CRP interns tackle city projects
Eleven KSA students have been tackling numerous projects in their internships with the City of Columbus. Although the majority of the interns work primarily for the neighborhood services division in assisting their assigned area commissions and civic associations, interns have also done projects for other departments including the Office of Land Management, the Planning Division and the Historic Preservation Office.
This year?s projects covered a wide range of topics. Interns assisted the long range planning division in the formulation of a draft proposal for the Alum Creek Neighborhood Plan. They produced property specification sheets, researched and helped write infill house guidelines, created maps of tax delinquent properties, created a survey to distribute to Ohio Department of Transportation workers, researched potential grant sources for residential/community security, prepared the draft of the neighborhood conservation district city code and coordinated various area newsletters, among other tasks.
In addition to projects, the City of Columbus made professional development opportunities a priority for the interns. In the past year, interns have participated in numerous seminars and conferences, including those at the OSU Department of African American and African Studies Community Extension Center, the American Planning Association?s National Planning Conference in Washington, DC and the Franklin County Conservatory?s ?Urban Garden Academy.?
For over 20 years the program has successfully prepared students to enter into the planning profession and has provided Columbus? neighborhoods with the necessary technical assistance to address many difficult challenges. Interns work an average of 20 hours per week during the fall, winter and spring academic quarters.
2003-04 intern Jake Boswell gained ?a good understanding of how the city, with its various departments and divisions, works.? ?As much as we would like it to be, planning is not, and cannot be, isolated from politics,? he said. ?Working for the city has given me at least a basic understanding of the various political forces at play within the city.?
2003-04 interns were Parag Agrawal, Jake Boswell, Anoa Changa, LaToya Grate, Anne Hersch, Dilip Karpoor, Tom Lodge, Andrew Overbeck, Andy Smith, Stephen Varga and Robb Watson.
Posted: 9/22/2004