Today I wanted to talk about my experience running tours for potential applicants of my school. The things that I learned from interacting with people who had all different backgrounds, answering difficult questions, and trying to be open and engaging with people that clearly did not want to be there taught me a lot. My school is a part of a district of 10 schools, and each was running tours at the same time. What this meant is that some kids had already set their mind on one school before coming to our tour, and had only come to my school because their parents forced them. Trying to convince someone to take a chance on something after their mind is already made up is almost impossible. I learned this after my attempts to engage with the children were refuted many times. Though I kept getting rejected, I learned that in order to have a chance at making a difference, one has to keep trying. Of the 12 tours I conducted, 5 of them did not want to be there. Of those 5, I think I successfully convinced 2 of them to open their mind up. Those two kids could go on to do great things at the school, so while 2 out of 5 does not seem great, it was a lot better than 0. Another thing I learned was that while every family that came for tours came from very different backgrounds, the parents all wanted the same thing, the best possible environment for their child. This led to a lot of difficult questions about specific things that pertained specifically to their child. One of the most special tours I witnessed was a Hispanic family that did not know English. Even though the parents could not understand much of the tour, they still had so many questions and tried their best to get over the language barrier to give their child the best possible education. Another special thing about this family’s tour was that their tour guide, after realizing that the family could not understand anything, ended up conducting the tour in Spanish. The adaptability of the tour guide, and the connection that she was able to create with that family was extraordinary, and I am sure they will never forget her.

Another posting about my internship and just what type of work I do as well as what my goal is. I am trying to learn about local government and public policy and try to help my community as much as possible. I started by deepening board members and also townspeople’s knowledge of our towns financial status. I did that by creating a presentation about the town’s performance in the Moody’s Investors Service report. You can read about that in a previous blog posting. My presentation was put on the town website and sent out as part of the weekly newsletter. After that, the mayor tasked me with helping the town create a new tree focused initiative. This basically entails that I have to create media content as well as resident facing articles about how trees are important. This tree initiative is just a segue into a larger and more substantial project about stormwater and flooding. Our town has a recurring flooding problem, so it is my job to help spread awareness about how the community can do a better job of preventing stormwater runoff. Spreading awareness can take many forms. I create digital informational graphics that can be produced into many different forms. Some of the topics that I create graphics for include: information about hazardous materials, lawn fertilizers, using native plants, and also kitchen fats and oils. These topics go beyond the stormwater initiative and are part of a general move to become a safer, more green town. The content I create goes on billboards, digital flyers, mailers, and articles. Being able to assist with something that is so clearly beneficial to our town, and dedicating time to something that I really feel will make a difference is fulfilling and makes all the work worth it.      

I am currently the only intern at my town’s mayor’s office. This means that the mayor gives me work that benefits her or a committee in town. I say that because my topic for this post is about one thing that the mayor had me work on. Every year Moody’s Investors Service creates a report that gives a grade for a town’s short term and long term financial status. These reports provide in depth reasoning based on the bonds and notes of the town. Basically, the report looks at sales, pension, and any other transactions in the town as well as the real estate and employment records. This report is extremely important because Moody’s is a very prestigious institution and a positive report can help gain funding for the community. My town’s report came in recently, and I was tasked with reading, dissecting, and creating a visual presentation based on the report. It was extremely interesting to read the reasoning behind the grades and Moody’s opinion on certain business decisions the town made. Without giving away too much, my town got a pretty good grade, but it was not perfect. The main negatives were centered around outstanding liabilities and debt. The town’s pension was a reason for this, with contractual retirement liabilities making up a chunk of the debt. The town did try to combat these liabilities by selling property, and the report recognized their efforts, but still labeled the debt burden as slightly elevated. Though I just pointed out the negatives, there were far more negatives. The report shined a light on the wealthy and growing tax base of the town, and said that the town was in a healthy financial position. All in all, I think learning about the report, being able to read it, and creating a presentation really helped me understand how local government and town finances work. 

