Reflection on Internship

Looking back at my internship at the Department of Commerce, I'm glad I took the opportunity to go to DC. I learned a great deal of what security means at the federal level. Security is not just people guarding doors, but it involves investigations, information protection, emergency management, information technology, personnel protection, anti-terrorism, and physical security. I was fortunate to be the intern chosen to be in the office that oversaw all the aspects of security (the Strategic and Administrative Management Division). I enjoyed seeing how policy affected all these different divisions of security, and how each reacted to them. Being around the directors for the Office of Security helped me to learn and gain insights on budget details within a government organization that I would not have otherwise learned in a textbook. I'm very grateful for the internship program that provided this opportunity and will never forget this experience. 

Last meeting of my internship

One of the last meetings I went to for the Office of Security (OSY) covered all the accomplishments of each division and looked into the future of the office. After a few comments from the director, each assistant director spoke on the accomplishments of their particular division. Some of the highlights covered by the Anti-Terrorism Division was that despite more travel by the Secretary of Commerce and maintaining the same manpower, there were not incidents regarding the Secretary. One interesting thing I found out recently is that the Secretary of Commerce requires a round the clock security team. This was not the case in previous administrations but Obama has recently called for all appointed secretaries to have round the clock security, even when on personal time. Another thing that was covered in the meeting was the issue of the pay freeze. There were some in attendance that asked what the hiring freeze meant and how far this will reach in the coming year. The director answered that they don't know much right now, but they will as soon as Congress passes the appropriations bill for this fiscal year. 

New faces and places

In the house where I stayed had another tenant renting a room next to mine. His name was Fabian, and he worked for a health bureau within the Department of Interior. His job was to ensure that buildings were in compliance with the amount of lead in their buildings. Although, we didn't have to much in common when it came to fields of work, we did have a common enjoyment of hot wings and football. We would visit a local bar across the main street of our neighborhood that had plenty of both. It was always interesting to visit on Sundays because I had never seen more loyal and ruckus football fans as Redskins fans. They love their team, and there was some sort infectious energy in that place when the "Skins" were playing. Although I will always be a Cardinals fan for life, I found myself rooting for the gritty and struggling Redskins. It was fun to see the reactions and the cheers that I wouldn't normally see in Arizona.

Things are a little different

One of the difficult things about being in DC was being away from family and friends. Of course, thanks to technology we could now Skype and it made it a little more manageable in terms of "seeing" each other. However, I would have to say it was a little tough for me because of the time difference. I was always 3 hours ahead of my girlfriend in California and I had to sometimes endure tough workdays with little sleep the night before. I wouldn't normally consider myself a big coffee drinker but I became one while in DC, and would frequent the local Starbucks regularly.  Another big thing that I had to maneuver around was the fact that DC or Maryland did not have a Chase bank!  I could not make deposits or get cash without paying a fee to use an ATM. Since I knew I would only be there for a few months, I decided to just use the cash back option from local stores when I needed cash. 

Commerce Building Lockdown

Today the Office of Security ran a "lockdown" drill in the Commerce building. There was an announcement that came through all of the telephone speakers instructing employees to assume lockdown procedures. The announcement commanded all employees to clear the hallways, get into an office and lock their doors. Aside from keeping their offices locked, the lockdown procedure also requires employees to shut off all the lights including the computer monitors, and to keep away from the windows and doors. At this point the guards are supposed to be looking for the culprit. The drill is meant to simulate a similar situation of a Virginia Tech or Columbine shooter(s). Although the drill only lasted 10 minutes, I thought it was a good exercise because there were a few people strolling around the hallways not knowing what to do or where to go. I believe in a real life situation, those in the hallways would have been the first to be killed or targeted by a shooter. I hope those took an important lesson out of exercise.   

