Thursday was a short day for me since I lead to leave early to go to debate nationals, but it was still one of the most fun a had. I got to do some real work and I learned a lot of things about people that I did not know were public record. We started out the day by going to a Senate finance committee and then we planned on going to the Judiciary committee immediately afterward. However, the Finance committee ran late, and no one else was around to cover the meeting and take notes on any changes to the legislation that might affect clients. So, Andy sent me to the judiciary committee and I had to take very good notes and analyze amendments on an agricultural bill regarding farm taxes. While I was there, they attempted to amendment the punishment in the bill regarding unwillingness to pay new taxes and the threatening of tax collectors. Some of the committee members attempted to change the punishment from a class 1 misdemeanor into a felony. I’m really not sure why this was such a big deal to the lawmakers, nor the firm, but it was, so I took lots of notes and gave them to Andy after the meeting. It was exhilarating. We then went and sat down and were going to cover one of the meetings by just listening to the audio feed. I was confused why we hadn’t always been doing that until the audio glitched and we had to go into the room so that we didn’t miss anything. We have to cover the meetings in person because most of the committee rooms do not have audio, and almost none of them have a video feed. Despite the fact that the technology exists and it is very cheap to do so, congress has not put in the audio or video feed in almost any of their rooms. And for a body that is supposed to be completely open to the public, that is a little strange. I asked Andy if they did not have this technology because they really didn’t want to let the public know what they were doing, he said that that was definitely one element going into the decision, but it wasn’t the biggest reason. Congress is always accused of being wasteful and over spending, but even when that is true, it is regarding public spending on mostly private enterprises. The congressmen all believe that if they voted to spend money on themselves and things for the government, then the media and the public would accuse them of misusing funds and spending money on themselves and thus lose reelection. So, the congress believes, seemingly correctly, that it is better for the public to think you are untrustworthy than for them to think you are using their money for anything other than helping them. After the meetings, we returned to the office and Andy showed me the voter registration data that he uses to do a lot of research and find out about people’s records. You can find what party people voted for in every primary election they have ever voted in, their addresses, their age, how many times they have voted, what parties they are, or have ever been registered to. It’s kinda scary, I’ve now looked up all my teachers and some of their voting records are very surprising.
cawep2016
First Day with the Lobbyists
I began my work experience by standing at the base of the massive Wells Fargo building and feeling incredibly intimidated. 
After a few moments, I gathered the courage to walk in and get on the elevator to the 23rd floor. There I met Andy Walsh, whom I was to spend the next 2 weeks with.
Andy is a Cary Academy alum that graduated in 2008. Andy went to NC State where he was student body president and the recipient of multiple service awards. Currently, he is a Government Relations Assistant at the Smith Anderson law firm and the President of the Cary Academy Alumni Association. When I arrived on the 23rd floor the secretary called Andy down from his office and he took me on a tour of the building. The 23rd floor is purely dedicated to meeting rooms for clients and the office of the managing partner. This is designed to make clients feel special and give the lawyers an excuse to never clean their desks. Andy’s office is on the 24th floor which is where we went next. The Smith Anderson Law firm has 4 full floors in the building and the views are incredible, but the 24th floor is where everything gets done. Andy introduced me to his four-person team. Dana, Kara, Richard, and Andy make up one of the most effective lobbying teams in the state. While Andy is not a registered lobbyist he still contributes heavily to the lobbying effort. After our tour of the building and after I had met everyone, we went to the General Assembly building or the GA. This is where we will spend most of our time over the next few weeks. This is where most of the Senators have their offices and where the Senate and House chambers are located. Mondays are a very slow day for the Legislature, so after the tours and introductions, we called it a day and I began my 54-minute drive home.
Senate Session/ Wednesday/ 3rd Day
After having a long day of committee meetings, the Congressmen and I were both grateful for a late start and a long relaxing Senate Session. It was very cool seeing some of the bills that I had watched be discussed in committee be discussed on the actual Senate floor. The first bill on the docket was the motorcycle bill that I had seen earlier in the day. Unlike in committee, there was no debate on it, they voted for it almost immediately. The actual voting process was not really what I expected I thought it would be like High School congress, where everyone for the bill stands up and is counted and then the same thing happens for those against the bill. I expected the process to be somewhat slow and formal. Instead, it was all electronic, at every single senator’s desk, there are a red button and a green button that allow them to vote for or against the bill when a vote is called for. The entire voting process took 10 seconds, it became law, and then they moved on. They then went through a series of the locals bills I discussed in my last post. They passed almost 8 of them in quick succession. No one asked questions, everyone was polite, it was sort of weird. I asked Andy if this was what it was always like and he told me no. Normally there was a lot more debate, and the Senators were a little bit more abrasive. However, the Senate was passing the budget the next week, and so all the Senators were trying to keep each other happy so that they can get funding for their counties and projects when the budget comes around. It was very interesting to see things become law just so people wouldn’t get mad at each other.
