Thank You - CEMHS

Everyone at CEMHS;

Thank you all so much for allowing me the opportunity to intern with you this semester at the Center for Emergency Management and Homeland Security at ASU. The amount of knowledge you have, and your willingness to share it with me and guide me on my journey is much appreciated. I am so thankful for your willingness to get me involved with as much as you could and help provide me as many tools and resources as you could for me to be successful. In addition to your knowledge within the field, I also thank you for the life lessons that you have helped to provide in such a short period of time. I do not think my words can convey my sincerest gratitude for all of the knowledge and information you have passed on to me, but I thank you all so much.

Devinn

Reflection on Goals

Looking back at my first blog post, I had three goals:
1. Begin to understand the life of a professional
2. Network within my field
3. Gain a better understanding of Emergency Management and Homeland Security

I think I would have to say that I met every goal I set out to achieve through my internship this semester. I had the opportunity to sit in on meetings and work on projects in a professional environment that really helped me understand what it means to join the “working world”. Sitting in on the various meetings and working on various projects throughout the semester, I had the opportunity to meet and connect with various people of different groups and backgrounds and got to experience how they fit into the EM/HS structure. Overall, I got to more fully explore the EM/HS field and apply my coursework (both past and current) to my internship, and vice versa. Being able to make the connections between the classroom and the professional world was extremely beneficial and really help me correlate and organize my thoughts.

I learned what it meant to join the professional world and began to get a better understanding of how this operates vs the classroom environment. While there are many similarities between the two, it is definitely very different and being able to compare and contrast them and have separate mindsets for each environment was something I focused on this semester.

Career Services is not just for careers

Previously, I wrote a blog articles which detailed where I was at in my life, and how I did not exactly know where I was going in the future with regards to beginning a career or continuing to move forward with my education. Over these past few months, the idea of grad school has been growing on me more and more and continued to become something that was not just an idea, but a legitimate option. I met with a few people I know currently working in higher education at ASU, and I spoke with them to get a better idea of why they chose that as their career path. Many of them did not enter higher education with that being their goal as an undergrad so I wanted to see what drew them to that position. These conversations really had an impact with me, and at this point, I am fairly sure that is the path I will be taking. However, with this in mind, I set up an appointment with career services. There, I voiced many of my same thoughts and ideas, and I was introduced to something that I was unaware of - career services offers services to help with grad school. These services such as the ability to review personal statements, and even provide free or reduced GRE and other grad test prep courses. I was completely unaware that these services were offered, and I found out that career services isn't just available to help you find your career, but they are also there to help you down whatever path you choose to pursue, even if that is grad school.

Working in Teams

One of the most profound experiences of this internship has been the ability to work in teams and groups. Going through school and college, I absolutely hated group work. Having to rely on others to do their fair share (which often didn't happen), arrange meeting times, and oftentimes create/present a presentation always created more headaches than it seemed to be worth. However, throughout my internship, I have had the chance to work with others on quite a few different projects and this has completely changed my outlook on this type of work. I have found that everyone is taking the projects seriously and actually feels some sort of investment in the project at hand. Suddenly, everyone is doing their share of work and it is actually hard for me to keep up at times. I am a person that very much relies on human interaction and talking with people, but group project environment were absolutely awful. But now, after working with others who are committed to a cause and truly get excited about what they are doing because it means something to them, and isn't just a grade, has given me a lot more appreciation and excitement for working in groups and teams in the future. I just hope moving forward with whatever path I choose that I continue to work with people who are doing the job because it means more to them than just a paycheck. Only time will tell.

Sex/Human Trafficking

One of the areas I have had some experience with in my research for the CEMHS is sex/human trafficking. In addition, I have had the opportunity to use this as a foundation for my PAF 400 capstone project. Going into this semester, I had very little experience with this topic, and to be quite frank, the knowledge of how "real" of a problem this is.

Through my research this semester, I have found that there is actually very little research on this subject, and many people fail to see this as a real problem in their communities. This is a problem. Initially, I wanted to look at more in-depth issues like "who" was involved, both victims and the traffickers. Unfortunately, there just is not much research because there is a problem with our perception and awareness of human trafficking as a society.

