Internship Presentation Gabrielle Pennington

Internship Course Overview

COURSE GOALS/OBJECTIVES: • This course is designed as a capstone to the Emergency Management degree

program. Students are to complete a 400-hour work experience, providing the opportunity for practical application of knowledge, skills and abilities acquired throughout the program.

Internship Course Overview cont.

Goals/Objectives for students in this course: 1. Demonstrate the ability to analyze and evaluate the following DEM Core

Competencies: Leadership and Decision Making; Political and Legal Contexts; Ethical and Social Contexts; and Practical Application.

2. Demonstrate practical application of the knowledge and skill attained from undergraduate courses.

3. Create a plan for ongoing expansion of his or her knowledge as an emergency management professional.

My Internship Background

• Cleveland Department of Public Safety – Office of Emergency Management (Cleveland, OH)

• Full-time Internship

• Total of 535.5 Hours Worked (5/9/16 – 8/17/16)

• Worked during the NBA Finals, NBA Championship Parade, and Republican National Convention (RNC)

Overview of Projects

• Read City’s Emergency Operation Plan (EOP)

• Wrote Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) Annex

• Coordinated Knowledge Center Training Sign Ups

• Drafted Burke and Hopkins Airport Annexes

• Assisted with NBA Finals After Action Review (AAR)

• Facilitated RNC Tabletop Exercises

• Organized and Disseminated RNC Emergency Operation Center (EOC) Access Cards

• Assisted with RNC AAR

• Created Post-RNC Contact List

Overview of Meetings and Trainings Attended

• Parade/Special Event Zone Meeting

• Downtown Evacuation Meeting

• Incident Command System (ICS) Training Course

• Cuyahoga County Grant Update

• Crisis Communication Class

• Knowledge Center Training

• Championship Parade AAR Meeting

• RNC Functional Exercise

• RNC AAR Meeting

NBA Finals EOC Activations

• Activated for NBA Games #3 (6/8/16), #4 (6/10/16), #6 (6/16/16), and (final) #7 (6/19/16)

• Games #3, #4, and #6 were held in Cleveland, the Final was held in C.A

• EOC shifts were 1800-0000 normally

• The exception was Game #7 which required me to work 1800 – 0300

• Tasks Included:

• Writing Situation Report (SitReps)

• General maintenance of EOC

• Continued regular office work (Knowledge Center training sign-ups)

Championship Parade EOC Activation

• Activated at 0800 on 6/22/16 and deactivated at 2000

• City had received less than 48 hours notice that parade was set to occur

• It is estimated that there more than 1 Million people in the city that day

• My Tasks:

• Writing SitReps

• Continued regular office work (Knowledge Center trainings)

• Two trainings had to be canceled due to the parade

• I was responsible for rescheduling approximately 60 city employees due to this

Republican National Convention

• EOC was fully-activated 24/7 from 0600 on 7/15/16 to 1800 on 7/22/16

• I was “A” shift which means I worked 0600-1800

• My Tasks: • Writing/Assisting with SitReps

• Checking for individual department/agency status updates

• Office Maintenance

Stories from my Time in the EAM Program Ethical, Social, Political, and Legal Dimensions of Emergency Management I have Encountered

My Presidential Term of IAEM Student Chapter

Political Dilemmas • Worried of the effects that other officers and me leaving in the beginning of

term could have on the organization • It is better for someone to serve who wanted the position and all that it

entails rather than someone who stayed only because they felt obligated • The bylaws state that, in order for a president to step down, the vice

president must take over until an election can be held • The vice president at the time was not necessarily the best equipped for

the task of presidency

My Presidential Term of IAEM Student Chapter

Political Dilemmas cont. •Tasks for the IAEM conference that was coming up

• I had to be sure that someone would be able to continue the documentation and registration process once I stepped down

My Presidential Term of IAEM Student Chapter

Legal Dilemma •Lack of a treasurer for an entire semester •The financial documentation required for the IAEM conference

• All forms that the university required the organization to complete had my name listed as president • The new or acting president had to update and change them so that they would be correct

Ethics Class

Social Dilemma • Debates occasionally escalated past professional standpoints and into purely

personal views • I had to determine how to insert my opinion into the conversation while not

escalating the tension further • I opted for a confident and understanding approach • This allowed me to state my opinion in a non-confrontational manner while still getting

through to the masses

Ethics Class

Social Dilemma cont. • This action is great in theory but fails to take into account is people’s counter

actions against me • Every individual in the room had the opportunity to step back and cease their

role in the tension

Ethics Class

Ethical Dilemma •Autonomy- the right for one to make their own choices

• Extends beyond choices that have a physical act (ex. one has the right to choose to procrastinate on a paper until the last minute) to also include the right to have one’s own opinion

•Issues with me personally accepting someone’s autonomy came up occasionally, usually on controversial political topics

Ethics Class

Ethical Dilemma cont. •I chose to state my opinion with as much fact and evidence as possible, but if someone chose to not believe me or to disagree with me then there was little I could do to remedy that

• This does not mean I eagerly accepted their opinion or never appeared a bit confrontational, just that eventually some form of agreement was made

Summary

Goals/Objectives I accomplished throughout this course: 1. I was a leader in our professional community, both in the student

organization and in the classroom. 2. I demonstrated by ability to accomplish tasks in high-pressure moments

during the EOC activations at my internship. 3. I am planning on continuing my education through graduate school and

acquiring more experience through internships

Gabrielle Pennington Emergency Management / Homeland Security

Arkansas Tech University

gpennington@atu.edu

440.487.5763