Freeze on Salary Increases

Recently President Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for all civilian federal employees. Secretary Locke recently sent an email out to all Commerce explaining a few details of this salary increase freeze.  In his letter (email) he mentioned that the President has undergone a plan to get “America’s fiscal house in order”. Secretary Locke mentioned that this two-year pay freeze will save $28 billion over the next five years, and more that 60 billion over the next 10. He finished off my saying that there have been times in our history that have called for shared sacrifice and that this is one of those times.

I found the letter to be a little discouraging because I’m sure this will make it that much harder to find a federal job since they’ll be tight with their budgets. Although, I have do not have problem with entering into a private sector job, I would ideally want to start a federal career when I graduate.

DEA Meeting

Today the internship program set us up to visit the Drug Enforcement Administration in Arlington, Virginia. Their headquarters building has a museum highlighting the rise of drugs in the US, beginning with the distribution of opium early on in our history. It was interesting to see how lucrative drugs became early on. I was just amazed how in China in the 1800's had large opium factories, there was a sketch picture that showed multiple floors filled with 5 pound packaged containers of the drug waiting to be shipped. After we were given the tour we also had the opportunity to talk with a DEA agent. The agent told us how he began his career in the military and joined the DEA afterwards. He told us he has been an agent for over 20 years and loves his job. At first he was a field agent in various countries including Colombia where he had the opportunity to take down some of Pablo Escobar's successors after he was killed. He now heads the program for all the 1,000+  informants the DEA has. He finished up telling us of some of the sticky situations he had been in as an undercover DEA agent, which were all interesting stories.  

Signing Ceremony on 1.7 Billion Deal

Yesterday, I was on hand to witness the signing of a 1.7 billion dollar deal between the Boeing company and Copa Airlines of Panama. The signing was in the main hall of the Commerce building and there were a few “big wigs” in attendance which included the President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the vice president of Panama, Secretary Locke, and a few congressmen. The deal obligated 22 Boeing 737’s to be delivered between 2015 and 2018 to Panama’s Copa Airlines for 1.7 billion. Secretary Locke mentioned how this deal was great for American workers who manufacture Boeing aircrafts in the U.S.  He also mentioned how this falls in line with President Obama’s plan to double American exports by 2015. This export initiative was mentioned by Obama in his State of the Union address and has since formed an Export Council which the President of Boeing chairs. It looks like this is one of the outcomes of the council’s ambitious goal to double the amount of exports in the U.S.

News Link 

DC Experiences

Now that I have less than two weeks at my internship, I will really miss some of the interesting things that one can do for free. I toured the Capitol building, Library of Congress, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving building, Arlington cemetery, the Pentagon, I’ve been to several museums, I've seen shows at the Kennedy Center,  and even went to the DC Zoo, all for free. One of the highlights of going to these places besides the obvious is that they all required walking around, and that’s something I never do in AZ. Since I didn’t bring my car here, I’m forced to take the metro system everywhere I go and see a lot different things that you would otherwise miss in a car. The weather has been great and it’s rumored that the fall season is the best weather in DC, and it has been great so far. Of course, every time the weather comes up, people think about how nasty last winter was.  I hope to avoid the several feet of snow that piled up last December and make it back in time to enjoy the best season AZ has to offer!

Informational Meeting

I recently went to another training event sponsored by the internship program. The event covered careers in the federal government.  The first speaker was a woman who was an attorney who told us of her experience on Capitol Hill as a lobbyist. She shared her experiences and explained the tremendous growth in that field in recent years. She also talked about her experience in law school and encouraged us to take heart and continue on with that choice if that is what we want to do, despite the difficulty of law school. The second speaker was an HR Manager with the Department of Education spoke to us about the USAJOBS website and gave some tips on what agencies look for in a candidate. She had a projector screen on the wall and she showed us her resume and explained how to navigate to do a productive job search.  She also explained that some federal government agencies do not post jobs on USAJOBS and you sometimes have to visit the actual agency website. The US Department of Education is one agency that does not always use USAJOBS to post a listing. She recommended if we are interested in a certain agency to go to their website. I found the meeting to be helpful, but the USAJOBS system cumbersome. Now that there is a new hiring reform hopefully this makes it easier on everyone involved. 

