Meet SPU’s Interns for 2024

Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) strives to be the best place to work in the city. Part of that involves offering internships so individuals can have career pathways to work with and learn from SPU's 1,400 employees who serve the public every day. SPU careers include testing water, laying pipe, building infrastructure, and working on climate change issues.

This summer, SPU is home to Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), seasonal, and year-long interns who are making important contributions. Starting today and in the coming weeks, SPUweb will feature a group of them, what they do, where they're from, and what they're learning.

Here is our first group of interns we're featuring:

Inayat Ali: Hopes to Gain Better Insight Into Public Projects

School: University of Washington (Bothell)
Year in the fall & major: Junior, Electrical Engineering
SYEP, summer, or year-long intern? Summer
Hometown: Turbat, Balochistan, Pakistan
Team or department and location of your internship: Resource Management Branch at Seattle Municipal Tower

What have you learned so far in your internship?
I learned about RedEye, GIS, and asset onboarding for drainage and wastewater. I delved into project management as well.

What do you hope to gain from your internship?
I hope to learn about the work environment of Seattle and public sector functioning, including how public projects are managed and the city is kept so clean, specifically during raining season.

How would you describe your internship to your best friend?
I help take care of your waste (sewer, solid waste, and storm water)

Fun fact about yourself?
I love outdoor games.

Minda Chen: Finds Engineering and Workflow Intriguing

School: University of Washington
Year in the fall & major: Junior, Environmental Engineering
SYEP, summer, or year-long intern? Year-long intern
Hometown: Seattle
Team or department and location of your internship: Water group within CIP Design of Project Engineering and Delivery Branch

What have you learned so far in your internship?
I've learned a lot about the structure of SPU. Additionally, how the flow of work proceeds when water mains have to be repaired and the length of time those projects take.

What do you hope to gain from your internship?
I want to learn more about the hard engineering aspects of projects (how engineering reports are put together, designing in CAD, etc.) as well as more about the interactions between different groups within SPU.

How would you describe your internship to your best friend?
A very eye-opening experience into the public sector. There's a lot of opportunities to explore, different work, and everyone is super nice and helpful.

Fun fact about yourself?
My suitcase has been confiscated multiple times while going to chess tournaments because a chess clock looks like a bomb on the security screening.

Colleen Clayton: Engaging Residents About Project Benefits

School: University of Washington
Year in the fall & major: Second year of a Master's program in Urban Planning and Design
SYEP, summer, or year-long intern? Year-long intern
Hometown: Seattle
Team or department and location of your internship: Project Delivery and Engineering Branch, Community Outreach, at Seattle Municipal Tower

What have you learned so far in your internship?
Gaining insight into the large, complex web of city departments and divisions has been fascinating, and I'm learning a lot about SPU's various capital projects, including the rationale and community benefit and impact, to the various players and timelines involved in bringing them through the planning, design, and construction cycle.

What do you hope to gain from your internship?
I've never worked in the public sector before this. Since I'm new to the field of urban planning and design, I'm still getting a feel for what type of environment is most aligned with my workstyle and goals for this stage of my career. The insight this internship has provided and the connections I'm making have been really helpful!

How would you describe your internship to your best friend?
I support a team that ensures the community is appropriately notified and kept informed of major SPU projects in their neighborhoods. We help communicate the benefit of such projects while working to mitigate the impacts to the extent possible.

Fun fact about yourself?
I have a rescue dog from Texas, who was born on the exact day I moved to the Emerald City, and named Emerald before I even adopted her. She is my soulmate puppy and best pal!

Mike Ramsay: Helping Elevate Reusable Dishware in Seattle

School: University of Washington
Year in the fall & major: Senior, Geography: Data Science
SYEP, summer, or year-long intern? Year-long intern
Hometown: Santa Cruz, California
Team or department and location of your internship: Solid Waste, Commercial Program at Seattle Municipal Tower

What have you learned so far in your internship?
So far, I've learned a lot about the importance of recycling, composting, and reuse in reducing our impact on the environment and improving our sustainability. I've also been able to explore some of the city's infrastructure and systems in place that manage all this material and waste.

What do you hope to gain from your internship?
I hope to gain a better understanding of how utilities and services are made accessible to people and just learn more about what the various departments do within SPU and the City of Seattle!

How would you describe your internship to your best friend?
I deliver bins and proper signage to businesses around Seattle. I'm part of the Reuse Seattle team, too. So, I help coordinate and supply reusable dishware to events and businesses around Seattle. I also get to go to lots of cool events and fairs around the city!

Fun fact about yourself?
I can ride a bike with no hands!

Sebastian Raymond: Enjoying Learning About Seattle's Drainage Systems

School: University of Washington
Year in the fall & major: First-year graduate student in Public Administration
SYEP, summer, or year-long intern? Year-long intern
Hometown: Kaiserslautern, Germany

Team or department and location of your internship: I work for the Source Control and Pollution Prevention team, in general, but I work directly for the Investigations and Wastewater Source Control team on the Investigations side of the Drainage and Wastewater Line of Business.

What have you learned so far in your internship?
I have really enjoyed getting to know the geographical makeup of drainage systems throughout Seattle, with some areas having more clustered issues than others. In response to those site visits and data observations, it has been amazing to understand the processes in place to find solutions to these issues, especially recurring ones or more unique scenarios.

What do you hope to gain from your internship?
I have been lucky to get to know what other teams do and how their work relates to ours, and I would like to expand on that for the rest of the year. My mentor has been talking to me about some sites that require more in-depth research or collaboration across teams. So, I am excited to see how we can come up with sustainable solutions to very nuanced cases.

How would you describe your internship to your best friend?
When people in Seattle have drainage or wastewater issues, they reach out to our team, and we try to find a home for them.

Fun fact about yourself?
I was able to remember every country's name, flag, and capital when I was like 10.

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