When it comes to awareness of human trafficking, we often equate this with the dramatic movie scenes depicting excessively slave-like conditions. However, this is not normally the case. In addition, we often consider sex trafficking to be a bigger and more egregious problem than human trafficking. While sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking, it often leads us to only think of that as a problem, and neglect the other, often more abundant, cases. For instance, forced labor is a very real problem; however, we will often overlook this as an issue because the labor itself may not be illegal, even though the people working in those legal conditions may be working against their own will.

Another aspect I looked into regarding this issue is the resources that are available for those that are victims or may see the signs of a victim in their communities. Comparatively, to other more well-known problems, there are not many. This is also a result of a lack of awareness. If there is not a greater awareness to the issue, then people will be slow to provide resources. As awareness increases, then resources increase, which will also continue to increase awareness. An increase in one leads to an increase in another, but a decrease in one idea can also lead to a decrease in another.

Most of us are unaware that sex/human trafficking can occur right here in the United States, in our own cities and our own communities. We often think of this is an issue that occurs in third-world countries, but that is definitely not the case. There needs to be an increase in the awareness of human trafficking and a willingness to admit that it could be happening right in front of our own eyes. Until this happens, there will continue to be a lack of resources and overall inability to address this issue on a greater scale.

Strengths of CEMHS

Working with the CEMHS for the semester has really given me the opportunity to see how a successful organization, specifically a research center, is run. One of the things I have noticed to be very beneficial is how the responsibilities are delegated. For instance, we have many different projects going on at a time, and while everyone is informed of the overall happenings in each project, the specifics of each project are being handled somewhat independently. This allows everyone to focus on their projects, and keeping everything moving forward without being too overwhelmed.

Another strength is communication. There is a constant flow of emails going around that keep everyone informed of everything going on and where we are at in each process. This allows people to focus on the goals, and also allows people to be aware of a networking connection they may be able to make if there is an opportunity to bring multiple projects together.

If I was in charge of an organization like this, I am not sure that there is much I would do differently. Obviously those in charge have many more years experience managing people than I do, and I think that they have found the most effective way to do this. It can be tough for them to constantly push others to move on projects and be proactive when they can, and do it in a very motivating way, which is something that has been accomplished. Everyone involved is invested, and that goes a long way to ensuring that everything is getting done.

Fork Ahead?

One of my biggest struggles through my college career has been finding a major that I enjoy, and also makes me feel like I am accomplishing something that is fulfilling for me. As I have mentioned in a pervious blog post, I have changed my major 6 times, but only once while at ASU. While working in my internship, I was hoping that this would provide me with an overwhelming sense of "THIS IS WHAT I WAS MEANT TO DO FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!" but that hasn't quite occurred as planned.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am enjoying the work that I am doing, but I have found myself thinking a lot about the "next steps". For instance, do I want to pursue a career within EM or HS...or both...or neither? While there are lots of similarities between the two fields and a lot of overlap, there are some distinct differences. I was hoping that my final semester, internship included, would provide a lot more clarity for me than it has thus far. I think I can admit that I am just unsure what the future has for me and this feeling is just because I do not know where I will be or what I will be doing in ten, or even five, years from now. I can see myself working in this field and making a difference, but I am also worried about actually enjoying the career that I will have and what I will be doing. As a result, I have been contemplating more and more the idea of grad school.

Those who know me know that I am decently well involved at ASU, especially within housing and working with the freshman students. I had the opportunity to serve as a Community Assistant (synonymous with Resident Assistant) for two years on the Downtown Phoenix Campus and I also teach a freshman ASU 101 class for the College of Public Service. More and more, I continue to find myself considering the idea of working full-time with students and the idea of empowering and enabling them to succeed in life. Ultimately, I do not know where I will be or what I will be doing in the coming months, and I can see two very advantageous paths to take in life, but I also see a fork approaching in the road where I may have to make a decision that I hope is the right one for me.