Meeting with Security Specialist

A few weeks ago I met with Mr. Deats, who is one of the Security Specialist for the Office of Security (OSY). Mr. Deats currently works for the Counterespionage Division for OSY. His job is mainly to maintain all policy aspects of how Commerce employees handle classified information (from Unclassified up to Top Secret). His job covers many aspects of this responsibility including giving briefs to new employees who are given authority to classify documents and the guidelines to do so. Mr. Deats is also responsible for keeping track and having accountability for all classified documents and equipment for Commerce. He explained to me the computer system used by various Commerce bureaus that shows how many documents are classified within each bureau and where they are located. Classified documents are stored into safes that are located throughout the building. He was also showed me some of the communications equipment and how much it costs. For example a fax machine that is used to send classified information costs around $5,000 and a telephone used to discuss classified information costs $3,200! The way these machines work is that the message is encrypted while it is being transmitted to the receiver. 

Testing Commerce Security

This morning I was involved in an exercise which involved trying to penetrate the security at the Department of Commerce building. Here in the Herbert C. Hoover building, all personnel walking through the entrances must have their ID checked before walking in. The security is supposed to match every employee’s face with the ID and then you are allowed in. This morning I met with a few security personnel along with a physical security specialist for the Anti-Terrorism Division and with the Capitan of the guards. My mission was to get through security using a fake ID. We met a few minutes before to plan what was to happen and of course keeping safety a priority during this exercise. There were people on the radio and also the Capitan was nearby to immediately halt any dangerous situation. But it was pretty simple, I would try to enter into the building using a fake ID. The ID card itself was legitimate but the guy in the picture didn’t look like me.  

For the exercise I walked outside and around the corner to another entrance, I followed behind a woman who was walking and I thought that would be good to try and mingle in with other workers. I said “Good Morning” and held my ID up, but the security held it for a second and said “Uh, that’s not you.” I didn’t respond and she immediately confiscated the ID and told me to stand to the side. She then sent out a code on her radio. At that moment, the Capitan walked in from outside (he was monitoring radio traffic) and he told her it was just an exercise.

I’d have to say it was kind of exciting, but I was a little nervous walking in because I didn’t know what to expect.  My main worry was that the guards were armed, so I didn’t want to get shot. Thankfully everything turned out okay.   

Business Etiquette Training

The internship program recently had a training course on how to conduct yourself at the workplace and how to interview with a potential employer. The class was given by the Human Resources Director for Consular Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. He broke us up into groups and each group was responsible for giving explanations on different aspects of business etiquette. The topics were: 1) proper behavior 2) communication 3) grooming and personal appearance 4)media 5) space (personal and common).

The group I was working with covered grooming and personal appearance. We talked about the importance of having a neat appearance during an interview and how important it is to dress professionally. I personally believe a suit during an interview should be the standard for men for all office positions. It doesn’t matter if you are applying for an unpaid internship or to be CEO, you want to look your best. I feel that it has personally helped me and I’ve had a lot of success after interviews.  For women, the same professional appearance applies and also to not use too much make-up or perfume.  There were a lot of other important points discussed such as using social media at work. Some employers allow their employees to use social media accounts like Facebook. Although I can access it on my computer, I personally don’t use it at work because I don’t want to have that appearance of doing aimless things at work. I believe there was a general consensus that it should not be used while at work.  

Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)

I was assigned another policy task this week regarding an executive order by the President  (Executive Order) to all departments and agencies outlining an approach to standardize Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).  CUI is information that is not classified but that requires some levels of safeguard and protection. For example a Commerce document containing classified information on trade negotiations may remain classified until the negotiations are over.  The document could then be labeled Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU). This SBU classification could possibly remain indefinitely until someone within the department later reviews the document again or updates the classification to less tiered unclassified document.  These are some of the changes that need to be looked at when it comes to standardizing unclassified information. Currently, each government agency has their own method of classification on unclassified documents and can change them at will. This executive order along with a general implementation plan will give agencies more structured and standard identification system.   

