Our Equitable Development Team welcomes two Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) interns this summer – Allan Duong and Winnie Huang. In addition to providing day-to-day office support, we’ll visit a neighborhood each week for a tour that highlights our planning and community development work, including meetings with community members and stops at local businesses. They’re learning new design software to help document their insights. At the end of their six week internship, they’ll have an urban journal that shares their perspective on Equitable Development in Seattle. This internship program is part of Mayor Murray’s Youth Employment Initiative that builds career pathways for young people and creates a recruitment pipeline for local businesses seeking skilled workers.
Keep an eye out for guest blog features from our interns in the near future!
Allan Duong, 17
Why did you choose OPCD for your internship?
Mainly because of the “Community Development” part. I worked with previous programs that helped develop my neighborhood, so when I was given the opportunity to intern at a familiar place, I took the opportunity and am currently doing my best to output and input all my knowledge into community development.
What goals do you want to accomplish during this internship?
To make many connections with people and build my planning/community development skills/knowledge.
If you had the ability to build anything in Seattle, what would it be, why would you build it, and where would you build it?
I would build a mall in the Chinatown/International District because I feel like Chinatown does not have enough variety in their products. Building a mall would also bring be good for the businesses within the mall because I know for a fact that residences in Chinatown has been craving for a mall.
Tell us something interesting about yourself.
Ever since I was a child, I loved playing video games. I told myself that I wanted to make video games as a job. Then something I didn’t expect happened to me: I joined programs that focused on environmental and social justice and it soon stuck to me. I then came up with the idea on how I could implement the love of making video games and the knowledge on environment and social justice together. I could maybe make a game on those topics! (Maybe)
Winnie Huang, 19
Why did you choose OPCD for your internship?
I chose OPCD because the Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) assigned this one to me based on a list of my interests. Also, I interned with OPCD two summers ago (when it was called DPD – Department of Planning and Development) with SYEP and I learned a lot and had a great time that summer. And because I took URBDP 200 (Urban Developing and Planning) at UW during Spring ’17 and that got me a bit interested.
What goals do you want to accomplish during this internship?
I want to improve skills that I already have and learn new skills that I can use for future internships/jobs or for when I need it.
If you had the ability to build anything in Seattle, what would it be, why would you build it, and where would you build it?
More affordable housing because the cost of living in Seattle is high and rising rent/home price. Some people might be forced to move away because they can’t afford the cost of living in Seattle.
Tell us something interesting about yourself.
I was born and raised in Seattle. I’m a student at UW. It’s going to be my second year this coming fall. I have junior credits because I did running start when I was in high school. I’m intending to major in Health Informatics and Health Information Management and possibly minor in something else. I enjoy spending time with family and friends, traveling, hiking, swimming, finding new places to eat, and being a tourist in my own city from time to time. I also spend a lot of time on Netflix…Grey’s Anatomy and Criminal Minds are some of my favorites.