Hello, My name is Hannah Goldstein! I am a rising senior in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences majoring in Political Science and Urban Studies with a certificate in National Preparedness/Homeland Security. This summer I have received the David C. Frederick Public Service Internship Award and will be using the award to stay in Pittsburgh this summer to work remotely for the Red Cross. I am so excited to share my journey with you over the next two and a half months.

Being from Arlington, Virginia I have always been surrounded by government and public service. Watching my parents work as civil servants and seeing life in the public sphere play out around me made me want to be just like them. As I got older I realized that I loved event planning and became interested in logistics. I got to organize large-scale events and programs for the various extracurricular activities that I was involved in. Eventually this progressed into an interest in emergency management. I explained to someone once that these two things are extremely similar because you have to prepare and organize for both disasters and big events yet something always ends up going wrong. After my dad became a member of Arlington’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and we began watching disaster movies over covid, I decided this could be a potential career path. With these two interests of public service and logistics, I feel I am able to combine what I am passionate about to form a future career in emergency management. Additionally, I have taken classes in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Data Visualization through college and absolutely LOVE maps and data!

 This summer I am lucky enough to be pursuing an internship with the Red Cross Headquarters: Disaster Cycle Services Department as a Resource Mobilization and Support Intern. I look forward to creating surveys for the disaster response teams, assisting in worker mobilization efforts, learning more about data analysis and visualization, and networking with individuals in the field. One cool component about this internship is that we are required to meet with 5-7 individuals within the organization to network and learn more about the profession.

This summer, I hope to use this internship to learn more about the non-profit sector and explore career interests. As I am going into my senior year of college, I am beginning to think about my post-grad plans. Currently, I don’t plan on attending a graduate school immediately following graduation and hope to go into the workforce instead. Since I am unsure of the exact direction in which I want my professional career to take, I have been completing internships in different areas of study throughout my collegiate career. For example, last summer and into the fall, I worked as a research assistant in the political science department moderating political discussions between subjects on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Then, this past year I worked for the City of Pittsburgh’s department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections on their paper auditing project, ensuring the correct digitization of all permits, violations, and licenses. Before all of this I served as an Off-Campus COVID-19 safety ambassador to the university where I walked around South Oakland handing out masks and other public health products to maintain a safe and healthy university community. Through this internship I hope to narrow down what I am interested in and have a more concrete sense of my professional trajectory. Finally, in classes, I am extremely interested in the ways that various worldviews and demographics perspectives intertwine with various American social policies.

Outside the classroom, I am involved in a few different extracurricular organizations. I participate in Hillel, the Jewish Student Union on campus as their Vice President of Programming, creating events for the Jewish holidays and to promote the Jewish cultural heritage. I am the Political Science Student Association as the incoming President, providing opportunities for political science students. Finally, I participate in events with the Office of Interfaith Dialogue as a member of their student advisory board.

I’m so excited to learn more about data analysis, logistics, and emergency management and look forward to working with everyone at the Red Cross’s National Headquarters this summer!