My task was to identify identical terms and definitions of how CUI was determined in 2006 based on a Government Accountability Report (GAO Report), and the Commerce Manual of Security on Policies and Procedures of 2010. Without getting into much detail, I charted the overlaps and stand alone terms that would be considered CUI. After reviewing this with the director, I believe the plan is to roll some of the detached CUI definitions into broader terms of CUI within Commerce.

Random Tasks

I have to say one of the benefits or parts an internship that you have to deal with is random tasks. This week I was asked to mark up changes to the Department of Commerce policy in regards to issuing out retirement credentials to federal law enforcement employees within the department. Recently, congress passed new legislation on the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act (LEOSA) of 2004. LEOSA allows qualified law enforcement officers to carry a concealed firearm across state jurisdictions as long as they have a permit in another state. In order for them to carry a concealed weapon, the qualified law enforcement officer needs to have a credential issued out from their department. The Department of Commerce issues out these credentials to qualified Commerce law enforcement personnel and therefore had to update their policy to comply with the federal changes. Among other changes, the law specified that departments should provide credentials to those with at least 10 years of service upon separation to receive a former law enforcement credential. Our office was notified by legal counsel highlighting the changes on the legislation, but it was left to our office to update the Department Administrative Orders. I was asked to make the changes accordingly and submit it to the director.

Combined Federal Campaign

I’ve recently been assigned to work on the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). The CFC is an annual charity campaign that allows organizations to raise funds from federal employees. The CFC has more than 4,000 charities that federal employees can donate to. According to the CFC website, these charities have all been vetted by the federal government and are recognized as legitimate organizations. I have been asked to run this campaign for our office under the guidance of another analyst who ran the campaign last year. My task is to give the information about CFC to the Office of Security employees and provide them the opportunity to give. The goal for our office is to raise a little over $11,000 from now until December 15, just a few days before my internship ends. I hope we can reach this goal by the time my internship is over. 

The CFC is praised as a very cost effective fundraising campaign, the average administrative cost for last year’s CFC was approximately 7 percent which means 93 percent goes directly to the charity. Overall, this is a low overhead, which I believe it is due to the fact that federal employees are the ones who run the campaign and do most of the work. It reminds me of the Army, where it’s not required to have landscapers, janitors, or security guards, because you have soldiers. Of course I am not saying helping in this is like cleaning, but the concept that keeps the cost low for the campaign is the same. In fact, the military is also involved and helps raise funds for the CFC. Below is Obama's message on the CFC. Obama - Combined Federal Campaign

Eventful First Tour

Of course the great part of being in Washington, D.C. is all the history and incredible things to see. Our second day here, the interns were invited to tour the U.S. Capitol. It was great for me because this was my first visit. I remember it being a perfect fall morning and I took some great pictures on our tour of the building. I actually still have the picture of the Capitol saved as my phone screen saver which is above.  I'm actually a little proud of this one for being a phone picture and my only regret is that I wasn't in front of it when I took it.

Interestingly, the day we had the tour was the same day they had the Glenn Beck rally at the National Mall. After the tour a few of the interns decided to check it out. We showed up at the tail end of it after Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin had spoken, but there were still a ton of people there. There were also a few billboards of Martin Luther King towards the back of the rally since it was the anniversary of his "I have a dream" speech.

The Beck crowd was peaceful and there were a few tents scattered around where people were shouting things about government spending. One tent had a guy singing about politics and in one line he sang "get your hand out of my pocket Uncle Sam". There were some people grouped up handing out flyers in different areas of the crowd, I was handed one about the dangers of socialism and another flyer about Christianity.

It was starting to get hot around 2:00pm when the rally ended and there were a lot of people just sitting under the shade of The Washington Monument. I was just taking it all in and people watching. I sat down and started to talk to one man who was sitting next to me. I asked him what happened at the rally and what was discussed. He said this rally was not about taxes but about brining God back into this country and that's all he really said to me.