Public Service within CEMHS

It’s really easy to say that the Center for Emergency Management and Homeland Security demonstrates public service because it is housed within the College of Public Service and Community Solutions. But, what is it about the CEMHS that allows us to have this impact?

Ultimately, we are working to research solutions for anything and everything Emergency Management and Homeland Security related, and the most effective way to implement these solutions for the betterment of our communities. For example, looking into way in which to reduce the time it takes for testing and identifying someone who may have an infectious disease, such as Ebola, to ensure that they are less likely to infect others and also allow for quicker response to aid them. Another instance is looking into way in which we can improve the training time and efficiency for first responders and incident command to ensure that they are the most efficient possible to minimize the amount of damage to people and property. Not only are we looking at ways in which this stuff can be accomplished, but also how WE could accomplish it and what it would take for us to take the research we have gather and package it so that we can utilize our new information. In the world of EM/HS there are so many “what-ifs” and, as a result, there are many agencies and organizations that would be needed to assist and aid in the efforts. As part of our public service and community driven approach we continue to look into the most effective ways to utilize various groups/agencies and create a cooperative plan for all kinds of disaster situations, no matter the scope.

The Final Countdown

As the end of the semester draws more near with each passing moment, I am beginning to reflect a lot of my life at ASU and how these past 2.5 years have changed me. I cannot believe that I will be graduating in 4.5 weeks, considering I started my undergraduate college career 6 years ago. The challenges I have faced and the obstacles that I have overcome really make me realize how much I have grown and matured, especially after coming to ASU.

Leading into the "real world" I know that I am going to be facing many new challenges and obstacles that I haven't even remotely considered. It is a bit scary to think about all of the unknowns that are ahead. I can feel myself becoming more and more anxious with each day, but excitedly anxious. While taking a moment to reflect and realize all that I have been apart of, it makes me understand how and why things happened they way that they did. Initially, I never thought I would attend college out of state, especially coming somewhere like ASU, but it was the greatest decision that I have made thus far.

The opportunity to be part of the College of Public Service and Community Solutions, in the capacity that I have, has opened my eyes and given more than I ever could have imagined. As someone who changed their major 6 times (yes, 6...) I never initially thought that I would end up in EM/HS and how that would affect that person I have become. The people I have met, the organizations I have been involved with, and the opportunities, including my internship, have shown me a lot about myself and what makes me feel that I am living a successful life. To me, I measure my success by my ability and willingness to help others, and the College of Public Service has really shown me what that means.

My tank was drained

This semester has caused me to invest a lot of time into my classes as well as my internship and my job. As a result, I neglected a lot of personal time for myself in lieu of catching up on sleep or schoolwork and just trying to keep my head above water. There was a point a few weeks ago where a friend called me out on it, telling me that they could see that I wasn't being my normal self. This led them to introducing me to a YouTube video which discuss the importance of input-output as related to your life. When times get tough, and you become swamped in work related tasks, it becomes even more important that you take time to do fun events, even though it may not seem the most productive.

You see, all of these work related tasks, and school work, etc. all are considered "outputs". If you think of yourself as a holding tank, these are the things that drain your tank. Now, the fun things in your life that you do for yourself are "inputs", and these are the things you do that fill your tank. If there is a greater amount of output than input, it will cause your tank to become empty, which is where the stress and anxiety come in. This is where I was at. My tank was completely dry. Taking the time to find things that can replenish and fill your tank become even more important because it means that you have more to give...more output. After identifying what the "outputs" and "inputs" are in your life, it can lead to a much more balanced, and productive life. Taking the steps to identify these things for me was a great improvement, and in the two weeks since then, I have noticed a considerable increase in my "quality of life". I am putting more effort into everything and everything seems to have slowed down and allowed me to relax and breathe a bit more.

Leadership and Change

One of the classes for my major, Leadership and Change (which, if I recall correctly, is PAF 311 or something like that) focused on how you can incite change as a leader...imagine that. But more so, what I have learned from my internship, and the other leadership roles I have this semester, is how leadership is changing ME. I have the greatest amount of responsibility this semester thanks to my active leadership roles on campus and the groups that I am part of.

