Group 3, free write

The City of Phoenix has many teen programs that focus on helping youths develop a wide range of skills. The programs offer computer classes, educational classes, physical fitness training, recreational activities and art classes among others. In the Marketing Partnership Program we are exploring the opportunity to get a sponsor for all these City teen programs. In order to do this, I am working on a draft of a request for sponsorship (RFS). One thing I have to do is put together all the information regarding these programs and find out how many youths are involve in each program. I’ve learnt that when you are working on an RFS is essential to include the information of the scope of the programs in this case, because is something that a potential partner would look at it in order to decide if it is worth submitting a proposal or not. Another thing we need to think about is what kind of organizations would be interesting in being a sponsor for these programs. Due to the fact that these programs work with teenagers, we think that higher education institutions would me interested in them, so I gathering information of all the higher education institutions located in Phoenix.

"Paint Phoenix Purple" Campaign

“Paint Phoenix Purple” is a domestic violence awareness campaign supported by 50 organizations including the City of Phoenix. The campaign’s main goal is to make people aware about the domestic violence problem and produce a cultural change.

October is the month of National Domestic Violence Awareness so the city will paint Phoenix Purple. 

The Public Information Office, the area where I am interning, is in charged of promoting this campaign.  Indeed we all got “campaign t-shirts” which we can wear at the office anytime during October.

I wanted to write about this campaign because I believe is a positive initiative that the City supports it and also because the City has a Family Advocacy Center which provides services to victims of domestic violence. 

http://paintphoenixpurple.org/

For food lovers

As I mentioned before, I am from Argentina, and one reason why the country is known is because of its good meat. I have to say that if you go there you would eat the best BBQ ever, which we call “Asado”.

What I want to share now is a video of an Argentinian girl, Felicitas Pizarro, who recently won a food contest organized by the famous English cook Jamie Oliver, who is a well known healthy-food activist. The recipe includes meat and rice and is pretty easy if any of you want to try it! Enjoy!

Post I Career Service event

“How do I write a winning resume?”

Conducted by Jennifer Rhodes

September 13^th in the Tempe Campus.

I decided to attend this workshop because I thought it was really important to learn how to write a good resume for future job searches.

First they explained the main differences between a resume and a CV, which was really interesting for me because actually before coming to the US I just thought that resume was the “American word” for CV. In my home country we just talk about CV for any kind of job. So, now I now that the CV are targeted to a research-academic audience and is more descriptive about all kind of academic achievements and research experience. On the other hand, a resume is targeted to a general audience and is more skilled focus. Another difference is the length. The CV can be as long as necessary whereas a resume shouldn’t be longer than 1-2 pages long.

One thing I will definitely change in my current resume is to highlight and add the skills I have gain in a specific job rather than giving long description of what my working duties were.

I also think it was very helpful that they provided us with information containing online recourses to do a self-assessment and career research.

Overall I can say it was a great experience because I helped me tailor my resume in a more accurate way.

Life away from home

It’s been 1 year and three months since I am living in Phoenix. Before I used to live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I can say that here is different but I really like it. Although summers are tough I think this second one has been a little better. Fortunately I’ve made a lot of friends, some from the US and others from other countries, and I just love it. It’s amazing how much you can learn from other people and that when you need something there is always somebody willing to help. Believe it or not, yesterday I tried for first time in my life Taco Bell! I know here is pretty common but I don’t have it back home. I have to admit, is good! Another thing I had to get used to was having dinner early, especially when I go out with friends to eat dinner. In Argentina people have dinner late, 9 or 10 pm may be. At 6 pm we would have something called “merienda” that is like a tea or coffee with some pastries or toasts. This past year I also had the opportunity to travel to places like Grand Canyon, Montana and New Orleans, which were awesome. I hope to keep meeting incredible people and visiting new places!

Group 2, free write

1. The Marketing Partnership Program may issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) very soon to find a vendor for the beverage and food vending machines in different City facilities. One of the requirements for the vendor will be that part of the beverages and food offered in the machines meet certain healthy nutritional standards. The City will receive certain percentage of the total gross sales and an annually fee payment.  This revenue will go to the City's general fund. What I am doing specifically for this opportunity is helping in the RFP draft and working in a spreadsheet which has the location of all the current City machines and which of those have already a contract with other vendors.

2. The idea with the defibrillators located in different buildings of the City is to identify which ones are located in public view areas. Once we have that information gathered the goal is to get a Sponsorship for these defibrillators. For the moment I am working on a spreadsheet that contains the location of all the defibrillators in the different City buildings and I am working with the other departments to identify the defibrillators' specific locations. I am also working in the draft of a Request for Sponsorship (RFS) that would be issue in order to get a sponsor. In this partnership the sponsor wouldn’t have to provide any service, they would just have to pay certain fee to the City in order to put their logo next to the Automated External Defibrillators (AED) signs that are located next to every defibrillator. The revenue raised in this partnership would also go to the City’s general fund.

Typical day

My internship days go from 8 am to 4 pm, three times a week but I couldn’t say that I have the same daily work routine every day. What I mean with this is that I am doing different stuff all the time. However, I can classify my activities in two main groups:

• Activities related to the current marketing partnerships that the City has. This includes answering concerns that residents may have regarding the partnership with Service Line Warranties of America, which offers an optional service of water and sewer line warranties for Phoenix residents.
• Activities related to the exploration of new possible partnerships opportunities.

Basically, I do activities for both groups everyday. Also depending on the week I attend different meetings. Although the Marketing Partnership Program is administered by the Public Information Office, it has a team of City employees from different departments that contributes to the program in facilitating the collaboration between departments and brainstorming new ideas for the program. This group gets together once a month, so this is one of the meetings I must attend. Other meetings I attend are with staff of other departments because in order to get information for new opportunities I need to work with other departments.

Besides the Marketing Partnership Activities, if there is an event or a meeting that my supervisor considers it could interest me, she always invites me to go. 

About the organization and what will I do

The organization I will be working for is the city government of Phoenix. The City of Phoenix has a council-manager form of government since 1913. There are 32 departments. My internship is for the Marketing Partnership Program, which is administered by the Public Information Office (PIO), thus my working spot is in this office and my supervisor is the PIO Director. The main function of PIO is to communicate the public what are the goals and activities of the city government. This program is very innovating and challenging because its main goal is to generate mutually beneficial business partnerships in order to raise revenue for the City general fund without spending more money! The program has so far two partnerships:

• Service Line Protection Program
• Free Prescription Drug Discount Program
  

Here is the link to the website in case you want to check them out:
http://phoenix.gov/pio/mrkpartpgm/index.html

In following posts I will be describing these current partnerships in more detail. So basically, what I will be doing is helping to keep track of the two current partnerships and also exploring new possible partnership opportunities.