The senate also recognizes a lot of visitors during the session to honor them. They announced the names of a former Senator in the audience and his family. They announced the names of some elementary school children that were visiting, as well as some community business leaders. Every senate session, they have a doctor of the day that they recognize and honor. They have high school students page for them, whom they also announced. Pages carry briefcases for the congressmen and get people to sign the visitors papers. At the end of the very long session, at about 4 o’clock, a resolution was introduced to honor a former colleague that passed away this week. Almost 30 senators gave speeches about how much she had affected their lives, and how much they were going to miss her. It was very emotional.
Apparently I’m “Too Smart” to Work at ABC-11
Day 4
Downtown Durham is getting a makeover so hipsters can live there in comfort.
That makeover, however, has not yet reached the ABC-11 studio. It’s a stained brick building with a modest entrance and subpar surroundings, as police cars continuously slink around nearby parking lots and neighborhoods. The lobby is confusing and closed off, and I felt like I was in the wrong place until Diane came and took me down to the basement, where the real action happens.
She let me shadow many different jobs, most of which were sort of boring but some were fun and something I might enjoy, like the assignment desk that researches, edits the show, responds to and filters out emails with tips and stories and listens to about six or seven police scanners incessantly reporting, making sure they don’t miss an emergency.
The other exciting thing to do was to sit on the live 12-1 show in the control room, where two people called out to reporters, signaled commercial breaks and constantly “killed” segments to fit with the allotted time they were given.
But maybe the most illuminating part was just talking to Diane about her job as a “troubleshooter”, and my specific career aspirations and academic interests. She told me that I was much “too smart” for local broadcasting or broadcast news in general, especially compared to their ill-prepared college interns, and suggested that when I go to WRAL, I look at their documentary department.
Motor Cycle Discrimination- 2nd Day
On the 2nd day, we went to a host of different committee meetings in a wide variety of rooms and buildings. By the end of the day, I had been to 5 different committee meetings, each one different from the last. There were a lot of surprises for me today. A lot of things I assumed about the state congress were not true at all. Contrary to what you read on a general basis, the legislators are very cordial with one another. They all have jobs to do, and being rude to each other based on party lines would just get in the way of doing what they have to do. The clearest manifestation of this is how the committees deal with local bills. Most of what the congress does is not controversial at all, most bills deal with issues that only affect one legislator’s district. So, rather than debate the bill, they do each other a courtesy and immediately vote to give the bill a favorable review and send it to the senate or house floor. This was another thing that surprised me about the committees, the speediness of the committee. I assumed that the committee is the place where the bills are amended and debated and fixed and then sent to the floor for voting. But the committee had decided what they were going to do long before the bill came up for discussion. Even when there was disagreement between the parties, the majority just called for a vote before much debate had occurred, passed it, and moved on. The largest committee meeting we attended was the appropriations committee that decided how much money goes into bills. This room also had the most debate. The bill that was on the docket was one that will make it illegal for parking garages to prohibit motorcycles from parking in them. It also prevented “discrimination of any kind against motorcyclists.” After the author of the bill gave his opening statement, another Senator asked him if he would yield for questioning, he did, as they always do, and asked him a very interesting question/ statement. He said, “This is ridiculous, in this state because of legislation you passed, people can be discriminated against for what bathroom they go to, or what their base identities are, but god forbid someone be mean to a motorcyclist because that’s just wrong, this is ridiculous, why?” The Senator standing was quite taken aback, so he moved on to the next more polite question.
I sense more sensors
Today another one of our many sensors arrived so Joe and I had to try to work out how to use it. This sensor will be used to determine the concentration of methane gas in the air so we will be able to measure different concentrations as we drive a cart (with this sensor on it) through a plume of methane gas. This sensor seems relatively easy to use except for a few problems that we found. For instance when the sensor records data points there is a time associated with each point. This is important because we need to know the times so we know where we are in the plume. Unfortunately the time was around 8 hours off. Tomorrow we will work to try to fix this. 
