#wssup

[codysooill]

5 more years till 30 boyyy happy birthday to my OG @b_vongphackdy #letstrytostopdrinking #justkiddin #wonthappen #happybirthday #wssup

[wsuplanners]

WSU MUP Alumni Profile #1 - John Cruz

Many WSSUP members and MUP candidates have wondered what career options are available after graduation. After talking with a few recent graduates, there seem to be a variety of ways to use a planning degree in the real world. Read the first alumni profile for recent graduate John Cruz below and view other profiles at our Alumni Profiles page.

John Cruz: I got interested in planning after realizing the lack of satisfaction I had in my computer programming career. I found the urban planning field while searching for graduate school options that would accept people from varied career tracks. I found the field of planning, fell in love with it and explored options for school. I arrived at Wayne's Urban Planning Program after rejecting options to go to business school, law school, and other masters programs in economics or public administration. I graduated in winter of 2012.

Currently I'm still working in programming, but also am the editor-in-chief of The Urbanist Dispatch where I maintain a team of writers and editors from around the world talking about planning related issues.

WSSUP: What was your capstone project and how did it prepare you for your career?

JC: Our capstone was a neighbourhood plan for Woodbridge, done in 2011. It was great because we got to put a real plan together instead of speaking in abstracts or talking about theory. We had to work together with a large team (which always has it's challenges), work with the public through multiple meetings and door-to-door information gathering, and work with public officials (our meetings were attended by a city council member and a member of the state senate). Planning is about people and being able to work with all sorts of different types.

WSSUP: What are the most valuable skills (planning or otherwise) you've learned in your career?

JC: Learn to see someone else's point of view. Even if you don't agree with it, understanding it will help you strengthen your argument, position, and hopefully be able to compromise or fulfill another's need through a different avenue than they picture.

WSSUP: What was your most important planning experience during your time as a MUP?

JC: Learning about how neighbourhoods rise and fall from George Galster. He challenged me to look at gentrification, decline, and housing in ways that I never thought were possible. Before my first semester started I was at the welcome event talking to some people who were about to graduate, they said their biggest regret was not taking his Neighbourhood Decline course. I was able to schedule it in right at the end of my program and it's the course I learned the most from.

WSSUP: How did you find work after graduation?

JC: I was able to find an internship right before I graduated with Global Detroit through one of Dr. Boyle's job related email blasts, which turned into a really fun half year project. I had gotten great publicity for myself after the report was published and I went on Craig Fahle (who still had his show in WDET) with Kurt Metzler (who was then still head of Data Driven Detroit) to talk about immigration demographics.

But then my wife got into graduate school in Montréal so we moved. There are very few planning jobs here and they all require French fluency, which I do not have. So I'm doing the online periodical gig to keep myself sharp and keep up good relations with planners. Once we figured out where she wants to get her PhD we can move back to an anglophone society and I can hit the ground running looking for work, since I'm still in the career I wanted out of 6 years ago.

WSSUP: What goals do you have for your future in planning?

JC: Ideally I'd like to work for a transit agency. Most of my grad school research revolved around transit and economic development, and that's really where my interests lie. However at this point I'm simply looking forward to finding stable planning work and am open to any options that present themselves.

WSSUP: Do you have any advice for future MUP graduates?

JC: I have three points:

1) Be creative with your degree, and don't pigeon-hole yourself with an idealized future that likely doesn't exist. I hear people say "I want to go work for a developer" or "I want to work for a big municipal planning department". Which is great. Daniel Burnham said "Make no little plans", which I think applies to planners' aspirations as well. Just be realistic (not too jaded) and know that were you end up will likely be very different than what's in your head.

2) Learn some sort of planning related skill. Map making, public speaking, grant writing, etc. Employers are more interested in what you can do than what a piece of paper says.

3) Learn how to network. Find events, find people in the field, find things you can learn from. That means the conference, the lunch table, and afterwards at the bar even if you don't drink. Many planning jobs are not posted, or not posted anywhere that's easy to find. You'll find these jobs through your connections. Grad school is a perfect time to get your feet wet.

Thanks again John for taking the time to share your experience! If you are a MUP alumni that wouldn't mind being part of WSSUP's Alumni Profile series, contact us at [email protected].

[wsuplanners]

Click the link above to access the minutes from November's WSSUP meeting.

[wsuplanners]

WSSUP.org is here!

We're finally back up and running with wssup.org. Be sure to keep up with our organization here, along with our Facebook group and email newsletters. We'll be adding alumni profiles, jobs/internships, events, news and more in the coming weeks.

Check out a few important links and archived email newsletters below:

Wayne State MUP Department Site

Wayne State DUSP 2014 Newsletter

WSSUP September/October Email Newsletter

WSSUP November Email Newsletter

[zengnarly]

Zen Gnarly - Wssup [Official Music Video]

[hystorias-blog]

eh

alright so lately a few people have been onto me about starting a blog for just my writing. finally got around to it. this will be geared significantly more towards myself and the novel i am working on, as well as some current and not-so-current poetry, travel/food writing, thoughts, and photographs. this blog will probably form itself in fits & starts, so be patient with me and before too long i should have lots of regular and original content for you. lastly, i love you all.

[itsandrewpimentel]

  Out of all the relationships and hookups I have gone through with i've learned something new. Some ended with no words spoken, some ended the way it shouldn't be and mostly things ended on a good note. I realized that you really do become a much wiser person and I honestly wouldn't be the person I am today without them being a part of my life.

  I've honestly been through a lot and every experience in a relationship and that through every experience something is always being improved on. I know I can always be a good boyfriend and I know exactly where I would stand in a relationship. 

[amondistoudemire]