Reflection: June '21 💭

It's the end of my first week with the Office of Planning and Research here in California, and I'm feeling optimistic about the upcoming nine weeks of this internship. This week, I was asked on three separate occasions about my interests and plans for my future following graduate school. With one year left in my two-year program, it seems appropriate that this is the time to seriously think hard about the next step and start making moves. I have two main purposes this summer for my time with OPR:

1. contribute meaningfully to my assigned project (more on that later)
2. gain a deeper understanding of potential first steps after I complete my Master's.

With the first, I believe I am off to a strong start. Thanks to my mentors and supervisors, Egon and Erik, I feel the weight and pride of owning an expansive project and support through the provided resources to accomplish it. My primary project is managing and delivering the first draft of a guiding document called the Environmental Goals and Policy Report (EGPR). Since OPR was founded in 1970 by AB 2070, it has been directed to produce the report regularly. However, this hasn't happened. In fact, the largest and most influential update to the EGPR was in 1978, famously known as the 1978 Urban Strategy. This premier document set the tone and vision for the state's planning priorities, from promoting infill development, protecting natural and working lands, and supporting efficient development patterns as the state continues growing. Since 1978, there have been minor updates to the documents (2002 and 2015); however, none of them have been fully adopted. This is because a full adoption requires time, resources, and buy-in from OPR staff and, most importantly, the Governor's support. In light of the rapid growth and changes the state is experiencing, from the increasing and evolving impacts of climate change to the need to advance equity, we believe that we update this guiding document now more than ever. The goal here is to create a document that clearly articulates the Newsom administration's vision for a sustainable and resilient California by highlighting current initiatives occurring across the state. So far, the document has been outlined, and my job is to turn the outlined sections into a full draft. This involves conducting informational interviews with staff on climate, community development, legal, economic investment teams, and understand the various initiatives they manage and, more importantly, the framework behind those initiatives to present a cohesive narrative for the state's development.

For me, this is a bit outside my long-standing comfort zone in the engineering and data science world; however, it is right in my alley in terms of project management, synthesis, and big picture planning. My personal hopes are to absorb and understand all the key initiatives occurring across the state and how they work together to convey this message of combating climate change and advancing equity.