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This summer CPED was joined by 10 young, bright STEP-UP
interns. They worked throughout the department learning about the diverse
programs and services CPED provides for those who live, work, and play in the
City of Minneapolis. We asked them to share their experiences through a
series of stories for this special STEP-UP focused edition of The Bridge. The interns had the opportunity to interview each other as well as share their
own experiences in a separate article. Following are the submissions we
received, we hope you enjoy this special issue.
STEP-UP Intern Profiles
Jessica Enwesi
 Written by Zakaria Mohamed
Jessica Enwesi is the Zoning Administration intern. Her supervisor is Brad Ellis. Last spring, Jessica graduated from Southwest High School. She will be attending Iowa State University this fall. She will be studying Broadcast Journalism in order to become a Middle East news correspondent. She has two sisters, one of whom will soon be married. She’s the youngest of three. She loves to watch scary movies but her favorites are Rent and Clueless. She likes running, biking, writing, and playing soccer. She’s Nigerian and she has visited twice, once in 2000 and again in 2010.
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Ashley Yang
 Written by Alexia Harris
Ashley Yang is a CPED intern working with Operations and Innovations.
She will be a junior at South High School and a freshman at Minneapolis
Community and Technical College (MCTC) through Post-Secondary Enrollment Option
(PSEO). During the school year, Ashley takes leadership positions in clubs and
extracurricular. She is a worship leader at Victory in Christ Assembly of God
(her church), a recruiter for the Minneapolis South Delegation YMCA Youth in
Government club, and the Vice President of the Asian Student
Association club at South. After graduation, Ashley plans to transfer to
Rochester Institute of Technology or Columbia University to finish her
academic career. She has interests in agriculture and civil engineering, physics, chemistry, and medicine.
Ashley enjoys running, singing, and playing sports. When
free, she enjoys reenacting scenes from her favorite films. Be careful, you
just may see Mulan around.
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Zakaria Mohamed
 Written by Jessica Enwesi
Zakaria is an intern for Residential and Real Estate Development and works closely with Abdul Jama, the lead engineer. Zakaria is a rising senior at Richfield High School but partakes in Post-Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO). After high school, Zakaria plans to attend Iowa State University to study Civil Engineering, a career he’s dreamed of for many years.
He likes to play basketball with his friends at school or the park and has seven brothers and sisters. Zakaria also enjoys reading many different types of books and traveling around the world as well. Although he was born in Kenya, he was raised here from an early age. He is fluent in both Somali and English.
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Alexia Harris
 Written by Ashley Yang
Alexia Harris is a second year STEP-UP participant and this summer she's working with CPED’s Employment and Training. Last summer, Alexia worked with Teen Teamworks through the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board. This fall, Alexia will be a senior at North High School. She plans to attend college after graduation. Alexia says that before her summer internship with CPED, she wanted to study forensic science, but with all the career exposure, she is now unsure. With a bright future ahead of her, STEP-UP has provided Alexia an experience that will take her a long way.
When free, Alexia enjoys playing volleyball, swimming, going to the movies, snacking on her all-time favorite, Hot Cheetos, and out shopping with family and friends. One of Alexia’s favorite actors is Tyler Perry.
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Carmen Gonzalez
 Written by Gentry Achieng
Carmen
Gonzalez is the CPED intern for Development Services. She was born in
Kalamazoo, Michigan and was raised in Minnesota by her grandparents. Carmen is the only child in her family. Last June, Carmen graduated from
South High School and has been admitted to Minneapolis Community and Technical
College (MCTC) to study Criminal Justice with a full-ride scholarship. Carmen says that her experience with STEP-UP had granted her the opportunity to learn about different things within The City.
Some
of her favorite passions include horseback riding, dancing salsa, and bicycling at the La Laguna, a beautiful lake in Morelos, Mexico.
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Gentry Achieng
 Written by Carmen Gonzalez
Gentry Achieng (to the left) is an intern in Long Range Planning. She works
on a variety of different projects within her division and likes to collaborate
with everyone.
