The future!
This summer is coming up fast -- U-M "Winter" semester lets out at the end of April. My general goal for the summer is to do something interested, related to transportation, in a government setting. I've got a couple irons in the fire so far. First choice, but most competitive, is a fellowship at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. CMAP is one of the few regional planning agencies that actually puts transportation and land use planning under the same roof, like they should. I'd love to work there for a summer, and I don't think I'd mind working there long-term either. I'll know within a month or so. Next up is the possibility of working for the folks at the EPA National Vehicle & Fuel Emissions Laboratory, right up the hill from me on Plymouth Road. Ideally there would be some work there I could do on improving and documenting their Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator. The part I'd most like to work on is the transportation models that predict how much driving will occur based on different scenarios; calibrating predictions of fine particulate emissions based on vehicle types and weather conditions is definitely not my area of expertise. Hoping to hear more about that next month too.
Long term, Bethany and I are starting to see graduation on the horizon. We've got a grab bag of goals, ideas, and fantasies to consider. We're feeling a big draw from Boston, for professional and personal reasons. Burlington, VT and various other parts of the Northeast, Midwest, and West Coast are also calling.
Course selection is starting for next Fall, so I'm thinking a bit about how to round out my entire transcript. It's looking likely that I'll be able to fit in the remaining courses I want to take, and take courses with most of my favorite professors.
As far as my dream job, it was posted a year early: a Community Planner at Volpe, the US Dept of Transportation research and consulting center in Cambridge, MA. You can bet I'll be keeping my eyes out for similar postings next year. That's not my only dream job, it's just the only one I've found that someone else has already typed it up -- and the only one I can think of that wouldn't require 3-5 years working somewhere else more entry-level first.
For now: Ann Arbor is treating me well. Onwards to Chicago! (For fun and for networking.)
