AASPIRE Intern

Common Council Office
Community Engagement:
The Office of the Common Council is seeking a passionate and creative Community Engagement Intern. This person will work collaboratively with the Community Engagement Strategist and the Legislative Analyst on projects to generate awareness of the Common Council, assist in research that impacts local decision-making, and assist in the planning and deployment of alder engagement events.

• Support and collaborate with the Community Engagement Strategist in the development of frameworks for community engagement, by identifying engagement needs and develop innovative strategies to increase public engagement, generate awareness of City services and constituent needs, and promote citywide accomplishments.
• Plan and develop marketing initiatives and complete projects related to branding, content creation, and social media marketing. Update website and develop website content. Manage editorial and event calendars.
• Incorporate print, audio/visual, social media, and other methods of communication most effective at serving our diverse communities. 
• Collaborate with staff on new ideas, directions, and tools for marketing and communications.

 
 
Engineering Division  
Communications/Media Relations/Public Information:Calling all communications, journalism students! Using your communications skills to share the story of the city’s biggest builds, designs and projects will help you in any area of communications you aspire to be in: broadcast, print, government communications, marketing, on air, behind the scenes; This internship will make you invaluable to any one you join after completing this experience. You’ll learn how to tell the story of the City of Madison Engineering Division paired with professional communications for a large municipal agency. The Engineering Division is the City service that builds, designs and maintains City infrastructure. From promoting new buildings, new projects, new streets and more, you’ll learn how to connect the community to the Engineering projects, and in turn, learn how to promote and work with local media partners to share publicly. Projects you will work on include writing blogs for our website and articles for our annual Waterways newsletter; promoting and growing our podcast on social media; promoting, creating and growing our social media base; and building our photo library. You’ll attend various department and citywide meetings to learn more about how government functions and participate in media events. If you are interested in communications, media relations and/or multimedia journalism, this internship is a great resume builder that will set you apart in your professional journey. A passion for photography and storytelling is a plus!
 
 
Fire Department
Inventory and Asset Tracking System Developer:
This internship provides a unique opportunity to engage in meaningful projects that will enhance the Fire Department’s asset management capabilities. The intern will gain valuable experience in project management, data analysis, and system development, while contributing to the efficiency and effectiveness of the Fire Department’s operations.

The intern will be responsible for two primary projects.  The Asset Inventory Acquisition Project will conduct a comprehensive review and update of the current tools and equipment inventory, collaborate with various Fire Department members to ensure accuracy and completeness of the inventory, and use technology and software tools to streamline the inventory process. The Asset Tracking System Development Project will research and evaluate existing asset tracking methods and technologies; design and develop a user-friendly and systematic approach for tracking and maintaining the Fire Department’s assets; and create guidelines and training materials for the effective use of the new asset tracking system.  


Human Resources (HR) Department
Talent Marketing:
The 2024 Workplan includes an item from the HR 5-year strategic plan including, “Implement recruitment guide including customizable outreach plan with marketing materials.”  This plan project will require the Intern to support the Talent Acquisition Specialist, by developing marketing materials aimed at groups who are under-represented in the City of Madison Workforce.  Tasks specific to this goal will include:

• Interviewing City of Madison employees to gather stories of success for marketing materials and social media posts.
• Developing posters, handouts, and outreach materials to support the Talent Acquisition Specialist in outreach events.
• Shadowing the Talent Acquisition Specialist at outreach events, meetings, and networking with Community Based Organizations (CBO).
• Attending Multicultural Affairs Committee meetings, and Women’s Initiatives Committee meetings, and other applicable affinity groups to better understand the experience of traditionally marginalized groups in the workplace to best tailor marketing materials.
• Meet with City Public Information Officers, Community Connectors, and other marketing and outreach staff to gather and develop helpful marketing materials that are agency specific.

 
 
Information Technology (IT) Department (3 Openings)

• Photograph diverse images City life, including Ride the Drive, Farmers’ Markets, Concerts on the Square, Street Vending, Art and Crafts vending, diversity, art murals, etc.
• Photograph City staff and City services.
• Edit photographs and preparing images for photo library.
• Present photographs to IT Web Team and customer departments.
• Add edited photographs to City-wide photo library.
• Work with Public Information Officers throughout the City (under the direction of the Web Manager) to get their photo list requests, taking the photos, and editing the photos.

 
Project Management:
The Project Management Intern will have an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in project coordination, execution, and delivery. The Intern will work closely with our project managers, providing support in various aspects of project management within the dynamic field of information technology.

• Assist in planning and coordination of IT projects.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure project tasks are completed on time.
• Create project documentation templates for all phases of the project lifecycle.
• Support the creation and updating of project documentation as needed.
• Participate in project meetings and assist in communicating project updates to stakeholders.

