Fall Break is coming up next week and I'm looking forward to a nice vacation from school, but surprisingly, not from work. I absolutely love coming to my internship at the Town of Gilbert. The people I work with are truly an inspiration in every thing they do. It's absoultely refreshing coming to work and feeling adore the people I work with and the work that I do. So, I'm truly blessed to have this internship.

Anyhow, Gabe, one of my many supervisors, has been on my case about deciding areas I want to work on during my time here. While I'm a political science nerd and discovered a new found love in public policy, I'm an artist at heart, so I feel that bureaucracy tends to paint in monochromatic colors and red tape. So, finding my place within the confines of black, white, and grey canvas tends to be frustrating for someone who loves to paint with all the colors of the rainbow.

As, I mentioned before, my heart lies in museum work, more specifically museum administration. Eventually, I want to end up working for the Smithsonian in Washington DC working in some area of artist and community development. You might be thinking that I'm way off course from my actual goal with this internship working in local government. Not really. I'm a firm believer that every experience provides the various tools I will need to succeed in the future. I mean you never know.

I'm currently researching Design Review Committees for all the local municipal governments in the valley. I have no interest in housing codes, but you never know when something like this will come in handy down the road. Either way, that's one more tool in my tool box that will separate me from other job candidates, and that is one more skill I can use to become a better administrator/manager.

So, to answer gabe's question, I decided to research and list a few skills that I need more experience and add to my tool box. They are:

• Budgeting
• procurement and contract negotiations
• community engagement/nonprofits
• managing projects/programs
• event coordination and planning

I chose these skills based on job requirements that include project management and community partnerships. I'm not sure if my supervisor can provide opportunities in these areas, but I hope I can cover a few of them before I leave in December. Crossing fingers.