The Pittsburgh Department of City Planning is looking for master’s students to complete summer internships with our department. The positions are, unfortunately, unpaid, but I think the content would be very beneficial to a student’s resume (and Pittsburgh’s very affordable over the summer given all the student sublets that are available!). Below I have copied the detailed descriptions for the two positions we are looking to fill:

1. Conservation Districts Intern. This intern will work under the supervision of Felipe Palomo, the Neighborhood Planner for our South Side neighborhoods, on a Citywide project to create a Conservation District overlay in Pittsburgh. We are currently in the process of selecting the members of a Working Group for this project and the intern would assist in the coordination of that working group, in content contribution for the meetings of the Working Group, and in research to follow up each Working Group meeting to aide in preparation for the next Working Group meeting. Depending on how early the intern can start, they may also be involved in the selection of the Working Group. We are looking for someone who enjoys interfacing with the public and is seeking a hands on look at what it means to be a planner in local government trying to create new legislation. To learn more about Conservation Districts, people can visit our website at: http://pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/projects/ncd/index.html. The idea for Conservation Districts in Pittsburgh originated from those created in Philadelphia. Desired skills include: public engagement, policy & land use law, Adobe InDesign skills, event planning experience, and qualitative research capabilities. This intern is expected to work 3-5 days per week and should be studying for their master’s in urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture, historic preservation, anthropology, urban sociology or public policy. We are open to highly qualified undergraduate applicants.

2. Comprehensive Planning & Public Engagement Intern. This intern will split their time between two Neighborhood Planners on three different and exciting projects.
a. The first project would be working with Derek Dauphin, the Neighborhood Planner for our downtown and university neighborhoods, to aid in community engagement and outreach projects in a combination of three or more neighborhoods, including Uptown (specifically in relation to the Uptown EcoInnovation District Plan), the Hill District, and Oakland. They would help to organize at least one community design charrette.
b. The second project the intern will work on will be with Sophia Robison, the Neighborhood Planner for our South Hills and West End neighborhoods and the Project Manager for the City’s Comprehensive Planning effort. With Sophia, the intern will conduct research and interview other municipalities in the US and abroad to identify best practices in Comprehensive Plans for economic development. This project presents an opportunity for the intern to identify specific areas of interest and to explore them; for example, this project could be easily linked and shaped to a master’s thesis or other class project.
c. The third project the intern will work on, also with Sophie Robison, is a Citywide public forum on Community Engagement which will take place in June or July 2018. For this event, the intern will help to coordinate speakers and venue space in conjunction with City staff. The forum will be populated with experts in the field of community engagement from across the country, and will be the kick-starting event to our Comprehensive Planning process in Pittsburgh as we seek to create excellence and pursue innovation in our public engagement strategies, emulating the work done in Austin, Texas on a Public Engagement Plan in preparation for their Comprehensive Plan.
With Derek, the intern will gain experience in hands on urban planning and public engagement work that will be readily transferrable to any job to which they might apply down the road. They will also gain experience in neighborhood planning and in working on small scale projects within the frameworks of larger projects, and so will be exposed to multiple different City departments and neighborhood groups. With Sophia, the intern will develop quantitative and qualitative research skills, public presentation skills, and event & project management skills. Further, the public forum will present a great networking opportunity for the intern. Desired skills for this intern include: public engagement, strong interest in economics and/or real estate, Adobe InDesign skills, event planning, research writing, and experience synthesizing complex research for broader groups. This intern is expected to work 4-5 days per week and should be studying for their master’s in urban planning, public policy, economics, or real estate. We are open to highly qualified undergraduate students.

We are looking for bright and engaging people to add to our friendly and collaborative office in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh. We view our interns as colleagues and help to introduce them to the City, our staff members, and other available learning opportunities. Additionally, we work with our interns to identify concrete goals for the summer and enable them to walk away from the internship with a new skillset that bolsters their resume and helps them to see what it would be like to work as a City Planner. Interns are welcome to attend a broad array of meetings and events in the City, and are also welcome to attend any night meetings held with the community (though we never require interns to attend meetings after work hours). We also hold a couple of office social events (i.e. wine & cheese tasting, escape room, baseball game), and 2-3 professional development events (i.e. mapping technology, Adobe Suite, design charrettes, brown bag lunches with guest speakers), and one office field trip (i.e. the whole office piles in a Parks & Rec vehicle and we tour a part of the City where big projects are happening and then complete a team exercise around that site—these are really fun!) throughout the summer and would hope the intern might find those of interest. While we are unable to pay our interns, we will give preference to students who come with funding of their own (we have had work study students in the past, and have worked with universities/foundations that provide summer funding to students) and are currently working with the City administration to secure a travel stipend for our summer interns (though this is not guaranteed).

Interested applicants should send a cover letter, resume and relevant work sample to Sophia Robison (sophia.robison@pittsburghpa.gov), by Sunday, April 15th, 2018. They should be sure to indicate in their cover letter what interests them about planning in Pittsburgh, and whether they’d like to be considered for both of the above positions or just one. They should additionally, fill out the City’s online application at: https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/Pittsburgh/jobs/1941636/college-intern-city-planning-summer-2018?pagetype=transferJobs. In the dropdown menu asking them to indicate which internship is of interest, the applicant should indicate “Neighborhood Planning”. Please note that we ask applicants apply through both avenues as it can take us several weeks to have access to applications through the job portal, but we cannot select someone as an intern unless their application is in that system. We will schedule interviews on a rolling basis, so the sooner an application can be submitted, the better. Applicants should reach out to Sophia Robison if they have any questions.