 
Technical Writing:
The Technical Writer intern will focus on City of Madison IT products including help manuals and policy documents. The intern will be immersed in Information Technology’s business processes. Through collaboration with experienced subject matter experts in the IT Department, the intern will create and update knowledge base articles, design IT templates used for various business processes and work on Microsoft (M365) Governance documentation. The intern will work closely with the IT Customer Success Manager and will participate in City-wide, IT department and customer meetings.

• Support a variety of technical documentation activities and may be assigned to a variety of documentation tasks throughout the department.
• Research IT best practices. Assist in writing and updating IT policies.
• Plan, write, and edit various publications.
• Work on computer applications, websites, graphics, and visual presentations.
• Participate in organizational communication strategies, information design and project management.

 
 
Madison Senior Center (MSC)
Community Outreach & Engagement Specialist:
This position will make connections and build relationships with agencies, faith groups, and low-income senior housing units that currently serve underserved older adults such as Black, Indigenous, People of Color, LGTBQ and low-income individuals.

• Develop and participate in community activities and events for older adults and their families at the Madison Senior Center, and in their respective neighborhoods. 
• Identify unmet needs, and work with MSC staff and community partners to develop programs for the fall and 2025, that respond to the identified needs.  
• Photograph older adults at events and programs served by MSC to build up our photo library. 
• Write 3 blogs about outreach programs, or other identified topics relevant to older adults in the Madison community.

 
 
Metro Transit (3 Openings)
Human Resources (HR) Engagement: 
The HR engagement intern will provide assistance in expanding our wellness, engagement, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at Metro Transit. This employee will be focusing on employee engagement, retention and helping Metro Transit redevelop a wellness program that will educate and empower employees to make better choices that assist individuals with achieving their best possible level of health. These valuable programs serve to positively affect employee morale and job satisfaction, optimize performance and productivity, and provide a valued, tangible employee benefit.
 
Operations Data & Office:
This position is responsible for technical and administrative support work involving the provision of assistance to the Operations Management team. These duties may include the collection, summary, and analysis of transit data. This work will include interpreting, drafting, implementing office processes and procedures. This position may assist with weekly vacation and floating holiday picks, seniority records and spreadsheets, daily workforce status reports, fixed route and Paratransit general pick updates, employee locker assignment and oversight of the Operator and Supervisor uniform program.    
 
Planning & Marketing:
This position will serve in a part time capacity in both planning and marketing units and will be responsible for a variety of assignments related to Metro’s upcoming bus rapid transit (BRT) system, new fare technology, and online passenger information. Planning Projects will include auditing accuracy of bus stop signs recently installed as part of Metro’s network redesign and auditing ridership numbers. Marketing/Community Outreach duties will include assisting with passenger outreach and education on new Metro initiatives including BRT, new fare technology, and trip planning technology.  
 

Parks Division (4 openings)
Golf - Marketing:
The Marketing Intern will support the Golf Departments goals of brand and marketing advancement of its current operations. The successful applicant assists the department in their advertising and promotional efforts, and main duties include completing clerical and administrative duties, building social media campaigns and preparing promotional materials and presentations. The position will need the ability to build and successfully track the advancement of social media engagement. We seek an employee who will support our goals to translate our mission and core values into ideas and executable plans to engage online audiences in the social media space and expanding our community and support base. The position will work to plan an overall promotional vision along with templates and reach objectives for long term implementation.
 
Olbrich - Guest Experience:
The Guest Experience internship offers students an opportunity to immerse themselves in the gardens and grow professionally alongside the horticulture and guest experience staff and volunteers. Interns will work directly with horticulture staff in the outdoor gardens, guest experience staff and volunteers in the Visitor Resource Center to gain practical work experience in hospitality and public horticulture. The Guest Experience intern will assist the Guest Experience Department in connecting the outside gardens to the inside visitor center space.  The intern will work in the new Guest Resource Center to welcome visitors to the gardens and help connect guests to various resources and services the gardens provide. Specifically, the intern will work with both the Horticulture Team and the Guest Experience Team to help create a user friendly, searchable document of common plants found in the gardens so that guests who have questions about which plants are found in which gardens can more readily know which plants we have.
 
Olbrich - Nature Everywhere:The Nature Everywhere program is a nationwide program that strives to create equitable access to nature for all children. The Nature Everywhere Intern will work alongside the Madison Region Core Team to complete the identified tasks for 2024. This includes multiple assessments which will guide the direction of the Nature Everywhere program in the Madison Region. These assessments include collecting data on which stakeholders are working with children in nature in the Madison Region, what programs and events are available for children, and what governmental policies may promote or hinder a child’s equitable access to nature. The Nature Everywhere Intern will assist with all aspects of these assessments including data collection methods and frameworks, stakeholder outreach, key informant interviews, data interpretation and data reports. The Nature Everywhere Intern will also join meetings with the national technical advisors, core team, and the local children and nature partners.
 
