Carnegie Mellon Engineering

Carnegie Mellon's Mike Sheridan Receives Accolades for Internship Excellence

August 17, 2009

Contact: Chriss Swaney
Carnegie Mellon University
412.268.5776

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University's Mike Sheridan received an award of merit for outstanding work as a summer intern from the Local Government Academy Aug. 13 at the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh. 

           
Mike Sheridan"This has been a great opportunity for me to use engineering skills in another field and gain expertise in local government," said Sheridan, a senior civil and environmental engineering major who spent the summer working in the city of Johnstown's Finance Department. 

           
Since 1983, the non-profit Local Government Academy has helped place interested students in city and municipal government paid internships, ranging from marketing and communications to design and finance. Sheridan, 21, was one of 15 student interns to receive accolades at the 14th annual awards luncheon recognizing excellence in work for city governments.

           
"Mike is energetic and really got some great work done for his intern sponsor," said Anita Lengvarsky, director of the municipal intern program at the Local Government Academy, which gets funding from a variety of counties, including Allegheny, Washington and Westmoreland, in addition to funding from Act 47 for distressed communities.  

           
"We had him improving existing databases for everything from delinquent city garbage collection issues to analyzing revenue flows for our various city departments," said Curtis Davis, Johnstown city manager. "His work was so outstanding that we had him do several workshops about how to maintain these critical information databases," Davis said.

           
Sheridan, a Johnstown native and graduate of Bishop McCort High School, praised the program for giving him an opportunity to work in a public policy venue. "I am still deciding what I really want to do, but I'm extremely pleased with the way my engineering background helped me quickly see results and then turn those results into action," Sheridan said.

           
"I'm really the kind of person that craves keeping things in order, and this summer I got to exercise that drive," Sheridan said.  "I feel like I got the chance to improve city workers' decision making at all levels."

           
"We are very proud of Mike's accomplishments. He certainly demonstrated what we strive to have our Carnegie Mellon students be able to do - being able to understand diverse problems and bring well reasoned and innovative approaches to solve those problems," said James H. Garrett, Jr., head of Carnegie Mellon's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.  "We are pleased that he was able to have such a productive summer internship. We at the university congratulate Mike on receiving this well deserved recognition for his efforts."