Survey Assignment

One of my major assignments in this internship has been to analyze data from a survey that was distributed to about 20,000 Department of Commerce employees. Of the 20,000 distributed, a little over 4,000 responded, which is a good turnout. The survey attempts to measure the level of awareness people have of security issues ranging from how to respond to an emergency, how to respond to threats, and how to protect sensitive information. The survey also asked how satisfied employees were with the security measures provided. Once the survey was closed I had to download the data from a program called Inquisite (similar to surveymonkey).

From there, I created charts and tables showing the data and analyze the findings in the form of a report.  I created several reports broken down by bureau, then one report that summarized all the findings. Overall, people were satisfied with security measures and there seemed to be consistency with the highest and lowest rated aspects of security awareness. I then had to create a standard operating procedure to that will instruct future employees on how to create the report which will help with consistency for measuring progress for the following years. This project took a few weeks because the data was double checked by the Analyst and Assistant Director. They both had to read through the many comments as I did and highlight any important security issues that needed to be addressed. Currently the reports are being reviewed by the Director and Deputy Director before it goes out to all the bureaus. I hope to get some feedback soon on what they think of the report.  

Getting to know the metro

I had to learn the public transit system right away here because for obvious reasons I decided not to drive my car from Arizona. On my second day here I had to take the train for an orientation meeting with the rest of the interns in the program. However, a few days before I arrived back in August, I preplanned my trip on the D.C. transit website called the 

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. It seemed fairly straight forward and luckily I found out that I only had to take one train to and from work everyday. Everyone is encouraged to buy a metro card called SmartTrip which you add value to and you get you a small discount if you use it. 

The metro system works unlike the bus system or other train systems I've been on before. When you use  the metro rail system here you are charged by how far you travel. Rates vary depending certain hours of the day but they charge the highest during peak hours from 6-9am and 4-7pm. The average cost to get from my house to work costs me about $6.50 each way. That includes the $1.50 bus fee to get to the train since I don't live waking distance to the station. I calculated that I was paying around $80+ a week for transportation to include my weekend travels!

I knew there had to be another way, so I discovered an option called a short trip pass. The way the short trip works is you have a weekly pass that only allows you to travel distances that cost less than $3.05. So what I've begun to do is get off the train at distances that only cost less than $3.00 and get back on the next train. This has worked fine because during peak hours the trains come within minutes of each other so as soon as I pass the turnstile and back to the dock, another train is already arriving. I only have to do this twice on my way to work but it's been worth the hassle. The short trip pass costs $32.50 a week and it's unlimited travel on the weekends. The only downside is that you have to pay attention to how far you are traveling. I've already gone too far with my short trip pass once, but the transit worker was nice and let me though anyway.  

Getting to work

The first few days at the Department of Commerce were not too hectic. The first thing I did was to begin the process of getting a badge so I could enter into the building without an escort. All entrances are guarded and every visitor must pass through a metal detector and every bag is checked through an x-ray scanner. If you are a commerce employee, you are allowed to pass through freely. The process to get my badge took about two weeks, so everyday I had to sign in with the guards and one of the analysts had to escort me to the office. The building itself is huge, at the time of it's construction, it was the largest administrative building ever built. If you google "Herbert C. Hoover building" you'll see what I mean.

Soon after we had most of the paperwork completed for the badge, I was taken around the offices and introduced to some of the people in other departments. Most of the people who work in the office seem to be in a mid-to late career folks. During the first week my task was to help out the finance / administrative department for the Office of Security. When I walked in to their office they had pretty much a room full of brand new computer equipment. The reason for it was because it was the end of the fiscal year so OSY ordered a large order of brand new equipment to spend all the money in their budget. So my task was to help the purchaser in the finance office sort all that out while more equipment was coming in every day. I just made a spreadsheet and we sent them to the appropriate offices. It was fairly simple but time consuming. For a moment, I felt like I was at FexEx.

