Placement: Department of Parks & Recreation, Greenspace Management

What I Worked on: My primary project was expanding the Urban Gardening program both within existing city parks and in vacant lots. This program introduces vegetable gardens to help Houstonians grow their own produce and transform vacant lots into beautiful and useful public spaces. I developed a budget for the Urban Garden program and worked with the department’s Financial Analyst to assemble the Urban Garden program reimbursement packet for FY09. I worked with various City departments (e.g. Legal, General Services, Council Members) to finalize the urban gardening license, to create and print marketing materials and to add an Urban Garden webpage to the Parks Department website. I also presented the status and future plans of the Urban Garden Program, along with the Urban Garden Manager, before the City’s Sustainable Growth Committee.

Other projects included: developing a performance rewards program for Greenspace Management Superintendents; coordinating open forums with the Deputy Director, HR and Quality Assurance and 350+ crew members for Greenspace Management to boost employee morale; attaining contractors and working with purchasing to have netting installed, roughly a $14,700 project, at one of the maintenance facilities- ending a 15+ year pigeon problem; and updating, reviewing, organizing and printing 400 new Employee Handbooks, which had not been updated in over 6 years.

Hometown: Pearland, TX

School: Texas Tech University

Field of Study: Business Management Communication Studies

Selected Honors: Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges, Management & Communication Studies Honor Societies

Selected Activities and Community Involvement: Congressional Internship, Hurricane Ike volunteer

Why Houston is important to me: As a fellow Houstonian, Houston is home and I have a vested interest in its future and the effects of leadership on its people, those inside and outside the city limits.

Something unique about me: I went scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. I also went jet skiing on Great Keppel Island in Australia.

What I’m Doing Now: I am in law school at Case Western Reserve University. However, for a year after the Fellowship, I worked for Houston Mayor Bill White’s Senate and Gubernatorial campaigns.