My first blog post was about how gas prices were at historic heights all over the world. That post was more focused on how it affected the US, but it also mentioned that the world was also taking a hit. Today I am talking about Europe, and specifically the currency that many countries use there. The Euro has historically been bigger than the dollar, at some point 1.6 dollars was equal to 1 euro, but it has reached a 20 year low. As of July 26th, 1.01 Dollars is 1 Euro. The downwards trajectory of the Euro is due to the sanctions on Russian oil, but why is the Euro getting hit worse than the dollar, if the sanctions affect both. The short answer is that while Europe has tried to cut deals, make emergency energy plans and prepare for a gas guzzling summer with limited resources, the US is able to rely on reserves and other avenues to gain gas. The energy shortage in Europe is much more severe than it is in the United States. This energy shortage has caused mass inflation all over the world, and to combat it, the US hiked interest rates early, slowing down the inflation. The problem with hiking interest rates is that it contributes to unemployment, and the US made the decision that they were not scared of the fallout of increasing interest. The EU finally is making that decision now, after many countries are in an energy crisis and jobs are already being lost. While there is no clear winner in this situation, I cannot help but think that the US has come out looking a little less worse for wear. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/07/euro-continues-to-slide-toward-dollar-parity-and-could-fall-even-further.html

I am a huge soccer/ football fan and one of the main reasons for this is the legendary club FCBarcelona. Widely regarded as one of the best clubs in the history of the sport with names like Xavi, Iniesta, Ronaldinho, and Messi being wrought in the red and blue, the club seems invincible in its history and greatness. With all of this in mind, it is hard to believe that the club is in a monstrous amount of debt, with some estimates being well over the 1 billion dollar mark. While this debt on its own has been filling the back pages of many newspapers itself, my biggest question is why is the club being so active in the transfer market. As of July 19th, the club have already confirmed striker Robert Lewandowski for $50 million, winger Raphinha for $64 Million, as well as Midfielder Franck Kessie and defender Andreas Christensen on free transfers (Transfermarkt). Kessie and Christensen may be coming in on frees, but they will still add to a wage bill that is already notoriously large. Many thought that Barcelona would be trying to make up their debt with a host of outgoings, but as of July 19th, 4 players have been confirmed to leave, and total fees for those 4 are around $26 Million. For a club in crippling debt, this is not a good look. Many veteran players and legends of the club have taken incredible pay cuts, while former players have returned to the club to add depth while playing on as little as a 1 euro a week, but even with these valiant efforts the club owes many of its players large sums from previous contracts. Midfielder Frenkie De Jong was one of the clubs best players, but due to their financial shortcomings, Barca owe the player over 100 Million euros and are trying to force the player out so they do not have to pay (The Athletic). Many people outside of the sport may not know about the situation at Barcelona, so I wanted to shed some light on it. The club is a major reason football is the most watched sport in the world, and as someone who still idolizes its players, it saddens me to see what it has become. 

As everyone and their uncle probably knows by now, gas prices are incredibly high and it is impossible for people to keep up with them. While we can see the number getting higher, many people blame the president or other factors for this spike, despite their lack of knowledge on the subject. People like Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, have fallen under the trap of blaming the president as well, showing that this misinterpretation of the real problem is spread all over the country. In reality, if we want to blame anyone, we have to blame oil companies and Russia. Because of Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine, the UN placed sanctions on the country’s imports and exports, meaning that other countries could not and still cannot buy and sell from Russia. Since Russia is the world’s second largest oil producer, banning them from selling oil would increase the prices everywhere. On top of this, US oil companies are not drilling for oil due to them being scared. They do not want to spend money and resources on drilling because of the new green energy initiative that the US is trying to adopt. In my opinion, while the US is definitely trying to switch to green energy, there are simply not enough energy options that do not require gas, and until then the population will continue to use gas, so it would seem like drilling could still be profitable, especially at the prices that gas is at now. While I do think that eventually the world will switch to green energy and non oil based energy, that time is a long time away, and right now oil is one of the most important commodities in the world, so it is important that people know what drives the prices up and down.