Fun! – CA Work Experience Program

Day 1 Town of Cary

Today was an exciting first day working at local government! My schedule was very busy today. I first walked into the incredibly sophisticated town of Cary building excited to learn. Before I began my planned meetings, Ms. Hygh gave me the tour of the town of Cary building. Apparently, the building used to be three separate buildings that are now connected to each other by glass, brick and big pillars.

My first activity started off with an general introduction to local government. I learned the different standards and rules that must be followed by our local government. Additionally, I also learned the many different functions of local government and its differences with state and federal government. I also got a brief explanation of the Cary 2040 future projection plan.

Then, I sat in on a infrastructure issues presentation and Q & A. It was also incredibly informative. I learned about how effective Cary is at beautifying its own city. It was particularly illuminating because there was a interesting discussion regarding weighing risk and consequence. Because of my experience in speech and debate, this was especially interesting as we often use corresponding risk and weighing calculus when debating a policy resolution.

After that I spent some time at the town of Cary traffic management office. To be frank, I was expecting a basic overview that wouldn’t really resonate with me. But, I got a extremely passionate presentation that actually really made me interested in traffic management. I learned about procedure during crashes, construction or general traffic and I learned that there are different traffic patterns to different times of the day. For an example, I was shown the different Cary Academy traffic patterns, including the infamous 7:50 intersection deadlock.

Next, I sat in a ordinance meeting where I did not understand much of what was happening. Despite this, the meeting ended up being still fun to attend as the meeting had some jokes and funny banter.

Lastly, I went to the utilities north plant to attend a presentation on how Cary’s water cycle worked and how sewage gets turned into safe water. The presentation was extremely detailed and thorough with a great water cycle packet and some simplified explanation of difficult concepts. Additionally, I was thankful that I actually got to walk through and see myself how the process worked. Despite the smell, it was a informative and interesting aspect of local government that has incredibly relevant ramifications to the lives of all citizens in Cary.

Day 1

I was incredibly nervous my first day. I have some knowledge of the general assembly but I never quite really researched specifics and did not really know what to expect. Rather than doing busy work like copying files, filing papers or running errands, I spent my time surveying and attending different house and senate committee meetings. I feel incredibly fortunate because I was granted freedom to attend the meetings and topics that I am interested in like education, health and justice and public safety.

Regarding my setting, I got the full tour of the legislature building, cleverly named LB, where the many representatives and lobbyists all spend their time working on what needs to be done. The LB is an incredibly gorgeous building with both indoor water fountains and a rooftop garden. Next to it is the LOB, which is where a some of the meetings are held. The LOB is less attractive, but it sure gets the job done. In the two committee meetings I attended, there was a unanimous ‘aye’ after 3 minutes. Mr. McCormick, my main guide describes that it functions and looks like a desk office.

Lunch was good and filing. The actual cafeteria was hidden away underneath the earth. One has to take the stairs go through the parking lot to a secret area underneath to find the cafeteria. I have to say, the fried chicken was incredibly seasoned and I dined with Mr. McCormick’s friends who were extremely kind and welcoming.

In the afternoon, I attended a house committee discussing the Dental Bill of rights which passed after 1 minute. Then I had a little bit of free time on my hands to explore the area above the building. I perused the rooftop garden and got to see the actual House and Senate chambers. I took some photos and then went back to the office just in time to go to see the senate appropriations on education/higher education. Lastly, I finished off with the senate appropriations on justice and public safety and, just like that, my day was over. I am incredibly excited to come back tomorrow!

Day 7 @ FHI 360!

Today at FHI 360 we had a very busy day! We had meetings with many people at the organization. We met with the procurement team, who works on providing products for various projects that FHI is involved in. An example is special Toyota Land Cruisers, which are used for projects in developing countries. This team gave us some yo-yos from one of their sponsors, which we thoroughly enjoyed playing with!

After this, we met with Hannah Goetz, who is a C.A. alum herself! She told us all about her path from Cary Academy to FHI, and needless to say, it sounded like quite the journey!

Next, we learned about in field studies (specifically in India) from one of the members of the FHI team. We got to look at books given to adolescents in India, which were very interesting.

A collage of the book given to adolescents in India.

Finally, we met with the team from regulations, and learned about how studies performed by FHI are properly regulated. Honestly, I didn’t know there were so many rules!

Day 2 – Take Me Out To The Ball Game!!

As I walked into Bavarian Nordic this morning, I was quickly swept into a conference room. There, I took my seat and observed the Skype call that Ms. Handelsman and Janelle were conducting. They often have early morning meetings because the other part of the company is housed in Europe and there is a time difference. This meeting was a Brachyury core team meeting. They discussed various updates and ideas for the upcoming phases of the clinical trial. They might as well have been speaking in Danish because I didn’t understand much of it! All the employees in Denmark and Germany are fluent in English so there is not a communication barrier. After the meeting concluded, I stayed behind and asked Ms. Handelsman some questions that occurred to me during the meeting.

After Ms. Handelsman had to leave to attend another meeting, Erika shuttled me and Kaitlin into another conference room where we learned about statistics through a video and practice problems. We also went through a very long lecture about biostatistics for beginners. I noticed that Erika really loves her job! I hope that I will fall in love with whatever job I have in the future. Once we finished our lectures and practice, we moved into a real-world example. Erika printed copies of the Brachyury statistical analysis plan for us to study. It was so thick it must have taken a whole tree to print! After some hardcore reading, we decided it was time for lunch.

Kaitlin and I ate our lunch in the very luxurious break room and talked. She is going to graduating in December and is excited to be working in the clinical trials industry. She also gave me some good advice about college (i.e. visit the college you want to go to before you decide (she did not)).

We picked a very good week to come because today was the company’s annual outing to the Durham Bull’s game. Janelle, Kaitlin, and I all piled into Erika’s van and headed to Durham. We were met with TONS of traffic and a deficit of parking spaces. We had to park very far away so we were a little late to the game. We talked and watched the game and munched on nachos and French fries. After a fun couple hours, it was time to head back to Bavarian Nordic. We were lucky enough to be given free parking since we were so far away! Once again, we got into Erika’s van and started the drive. When we got back, I thanked Erika for driving and headed home. The morning was very informative and the afternoon was very fun! All in all, it was a great day.