Through my internship, I have seen that leadership is huge. Because I am not always reporting to an office, I am required to take leadership and get the necessary work accomplished without someone constantly looking over my shoulder. This can make it incredibly easy to push things aside, or lose sight of the priorities I have in my life. Undertaking more leadership, has led me to better understand and reevaluate my obligations and the importance of various things in my life. This has led to great growth, and with this growth, comes the growing pains.

Thankfully, I have been able to work with others, both peers and supervisors, who have helped me understand and identify the bigger priorities in my life. Until now, I used to let a lot of the smaller details in life get to me and cause me stress. However, now I see from the efforts of others that there are much bigger responsibilities in life, and while the little things may be important, eventually, they aren't always the most important things right at that exact moment. Being able to see my peers and supervisors prioritize their lives has shown me that this efficiency allows them to make a greater impact. Not just professionally, but personally as well. The encouragement I get from those around me, as well as an understanding, is helping me succeed much more than I initially expected that I would.

Senioritis. It does exist.

One of the biggest, constant, struggles I have encountered throughout this semester is the senioritis. Anyone who has been in high school, or in college, can attest that senioritis is a thing, and boy do I have it. With my graduation date coming at the end of the semester, I am having more and more trouble taking my tasks day-by-day and I am constantly looking into the post-college future, fearfully. It is crazy to think that when we leave for winter break, I will not be coming back to ASU…at least for now. After spending the last 5ish years of my life consistently in college, it’ll be time for me to take that next step into adulthood, and that is a scary thought. As much as I know I am prepared, I am still facing the “unknown” of what I will be doing and where I will be. While trying to focus on the challenges and tasks of today, I constantly finding myself wondering about the unknowns I will be facing in the very short future.

Profile/Interview

For this blog, I am choosing to profile/interview Rick Dale, the Director for the Center of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (CEMHS), where I am completing my internship. Rick’s main role with CEMHS is all things research related. His background comes from public safety in the private sector, while working alongside various public and nonprofit agencies throughout the country. Rick got into public safety after working as a police officer for his hometown police department. He eventually began his own company, iXP Corp, which focused on public safety communication systems. After leaving the company in summer 2013, he came to ASU to help lead the CEMHS.

            Educationally, the Emergency Management/Homeland Security degrees are fairly new and uncommon. If the field is specifically EM/HS related, a Bachelor’s Degree, with appropriate work/internship experience, could be all that is needed. However, a Master’s Degree in EM/HS never looks bad either. The EM/HS career field is full of individuals who learned the job as it became a job following events like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, etc. As a result, the formal education component is quite new.

            One thing that he would stress to someone interested in EM/HS is the idea of creativity in solutions. In addition, it is also important to not only find the solutions, but deliver them as well. A lot of the work done within this field is very proactive and requires forward-thinking. You have to think ahead and prepare for any “what-if” scenarios that you can. With the advancements of new technology, you can utilize these new advancements in EM/HS relief efforts to provide more creative, and efficient, solution delivery.

            This field interests me because it serves the public and allows for creativity and utilization of various things. It’s an opportunity to coordinate efforts between various public/private/nonprofit sectors from all over the region, state, and even the nation. At the end of the day, it will create a better environment and a better solution for our communities which will lead to improved cooperation and a stronger society.

Communication and the age of emails

Emails. All of them. Participating in this internship has cause my daily email counts to skyrocket and extended 3-4x more than I was getting per day. In addition, I have various other campus organizations and, as an instructor, also plenty of emails from students. All of this has led me to completely reorganizing my email inbox in an effort to better manage and communicate with higher priority and efficiency. My internship doesn't always involve me sitting in an office and oftentimes we will communicate daily via an email chain with 12-15 people. This makes it incredibly difficult to manage communications and even participate in the discussion when I am also in the process of going to class or working at my job. By sorting my emails appropriately and not having one giant inbox, I have learned a much better way to manage my professional/academic communications. In addition, I have also utilized the Outlook Calendar to keep a schedule for meetings/events/classes/etc. It has become very effective in helping me better manage my communication, and my time.