Parks Alive!:
This position supports the City’s community engagement and violence prevention strategy by assisting with coordinating and facilitating a collaborative effort to plan and implement special events in low-income neighborhoods that prioritize promoting racial equity and social justice. The position’s primary responsibility will be to support the Parks Alive Program within the City of Madison’s Neighborhood Resource Team (NRT) Neighborhoods by providing general assistance with staff, vendor, and equipment coordination and leadership during special events. The work involves administrative work in developing, promoting, coordinating, implementing, managing, and evaluating the Parks Alive program. Under the general supervision of the Parks Alive Coordinator, this work involves a wide range of communication and collaboration with residents and representatives from non-profits, Neighborhood Resource Teams, Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD), various vendors, and multiple City agencies.
 
 
Planning Division (2 openings)
Geographic information System (GIS):
This position will assist the Planning division in:

• Build ArcGIS Online Web applications.
• Update Multi-modal Transportation and Bike Level Traffic of Stress networks to support accessibility analyses. Includes reviewing and editing connectivity in GIS files. 
• Update roadway, intersection, and pedestrian facility inventories. Data collected includes intersection control, lane configurations, functional class, traffic volumes, sidewalk configurations and curb cuts.
• Download, format, and update various GIS data sets such as school locations, roadway pavement ratings, employers, bus routes and stops, crashes, census datasets, and metadata.
• Create maps and perform spatial analysis with GIS datasets for other projects as needed.

 
Neighborhood, Planning, Preservation & Design:
This position will be within the Neighborhood, Planning, Preservation and Design Section of the Planning Division.  It will focus on providing education and exposure to how city government works and how Planning fits within that framework. It will also provide opportunities for the intern to assist planning staff in a variety of planning and support activities related to built-up neighborhoods and grassroots organizations working on neighborhood activities and projects. Position responsibilities include:

• Become familiar with Area planning and Community Action Planning and assist in the development of these plans for Madison including but not limited to data collection, interviews and surveys, land use analysis and urban design, and public participation that engages residents, the business community, and stakeholders (nonprofits, neighborhood groups, schools, etc.) including diverse communities not typically represented in our planning processes.
• Become familiar with arts and cultural resources planning, and/or neighborhood grant projects, and assist with related tasks.
• Assist with the Greater Madison Music City (GMMC) project and other community-based events sponsored by the City.
• Assist with writing, developing conceptual designs, and editing planning publications.

 
 
Police Department
Marketing and Social Media:The goal of the internship is to increase the number of applications we receive for our upcoming 2025 academy and reach a broader group of applicants in our community. In addition, this internship will develop a social media strategy/campaign around “A day in the life of an academy recruit.” We also want our intern to learn about the realities of the police department and how two separate worlds- marketing and policing- can be combined for the greater good of the community.

• Create marketing materials that the recruiting team will use for social media campaigns, specific advertising materials, outreach efforts that specifically target our applicant pool with a goal of increasing applications and reaching a broader group of applicants.
• Develop relevant content for social media in the form of social media posts, flyers, reels, stories, promotional videos, etc.
• Use Canva and other marketing tools to develop content including recruiting videos.
• Research and design new materials needed for career fairs and marketing efforts.
• Attend academy days and develop content to showcase the high level of training that is being taught.
• Use interview skills within the department to develop and highlight specialized units and create content based off these interviews.
• Exposure to the department through ride alongs and job shadows to further familiarize the intern with the realities of policing.

 
 
Traffic Engineering Department
Multi-Modal Transportation Planning:
The focus for this internship will be learning and putting your skills to work on a diverse array of multi-modal transportation planning projects currently happening at the City of Madison. This position will help in data gathering and research, community engagement, preparing materials for presentations, assisting in writing reports, and helping with project websites and social media. Projects happening over summer 2024 include pedestrian and bicycle planning, bus rapid transit, curbside management and more.
 
The position will have the opportunity to work with all the divisions within the Transportation Department as well as with numerous other City agencies. See firsthand the impact that the planning has by interacting with staff who are overseeing the construction of critical infrastructure that is already underway such as the East-West Bus Rapid Transit, new cycletracks and other multi-modal facilities.

• Currently enrolled in an Associate's, Bachelors, Masters, or Doctoral degree program.

• Those who have graduated from such programs since May of 2022 will also be considered.

• Participation in an employment program pre-approved by the City of Madison listed below since May of 2022. 
  • Centro Hispano
  • Forward Service Corporation
  • Latino Academy
  • Operation Fresh Start
  • Urban League 
  • WRTP-Big Step
  • YWCA Madison

• Some positions will require possession of a valid driver's license.

Salary : $18