Summary

I decided to join the rank and file of Philadelphia city government for my senior

project, learning hands on what makes the city run. More specifically, I worked in the

office of Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez, and alongside one of her legislative

aids, Andre Del Valle. Of course, her office is located in City Hall, so thats where I

spent most of my days, though I did work in her district office, found in Kensington, one

day. I learned a number of things during my time there, including how to write up

citations (more on those later), how to handle property cases, how to interact with

constituents, and how to write reports for my mentor and the Councilwoman. In addition

to learning and then doing these things, I also did many of the office related tasks that

are usually delegated to interns, like scanning papers and running errands around City

Hall. The job wasnt nearly as boring as that may sound, however, as I also sat in on

meetings that the Councilwoman held, attended sessions of City Council, and even met

and interacted with a few members of City Council! I also wrote reports for my mentor

about potential topics of interest to the office (like the opioid crisis or bag taxes in other

municipalities), including a final report focused on the Pennsylvania school funding

formula. I even worked with Councilwoman Gyms staff to learn more about the ways

that Philadelphia and Pennsylvania funds its public school districts, and, in conjunction

with that, I played my guitar outside of the School District building during an SRC

meeting about the budget, and handed out petitions. In addition to that service (writing

my report and handing out petitions in front of 440), I also helped work on property

cases and assist people looking to purchase parcels of land from the city. Working with
a politician, it seemed that most of my work was inherently service based, and it was

refreshing to see that politicians do indeed still care about their constituents.