Last June, she successfully graduated from Roosevelt High
School. Next year she will continue her education at Minneapolis Community and
Technical College (MCTC) majoring in media and communications. Gentry was born
in Nairobi, Kenya and loves traveling back with her family. One of her favorite
places to visit is Mombasa, Kenya in the Indian Ocean. Living in Minneapolis,
she grew up with her mom, step-sisters, and her step-dad. She enjoys dancing,
swimming and likes to read novels and write.
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 Written by Ashley Yang
Saynab is an
intern in Long Range Planning. She will be a senior at Ubah Medical Academy.
From the last three years, Saynab participated in extracurricular such as College
Possible and Future Leaders. After high school, Saynab plans to attend the University
of Minnesota Twins Cities or Augsburg College to finish her academic career.
She wishes to pursue in History or English and double-minor in
communications and journalism. Throughout her internship, Saynab says it’s
great working for the City and can see herself in this career.
In her free
time, Saynab enjoys reading, writing, playing basketball, and taking photos.
One of her goal is to capture a motion picture (i.e. a flying bird).
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by Ashley Yang
As a STEP-UP Intern with the City of Minneapolis, I
had the wonderful opportunity to work with CPED’s Operations and Innovations
Team. My amazing supervisors – Camille Worley and Rose Lindsay – help build my
professional and communication skills. In addition, I was able to learn about
the different divisions. During my time here, I worked on minor projects such
as marketing research, scanning files, attending meetings, and writing articles
for the internal and external newsletters. I enjoyed the meetings the most
because I had the opportunity to participate in discussion with other divisions
and ask questions.
With already having interest in civil and agriculture engineering, this summer has shown me how interested I am in this field. The most surprising thing I learned this summer was what a
four-wheeler vehicle was! My internship this summer was incomparable.
by Jessica Enwesi
Hi my name is Jessica Enwesi and this summer I
got the chance to intern with Zoning Administration and work with Brad Ellis.
During my 11 weeks with Zoning Administration, I worked on many different surveys.
Officially called surveys, to the
average person they look more like blue prints for a house or business and help
to detail the structure of the building. My project was to pull all the
surveys’ from their designated folders (or BZZ files) and scan them into the CPED
database.
But my favorite
project was writing an article for The Bridge newsletter about two HPC interns.
It has been a great experience
working with STEP-UP for these last 4 years. As I get ready to leave for
college and turn from a STEP-UP intern into a STEP-UP alumnus, I will never
forget the experience and people that helped me along the way. Thank You.
by Gentry Achieng
This summer I worked with Long
Range Planning. I worked with my Saynab Gelle - who is also a STEP-UP intern. I worked on a variety of different projects with different people. A project I worked on with Beth Elliott dealt with North loop sector in regards to marketing expansion. I was asked to put together a summary of what was to be done and how it will bring changes/profit to Minneapolis. My
supervisor is Mr. Silaphet Thavisack. The most surprising thing I learned was how it takes
patience to build a fortune and make Minneapolis a better city than today.
by Alexia Harris
I am a STEP-UP intern supporting
the work of Minneapolis Employment and Training at CPED this summer. As a
program assistant, most of my work is helping with the STEP-UP Summer Jobs
program. My day to day tasks include printing, copying and data entry. Some of
the projects I have completed include gathering information about community
meeting spaces for the employment and training staff, compiling and preparing
data on the youth involved in STEP-UP, and calling the Council Members to invite
them to the STEP-UP Work Site Tour. I liked making these phone calls because I was
had the opportunity to speak to important people.
by Saynab Gelle
I am an intern at CPED Long Range Planning. I worked with
Gentry Achieng and my supervisor was Thavisack Silaphet. This summer my role
was making inventories for the airport files, also did some public art surveys
with Mary Altman and Rachel Engh. My favorite thing while working with
CPED was being able to see what people do to make the City of Minneapolis a
better place to live. Everyone had their own way of showing they care and
I got to see that. The thing that surprised me the most was how everyone is
willing to work things out with you and trying to make this internship the best.
Overall, my time with CPED was fun and interesting, I learned a lot of things
by researching and many more by talking and interacting with my co-workers;
you’d be surprised at how much you can learn from them!
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