During the summer of 2020, I held an internship with Opelika Main Street in Downtown Opelika, Alabama. Opelika Main Street in a nonprofit program that focuses on downtown revitalizations through grant writing, events, economic vitality, design and promotion.
My internship experience was special, considering that it took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Opelika Main Street worked with me to allow me to complete the internship remotely, with a few in-person events and meetings. I worked on their database, spent time contacting every local business, helped plan some local meetings, worked on marketing materials, and completed an Opelika Main Street Design Guide to be published on their website. |
The first NASPAA competency is to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities relevant to leading and managing in public governance. In relation to my internship with Opelika Main Street, I had several experiences and projects that I worked on that fulfilled this competency. For example, part of this competency is to deliver professional presentations and prepare and deliver reports for the workplace and citizen audiences.
During my time with Opelika Main Street I was tasked with creating a Downtown Opelika Design Guide, which focuses on rules and regulations. I created this guide for workplace and citizen use. It will eventually be posted online to be used as a quick guide to the rules and regulations that organizations and businesses must abide by when making changes in the downtown area. This work product directly applies to this first competency, as I was preparing and delivering a report and presentation for large and small citizen and workplace audiences. By creating this guide, I was challenged creatively and professionally. |
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The fourth competency of NASPAA involves articulating and applying a public service perspective. Opelika Main Street does a fantastic job of involving the public and gathering opinions for city plans, so I got to experience this first hand and learn from the techniques they use. For example, Opelika Main Street held a visioning and public mapping meeting where they invited all city officials, organizations, businesses, and local citizens to come and give their input on Opelika. They got to discuss what they love about Opelika, what they would change, and what they would like to see there in the future. Opelika Main Street took this information and later held a downtown plan presentation where they took some of these ideas and incorporated them into the plan. They keep the citizens and who they are planning for in mind in everything they do, and all decisions being made.
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