Agenda - Planning Commission - 05/05/2011

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UN °ER ]]Y OF \IiN\ES()] \ Gold': job, internship, and volunteer listings Are you interested in affordably gaining additional skilled capacity in your planning office and mentoring a prospective planner? If so, you might consider engaging a Landscape Planning student at the University of Minnesota (UM) as an intern for a minimum of 250 hours. Who are the Interns? The interns are students in an undergraduate UM major called Landscape Planning The major is lo- cated in the College of Design. Graduates of this program are employable as Planning Technicians in pub- lic and private planning offices. They are required to complete a 250-hour internship typically in the sum- mer between their junior and senior years. The internship is an opportunity to work in a professional envi- ronment under the guidance of a planning professional. It is a transitional step between students' education and their professional careers. What skills and understandings do the interns possess? Before their internship, students will have completed 57 credit hours of course work in Geography and Planning, as well as Environmental Design. Students will have strong skills and know how to: • Draw and sketch for Environmental Design, including hand rendering and applying various compo- nents of Adobe Creative Suites 4TM (e.g. InDesign and Photoshop). • Use ArcGISTM geographic information systems technology in various spatial analysis and carto- graphic representational capacities. • Analyze environmental information important to community and regional planning and integrate these analyses into development of various types of planning documents. • Gather and analyze information relevant to routine issues in planning administration (e.g. site plan review and zoning variance requests). • Examine the implications of planning proposals, using various criteria for evaluating social and physical impacts. What are my responsibilities as an Internship Supervisor? Students work with their prospective planning internship supervisors and a faculty member to construct an internship work program that meets the needs of the prospective internship supervisor as well as the stu- dent. While intern compensation varies by organization, the National Association of Colleges and Employ- ers reports that typical interns receive $16 per hour. Your obligation would be to supervise the intern's completion of job responsibilities outlined in an internship agreement and to complete a one -page question- naire regarding your evaluation of the intern's performance. How do I get more information? If you are interested in engaging an intern, or if you think it might be a good idea but have some ques- tions, we invite you to contact Professor Brad Agee (ageex004(p�umn.edu) and to register your internship interest at UM Goldpass (goldpass.umn.edu). We are interested in establishing longer -term relationships with planning offices and planning firms who find the Landscape Planning Internship program to be useful to their operations. We hope to optimize the value of the internship program to local practitioners as well as to the students and our curriculum. Brad Agee, Director of Undergraduate Studies Department of Landscape Architecture College of Design University of Minnesota ageex004@umn.edu, 612-281-9957 David G. Pitt, Ph.D., AICP, Professor Department of Landscape Architecture College of Design University of Minnesota pittx001@umn.edu, 612-625-7370 planning minnesota April, 2011 13