Day 6- Horsing Around
Today was another day of training with day campers and I again got to help our leading activities. The first activity of the day was courtyard art, which included bubbles and chalk drawings on the porch near the dining hall. The next activity was held at Shady Circle, a circle of benches placed in the middle of a shady patch.
Here, counsellors lead campers in a couple of fun campfire style songs to provide a break in the day. Next, I got to help with the horses! The camp doesn’t have its own horses, but has partnered up with a local farm to bring in three horses every Tuesday for campers. The different activities including petting the horses, walking around with a horse, and painting horse shoes. There was even a cute little baby horse for smaller campers. The last activity of the day I helped out with was Music and Motion. This activity includes songs, games, and movements to relax the campers. Below is a picture of the set- up along with two Activity Directors; Seth and Sarah.
The campers had lots of fun in this activity especially. This was yet another fun day at camp!
– Fiona
Day 5- Training Time!
Today was the first day at Camp Royall where Day campers arrived. Although the camp hasn’t official started, this week is called training week for new counselors this year. Fifteen campers came from about 10-4 and were paired up with one hands-on trainer and three observing new counselors. I got to help out setting up, leading, and breaking down activities that the campers participated in throughout the day. I first helped out in the Arts & Crafts activity where campers were giving three different crafts with a Disney theme. Below is a picture of the Arts and Crafts Center.
Next, I helped with the Gym activity which helped let the campers get some exercises through walking, stretches and playing with a parachute. After lunch, I helped setting up for a Dinosaur themed evening activity, which in this case was held in the afternoon to give campers a sense of a normal day at camp. The different activities there were so creative and they included a Dino ring toss (pictured below), Dino tag, Dino chalk art, and even Dino yoga!
Then, I was allowed to go around and take pictures of the camp for my blog posts, since unfortunately I can’t take any pictures of the campers. I did find this amazing painted sign in the playground though!
-Fiona
Day 6- Straightening up
Today I got to shadow several physical therapists. I got to see several repeat patients today. One patient I saw was one that I had seen last week. She had surgery on her knee and was still trying to get full range of motion back. Once she had done her exercises and the physical therapist had stretched out the parents knee she was able to extend it fully. Once she had it fully extended she then put the sour muscles in heat in order to loosen the muscles.
The picture that I have here is of the brace that they used when she had heat on her muscles. This allowed her to keep her leg straight and it helped her straighten her leg more on her own.
Day 6 -The Business Behind Production
Today was the first of three days I will spend with Trailblazer Studios. Today I spoke to people in their production department. When I first arrived I met with Tom Waring, the CEO of the company. He game me a tour of the facility. They have one large sound stage that they can rent out to companies that want to use it. It is one of the largest stages in the Triangle area, rivaling that of a stage in SAS. They have another smaller one which they have converted into office space for some of their production people. They also have many edit bays, both online and offline, as well as two sound studios. One for surround sound and one for music. They also have a few rooms called “Finishing Rooms” where people do color corrections and other final edits as well as show the final product to the clients. The building had a much different feel than the news studios I went to last week. It felt much more relaxed and casual. Even so, the Trailblazer office felt much more closed compared to the open concept that most of the news rooms had.
After the tour, I spoke with the executive producer of the show Salvage Dawgs. She went through the process of planning out shoots and episodes. She showed me an episode and explained to me what sorts of notes she takes to send back to editors who make the final cuts of the episodes. She also explained how the channels order shows and how long they have to be. After I met with her, I spoke to the producer of Kate + 8. She went over budgeting and scheduling with me. She and most of the other people in production are in a “dry spot” currently because they are all between shoots. Either that, or they are out shooting on location.
After a nice lunch with some of the other employees/interns, I spoke with the producer for Salvage Dawgs. We sat in their main studio for a while talking about the film industry. college, job opportunities, as well as what he has been doing at Trailblazer. I then sat with the show-runner of Kate + 8. He went over how they handle shoots, how they plan them , and what his role is between the companies and the talent. Then, I spoke with a production assistant who works on promos and write ups for new shows. He was saying how he enjoys his job despite being on the bottom of the totem pole in this case because he can work with all the departments.
Overall, I really enjoyed the day. I look forward to working with their post-production team tomorrow.
CA Work Experience Program 2016 