Internship Location: Madison, WI
Organization Type: State Government
Policy Areas: Economic/Community Development
This summer, I interned with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue in the Division of State and Local Finance and Secretary’s Office. In both positions, I learned about the internal and external communication strategies of a state-government agency and the importance of communication with employees and various stakeholders. Due to the nature of a communications internship, I was more involved in operations and management for the Department of Revenue instead of policy related research. I helped the Local Government Services Bureau collect data for ARPA funding and reporting. This project involved managing a large data set and updating it according to the new information from the recipients. The rest of my tasks with the State and Local Finance Division overlapped heavily with the Secretary’s Office. The major project for the Secretary’s Office was creating a DOR LinkedIn page and gathering content for it. The Secretary’s Office wanted to highlight a lot of the valuable data and findings from the Research and Policy Division. I sat in on economic update meetings and attended outreach events with the Secretary and Chief Economist and posted highlights on DOR social media platforms. I made a lot of connections between this internship and classes like Microeconomic Policy Analysis and Public Management. Many of the topics discussed in the economics class were discussed daily at my internship and I experienced firsthand many of the topics discussed in Public Management