Hurry Up and Wait

One of the "big ideas" that has been ingrained into my brain during the time with my internship is "hurry up, and wait". While interning with CEMHS, we have been working on various different projects, and each of these projects involves working with private businesses, or government agencies. As a result, we work very diligently on these projects to push timelines and get things done; but, in return, we oftentimes wait much longer to get responses to continue the next phase of the project. Therefore, this idea of "hurry up, and wait" reflects exactly what we have been doing for this semester. Working very hard, very quickly to get the ball out of our court and back into the court of the other people we are working with has been a constant theme. This definitely creates some very hectic and stressful times when we are working on completing our end of the project, but then also creates some very large lulls in the project when we are waiting days, or sometimes even weeks, for information to return.

Career Week

As part of Career Week, I attended the Internship and Career Fair in Downtown Phoenix. This even was just like every other internship and career fair that I've attended at ASU in the past, which is good and bad. For the most part, all of the companies/agencies there have been around at the previous 2 career fairs that I have gone too. This can be a good thing though because it allows people the opportunity to build some relationships with the people from these companies/agencies. Oftentimes, it will be the same people from the same places. Unfortunately, this also means that there never really is anything that catches your eye or draws your attention because they are there time and time again. Overall, I didn't get a lot out of the event, but that's also because I am also very highly contemplating graduate school in the future. Therefore, my mind is not really set on trying to acquire a job or start a career at this time.

Life moves on, regardless if you move with it

So far, this semester has been one of the most challenging in my life. There have been quite a few unexpected circumstances that I have had to deal with that are things that I haven't encountered before. I've realized through this that the days keep going and you have to find a way to keep up with things and get tasks done, regardless of the circumstances that you may encounter. Sometimes, the last thing you want to do, or even have time to do, is sit down and work on the things you need to do so you can keep moving forward when it seems as though the world is trying to hold you back. Your mind just isn't there completely, and it makes it more difficult to focus and do a job well. Normally, I am pretty good with dealing with stress and balancing my various commitments and life, but this semester has started off very challenging and right off of the bat, I see this semester is testing my limits and teaching me some very valuable life lessons.

What is a Typical Day?

I do not think a "typical" day is how I would describe my involvement at my internship. It is rare for me to do the same thing two days in a row, which I am very thankful for because it keeps things from becoming stale and mundane. My days continually rotate on an unpredictable basis, but some general days are spent by doing research, proofreading/editing presentations, tagging along in meetings, and/or attending relevant presentations.

Research: Pretty self-explanatory but I'll be on the computer searching for important facts/statistics we can use to further the current ventures we are undertaking. I am looking for ways to connect or link various ideas or issues in a way that the CEMHS can help accomplish the goals or resolve the issues.

Proofreading/Editing: I have spent quite a few different days reading through PowerPoint presentations looking for redundant statements, consistency in statements/acronyms, and making sure that the overall flow makes sense with a clear goal and purpose in mind.

Meetings: I have posted an entire blog regarding meetings, but these have been one of my most enjoyable experiences thus far...I'm sure that will change eventually, haha.

Presentations: I have had the opportunity to listen to a few guest speakers talk about issues that pertain to the CEMHS and it has been great to experience how issues throughout the globe cross so many barriers. They have showed me that working within EM/HS includes a lot of involvement working with various other sectors of business and how they all need to interact and assist one another.

Overall, there have been no "typical" days which is great because it means that I am not becoming board with anything. There are so many various avenues we are working on and I am getting the opportunity to work within a lot of these situations very differently.

Meetings

Now, this may sound strange to some, but the meetings I have been involved in have been NOTHING like I have expected. Generally, when I think of meetings, I think of someone in the front of a conference room with a computer, projector, and laser pointer directing everyone in the room to look at some statistics and fancy graphs. However, I have seen NONE of this...and it is fantastic.

