As the City of Madison creates the next chapter of its economic development strategy, University of Wisconsin–Madison graduate student Caroline Corona is helping draft the 10-year plan that will focus on enhancing quality of life for all people in the city.
Corona is a second-year master’s student studying public affairs at the La Follette School of Public Affairs. She pursued graduate studies with the desire to focus on local government, which is what made the internship opportunity with Madison appealing.
“I’ve been mostly in the nonprofit sector before, so it’s cool to be on the government side,” Corona said. “It’s been really helpful to learn more about what’s going on right here in Madison where I live. Getting to be engaged directly in the community here has been a really great opportunity.”
Corona aims to evaluate key economic indicators in Madison, looking at how they have changed in recent years and how they compare to other cities. The project will identify the challenges and opportunities of Madison’s economic development strategy keeping in mind priorities like keeping local dollars in the local economy, creating affordable housing, and building lively public spaces.
The internship is a result of a partnership between UniverCity Alliance – a program at UW–Madison that connects Wisconsin local governments with university resources – and the City of Madison.
Because of the university’s location in Madison making it an anchor institution, UniverCity values the ongoing relationship with the city and strives to be responsive to strategic priorities and emerging needs.
“This ongoing partnership allows UniverCity to stay plugged into local issues, gives the City of Madison additional resources, and provides students with unique learning opportunities connected to their community,” UniverCity Alliance Managing Director Megan McBride said.
Performance Excellence Specialist Kara Kratowicz said the connections made through these projects create mutual lasting benefits for Madison and beyond.
“Capacity building supports provided by UniverCity Alliance partnerships afford City of Madison staff time to meet project goals in a timely and innovative manner,” Kratowicz said. “Involving students and faculty in our projects increases public awareness of what local governments do for communities and adds fresh perspectives that might not otherwise be considered, enlivening the Wisconsin Idea.”
In addition to Corona’s project, UniverCity matched several other Madison-focused projects during the 2024-25 academic year.
Landon Prokopinski, a political science major who will graduate in Fall 2025, also addressed Madison’s economic development strategy. He researched economic wellness indicators across about a dozen cities on factors like employment, income, and wealth. Then, Prokopinski combed through policies in these cities to identify new ideas for Madison.
“I love making policies to try to make the world a better place,” Prokopinski, who also received certificates in public policy and history, said. “I love the Madison area, and so I thought I could really bring these two loves together and do something for my career and the community at large.”
Prokopinski said the hands-on experience allowed him to put the theories and ideas he learned in classes into practice. It also prompted him to think more about the change that can be levied at units of governments closer to individuals like cities. He plans to pursue a policy-focused career in Washington, D.C.
John Douglas, a Fall 2024 graduate who majored in industrial and systems engineering and statistics, used his academic background to support Metro Transit. Metro’s Operations Department aimed to document standard operating procedures in a way that could be shared throughout the entire organization.
Douglas said industrial and systems engineering can be very broad, which was helpful during this internship because of the wide variety of processes Metro oversees.
“There are so many outlets to hone your skill set, because they do everything from safety and compliance to optimizing human flow, and scheduling,” said Douglas, who plans to pursue a master’s degree focused on statistics and machine-learning models at Cambridge.
Like Corona and Prokopinski, Douglas said a valuable aspect of the experience was learning more about a particular aspect of Madison’s local government.
“I never really rode the bus before I got to Madison as a student, and learning about the operations side of things was really interesting to see,” Douglas said. “It was very eye opening to see the back end of the system and meet the supervisors and see what they do day-to-day.
A fourth student, Aman Jain, worked on a records management project for the Madison Police Department. After a change in the records retention policy, the MPD was in need of an intern to design a process to decide which records to keep and which to discard in a way that is in compliance with the new policy.
Jain, who will graduate in May with a master’s degree in information science, said he had previous experience working for corporate clients but was curious about the perspective of local government.
“The project was something that I thought would be very interesting and could help me brush up and hone my skills,” said Jain, who received his undergraduate degree in computer science in Mumbai, India. “As an international student, I had not thought that I would get such an opportunity to work closely with the government.”
“I have been enjoying the process. I feel like I’m working with my own co-workers. It doesn’t feel like I’m just a temporary project intern. The experience has been amazing.”
Internships were financially supported by the Kemper K. Knapp Bequest.
–Abigail Becker