I guess the more important story behind this was all the equipment and money spent necessary? Apparently, a partial reason was because OSY has just created a new security department and they are just about to hire about 5 new personnel/agents for that office, so they need this equipment when they arrive. Most of the desktops and laptops had dual monitors and all the security specs. Obviously the total of all this equipment was quite pricey. Since the new department is getting the equipment isn't really staffed yet, I still haven't had a chance to find out what it's all about and understand what their mission is. I hope to find out and I'll post in another blog entry. The rest of the equipment may have been used to upgrade some of the other departments technology needs.

Orientation of the Office

Since I've been slacking a little on my blog entries, I will tell you all more about the Office of Security. The first day one of the people in the office gave me a mini orientation and told me about how the office works. The person giving me the orientation was a Management Analyst. What a Management Analyst does is support the duties and responsibilities of the office and the directors.  The office  has three analysts and the director, deputy director, and assistant director. There are also two secretaries in the office. 

The office itself is called the Strategic and Administrative Division. Again, this is basically the headquarters that handles all aspects of policy and management of security within the Department of Commerce (DOC). All other offices fall under this department which includes the counter-espionage division, anti-terrorism division, project management division, emergency preparedness division, and the physical security division that I don't remember the exact title to. All these divisions have a specific job in the security for DOC and together it's all the Office of Security. 

Going back to the my office, I report to the assistant director who handles the budget for the Office of Security, everything from approving salaries, purchasing, contracts, awards, etc. He obviously reports to the two directors who give final approval on the budget. The three other analysts support the office with required training, policy briefs, evaluations, and general human resources type of work that is required for OSY. This work is necessary since the several departments  each have assistant directors that must report up the chain to the directors. 

This is truly bureaucracy at it's finest, not to mention that many of the employees at OSY are either prior military or police officers so you get that mentality. And if this is confusing to anyone, don't worry about it. It took me a while to get this all figured out, and I'm still learning.  

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Gilbert Cardenas and the following will describe my internship with the Office of Security (OSY) within the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). 

First, let me tell you all how I originally came across this internship opportunity. About a year ago during a job fair at ASU I remember walking by a person sitting by themselves at one of the many tables in a career fair.  As I walked by, she stopped me and asked if I was interested in an internship in D.C.  I said "yes" of course, then she began to tell me of a paid internship opportunity in D.C. The internship sounded great but I didn't apply because I was getting ready to graduate with my undergrad and I was looking for a full time job at the time. I didn't think about applying until recently when I started my MPA program. 

The organization is called Hispanic Association of College and Universities (HACU). The way it works is HACU has contacts with various federal organizations and they set up interviews for students interested in federal jobs. And although the name says Hispanic, any person, regardless of race can apply and get an internship - i've met people from various places and a range of ethnicities who are current interns. 

After applying with HACU I was contacted by the departments directly and I had two interviews. One was for the Library of Congress and another for the Department of Commerce. I was chosen for both but decided to go with the DOC because it was more in line with my degree program and with my work experience. I currently intern with the Strategic and Administrative Management Division under the Office of Security (OSY). The mission of OSY is to provide the security for all of the DOC. They deal with all levels of security from counter-espionage, terrorism threats, security clearance, background checks, IT security, and physical security. The department I work for oversees all the departments within OSY, and I report to the assistant director.    

As most people know, the mission of the Department of Commerce is to advance economic growth and jobs and opportunities for the American people. Given this task one of the critical aspects in ensuring we know and neutralize any threats that may hinder the fulfillment of that mission. It's not as simple as checking someones ID. Threats are everywhere, and the motto of the office is "security is everyones responsibility". I believe this to be true and I've come to see and appreciate the high standard that is applied to our federal government's security.

Other than work, I have been having an amazing time here in D.C. I still can't believe that everyday I cross Pennsylvania Avenue and get a clear view of the U.S. Capitol just before I walk into work. It's truly a blessing to be here.

I'm eager to hear about everyone else's internship experiences.