The meetings I have been fortunate to be involved in have consisted of very accomplished individuals engaging in lots of discussion in a round-table format. While I consider myself to be there only to be "seen and not heard" and just observe, I have had the opportunity to listen to some great points and learn about things that I have very little knowledge or background in. Some of the meetings are a bit above my head in context; however, the demeanor and actions of those in the meetings are something that I can always address and learn from regardless of the context of the meeting. I have appreciated learning how people interact and challenge the thinking of their peers in very formal and business-like environment.

The Speed of the Working World

One of the first major things that I have noticed through my internship and the people I am working with is that they like to move...fast. Many people can attest to the fact that "government work is slow" and sometimes that translates into public universities as well. In my experience dealing with ASU, it is not necessarily the quickest moving situation I have been in. Going into my internship, I didn't necessarily believe that things would move slow, but I definitely did not consider that things would be moving as fast as they are.

Many days there are dozens of emails/calls/texts/etc. exchanged in an effort to keep moving forward. While this definitely makes sense, sometimes it has become difficult to keep up with the speed of everything while also attending to my classes and other club responsibilities on campus. I recognized that the reason many of the things going on in the CEMHS are happening so quickly is because many of the people involved come from the public sector, where business moves fast. Many of them have interacted with governments and/or universities in the past, but they operate the CEMHS as a business, in the sense that communication and daily activities are rapidly moving. This has presented a challenge to me to stay on top of things and be involved after a day away where I may not get a chance to sit down at the computer and read emails until 10pm after most of the dialogue has concluded for the day. As difficult as that is to adjust to, I enjoy the speed of everything because it is presenting a challenge and really giving me an opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities.

CEMHS and Me

This semester I am interning with the Center for Emergency Management and Homeland Security (CEMHS), here at Arizona State University. The Center was founded in Fall of 2013 by three individuals in an effort to bring an emergency management and homeland security (EM/HS) research center and academic program to ASU. My daily activities with this organization vary greatly from day to day. I have been tasked with assisting in many different projects such as infectious diseases s well as human/sex trafficking, including others. My responsibilities include assisting with research in infectious diseases, human trafficking, the need for emergency management simulation labs, etc. One advantage to this is that I am getting a hand in a little bit of everything that the CEMHS is doing, and getting the opportunity to make connections and network with many people from very different backgrounds, who all seem to have a common goal - serve the public and make the world a better, and safer, place. As the semester continues, I will be tasked with continuing to assist in all areas as needed and providing support with research, editing/proofreading presentation documents, etc. I am getting the opportunity to experience, firsthand, just how diverse the EM/HS field really is and how many issues, such as infectious diseases, may present many difficulties and challenges that I have never really considered before. This internship is really challenging the scope and creativity of my thinking in an effort to see that almost anything can become a EM/HS issue.

I am Devinn Phillips and I am a Senior undergraduate student at Arizona State University. I am originally from the Seattle, Washington area and come to ASU after completing my Associates Degree from a local community college back home. This semester I am going to be interning with the Center for Emergency Management and Homeland Security at Arizona State University, which falls directly in line with my major - Public Service and Public Policy (Emergency Management and Homeland Security).

Throughout my internship, there are three main goals that I wish to achieve. The first is to begin to understand the life of a professional. Until now, I have always been a student learning in the classroom, participating in clubs and organizations, and working on homework. While I have had jobs outside of school, they have always been jobs you would expect a student to have and I have very little experience in the professional, business world. The second goal that I have is to network with professionals in my field. This internship is going to give me the opportunity to network both within the academic and business worlds and it is incredibly important to reach out and show my enthusiasm for my field of work starting as soon as possible. As the saying goes, "it is not what you know, it is who you know" and the internship is a great opportunity to get to know many professionals within the emergency management and homeland security fields. A third goal I have for my internship is to gain a complete and better understanding of the emergency management and homeland security fields. I've had the opportunity to learn in the classroom, but sometimes it can be hard to see how the classroom learning will be applicable to the real world. My third goal focuses on taking the classroom learning and seeing how it can directly correlate to the professional world.