Monday, July 28, 2014

Sadie goes to the Department of Correction!

The Department of Correction is a pretty exciting place! The two weeks I spent with IDOC flew by, but I had a wonderful experience with the HR team. Every person I met was so friendly and full of knowledge. While I was there, I had the amazing opportunity to go tour New Castle Correctional Facility. I have never been to a prison before, so this was a really cool chance for me to experience something new. I was very impressed by their operation and security that they have put into place. I told everyone I know about my visit, and it is truly something that I will never forget.



Although my prison tour was definitely the highlight of my rotation with IDOC, I also did HR related projects which of course was the reason I was there. The project I put together for IDOC included compiling information for two spreadsheets that should greatly assist with the recruitment efforts for this agency. One spreadsheet contained main contacts for each college campus in Indiana that had majors that would correlate to jobs within IDOC. Some of these majors included Criminal Justice, Political Science, Social Work, and Civil Engineering. For each of these majors, I included the main contact person to distribute job openings within IDOC that were close to their campus. I referenced which IDOC facility was the closest to each one of these campuses and the approximate distance in miles. I was able to identify roughly 65 campuses in Indiana for which IDOC could advertise their job openings.

The second spreadsheet I put together included upcoming job fairs that IDOC might be interested in attending. These included college job fairs as well as community job fairs that focus on hiring veterans and military. I tried to obtain as much information as possible such as the fee for attending each job fair, when it would be held, and who they could contact for more information. I also included links for registration should they were interested in going. This was a really extensive project that I hope will be very helpful to IDOC.

I was able to sit in on an IDOC HR staff meeting. During this meeting, representatives from Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) and Hero 2 Hired talked to us about USERRA. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (or USERRA) is a topic that was covered briefly in one of my classes, but I did not know much about. After their presentation, I feel as though I know almost everything there is to know about the law, as well as the resources I need in case I have questions about it. This was a very informative session that I am grateful to have been a part of.

Because I’m a Governor’s Summer Intern, I also got the unique opportunity to tour the Statehouse. I have been in the Statehouse a couple of times previous to this, but this time I got to go into the Lt. Governor’s Office, the Indiana Supreme Court Room, and the Indiana State Senate Chamber. When the tour was complete, we met with Chief Justice Dickson to learn more about his job.  The intern speaker series is one of my favorite parts of being an intern. We also got to hear from Mark Newman who is the Director of Tourism for Indiana, and Jamal Smith the Director of the Civil Rights Commission. These were both great speakers. Mark’s job is super cool. Who knew there were so many things to do in Indiana?  Take a look at Visit Indiana.  Jamal has a very interesting job as well. One of the benefits of working for the Civil Rights Commission is to prevent discrimination of any and all protected classes under the Civil Rights Act. I found it to be a very appealing place to work.

Next, I am off to the Indiana State Department of Health. Stay tuned to learn about my time with ISDH!

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