Noalani Hendricks

Senior at Cedar Crest College

My summer internship at the National Academy of Public Administration aided in my professional development. Even small details made an impact. For example, just by virtue of working in a public administration space, I became more familiar with jargon in that field. I learned what things like “Yellow Book” and “360 reviews” meant. Additionally, I was able to visit the GAO with my study team, and also visit them again during an excursion exclusively organized for NAPA interns to learn about GAO career opportunities.

At the start of my internship, I was tasked with brainstorming social media ideas with the COMM team. However, as time went on, my main assignment was to help write and edit meeting notes for the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine study team! I wrote and edited well over twenty meeting notes gathered during interviews with sponsors and stakeholders from a variety of organizations such as NASA. The notes collected during those interviews were later used to produce an internal report. Also, the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s study team was in the process of preparing to present their preliminary findings. The aim of the study team’s internal report is to provide guidance for the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. That guidance should help the Academies implement changes to improve employee satisfaction and their re-branding process, amongst other goals.

On the study team, I worked with a dynamic trio including the project manager Cynthia Heckman, Dr. Joe Mitchell, and Dr. Jonathan Tucker. From my team members, I learned important lessons on professionalism. For example, I learned how to approach the professional writing process with greater sophistication, etiquette on how to interact with others in a professional setting, and more. The most transformational part of it all was learning how to increase my work ethic. From my summer internship, I take away greater confidence in my ability to perform in a professional capacity, a broader network, and a newfound appreciation of public administration’s capacity to enact social change.