Listen to Zack (2020) talk about his experience as a Legislative Intern in New York City council member Helen Rosenthal’s office this summer.

Stephanie: Hi You're listening to Gear Up the Duke Career Centers student produce podcasts showcasing real students summer internship experiences. My name is Stephanie Mayle and today we're talking, to Zack who worked, for New York City, City Council matter this summer.

Zack: Hi there, my name's Zack Guffey, I’m a senior here. I am studying public policy. I have a minor in music.

Stephanie: Oh that's cool.

Zack: Yeah, I've played the trumpet since the third grade, but since getting here I've started pursuing public policy.

Stephanie: And where did you work this past summer?

Zack: So this past summer, I was an intern in New York City Council member Helen Rosenthal's legislative office. So I worked directly with the legislative director. My primary responsibilities were memo writing. I attended a lot of committee hearings and I did a lot of research for the council member when she was making decisions on votes and policy issues. And I even got the opportunity to write two opinion pieces that were since published on issues that were important to the council member.

Stephanie: What issues were they?

Zack: The first one was on the city's, in my opinion, broken procurement process. So basically New York City subcontracts a lot of its human centered work, which includes homeless shelters, food pantries, some of the most vital services for the the city and the city is very, very bad about paying those subcontractors, which are often nonprofits on time.

Zack: And so what these nonprofits end up doing is they end up going to banks and getting loans to cover their costs that are growing and mounting. As New York City is late to pay its bills. And so it's a burden on organizations that are in New York City trying to do good. And so that was one opinion piece. And I think I remember the other one was, oh, well, it's big news now in New York City. The New York City Council just approved the borough-based jails program. And so that includes closing Rikers Island and opening up new modern community-based jails in each of the boroughs. And one very small subset of this issue is what to do with the women. As chair of the Committee on Women in Gender Equity, my council member was pushing for a women's only facility in one of the boroughs. So that was the other opinion piece that I wrote on.

Stephanie: Also important, so how did you get connected to this council members specifically and kind of find he opportunity to work for her?

Zack: So I actually was of the belief that I didn't want to run to DC as quickly as possible and work in some congressperson’s office. I really thought that it was my day to day would look like for them would be picking up phones and replying to emails and stuff like that. And so I was not that excited to pursue that for my summer internship. And so I for personal reasons. My family is from New York. I'm from New York, wanted to be in New York City during the summer. So there are only so many public policy options in New York City, and one of which included the mayor's office and the city council. And so I started poking around on the city council's Web site looking for council members that one have internship programs and two are sort of interesting. And so obviously not many people know about like the internal functioning of local New York City politics. But council member Rosenthal is running for city comptroller in 2021. This is her second term as a city council member, and she's fairly influential and chairs the Committee on Women and Gender Equity. So I reached out to her. I had a phone interview with her former legislative director, Ned Terrace, and we hit it off and here I am.

Stephanie Yeah, I am one of those people that does not know the inner workings of New York City Council. So, I mean, how many people are also working very like what was the