Howdy!
My name is Kimberly Winarski and I am a soon-to-be proud alumna of Texas A&M University. I am also a proud alumna of the University of Central Florida and of the AmeriCorps program City Year. I am an avid roller skater, a horror movie connoisseur, and a fried-pickle fanatic. I am a house-plant hoarder and find joy in wandering through the plant nursery at Home Depot as often as I can. As I look towards graduation and then after, I want to work in local government, city management, and to be a good steward of my neighbors.
My interest in local government originates from my childhood experiences. Growing up, I was a frustrated kid because I lived in a neighborhood that, because of Central Florida’s sprawling patterns of development, was built away from just about everywhere else I wanted to be. Outside of this neighborhood, there was a 50-mile-an-hour road with no sidewalks, no bike lanes, no parks, no convenience stores, no other neighborhoods, and no schoolmates nearby. There was nowhere to travel to nearby and no way to get there. Inside of this neighborhood, there were only single-family homes and a limited ability to grow, socialize, and be a community member. The road outside the neighborhood served as a boundary, so if my parents didn’t want to drive me somewhere, I was stuck. For me, living in a neighborhood so secluded from other parts of my community planted the seeds of a desire to work in local government because local governments have a great ability to build better communities.
Three other adolescent experiences developed that desire as well. In sixth grade, I took guitar lessons the whole year and never really learned to play because I spent lesson time talking to the guitar teacher instead. There I learned that I loved people and that I was more of a people-person than a musician. Throughout my childhood, I also tended to a sick parent. By doing so, I learned to be a good steward of others. In high school, I had a unique opportunity to explore some of the inner workings of local government early on. A council person in the City of Palm Bay, Florida, where I grew up, created a youth board for high-schoolers to learn about government. I excitedly joined and became its first chairperson. Throughout that experience, I had the opportunity to meet and observe many people working in local government, to attend other city board meetings, and to listen to the voices of impassioned citizens on city decisions. These experiences developed my passions and guided my studies in college.
I am prepared to work in local government for the following reasons:
1. I have a broad education with classes that I purposefully chose to give me exposure to a wide-variety of local government subjects.
As both an undergraduate and graduate student, I studied public administration and learned as much about local government as I could. At the University of Central Florida (UCF), I completed dual-degrees in English literature and in public administration and minored in urban planning. After graduating and completing a year of AmeriCorps service, I moved to begin a Master of Public Service and Administration degree (MPA) from Texas A&M. I chose A&M because I wanted a variety of life experiences to learn from, because I liked the emphasis of service in their MPA program, and because I liked the sense of community I felt with the other students I interviewed with there. As an MPA student, I will complete certificates in both Community Development from A&M’s Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Department and in Sustainable Urbanism from their School of Architecture along with my degree. These academic experiences have allowed me to learn about many facets of government and have reinforced my interests in a local government career.
2. I have many real-world, out-of-the-classroom learning-experiences related to local government.
At UCF, I worked as a teaching assistant for an honors course called Evolution of Community. The course covered important aspects of a community like diversity, corporate responsibility, and accessibility. One of the lectures I enjoyed most each year was from a city planner named Jeff Arms who lectured primarily on sidewalks. From my perception, some of my students didn’t care for this particular lecture because it was maybe too far away from their professional interests for them to connect with the subject matter. For me though, as a child who grew up with little access, I was enthralled with Mr. Arm’s discussion on how his proudest professional moment was building accessible sidewalks in a neighborhood where a young blind girl lived so that she could travel safely to school. Beyond participating in this course, I was actively involved in UCF’s student government, where I learned about public finance, budgeting, and procurement. I participated in some way on four different fiscal processes, including two committees that budgeted and allocated student funds, one that made fee recommendations to the university president, and one that audited student agencies. I also worked closely with the professional accounting staff who purchased the items the committees allocated for and learned about the policies they have to follow outside of the student government’s decisions. At UCF, I was also involved with a leadership and service program called LEAD Scholars, a service program called Volunteer UCF, with the university’s racquetball team, and was a university student ambassador through UCF’s President’s Leadership Council.
In graduate school, I’ve again prioritized learning outside the classroom. In my time here, I’ve participated as a non-voting member of the local chamber of commerce board through my school’s board fellows program and been a representative for my program’s student government and the greater graduate student government at A&M. I’ve participated in a university fee advisory board and I’ve participated in a leadership program put on by the local school district for citizens to learn about district governing processes. The most formative part of my graduate school experience, though, has been being involved with and being president of the Texas A&M Chapter of ICMA. The chapter previously had dispersed because of limited continuity between the student cohorts interested in local government. This year, I and another student reestablished the chapter and have expanded it to over 20 members. All of these experiences have allowed me to make connections between academic work and real-world scenarios that make learning exciting. I’ve also had a few professional experiences related to city management. This past summer, I went back to Palm Bay and worked as a management intern in their City Manager’s Office. In that position, I worked on projects across departments. For example, I worked with the public works and finance departments on a resolution about debris pickup reimbursement from FEMA. In Palm Bay, I even got out of the office occasionally to observe local government functions, like riding along with code compliance. Currently, I work for an institute at Texas A&M where I research community resiliency. These experiences have given me a more professional basis for my understanding of local government work and city management.
3. I have developed a strong network of local government mentors who continually support my learning experiences.
Through my education, I've had the opportunity to work with and be mentored by a retired city manager who has worked in states around the U.S. Through the ICMA chapter, I’ve had the opportunity to find mentorship from local city managers, learn about current topics at the TCMA and ICMA conferences, and explore the variety there is in city management through local government events we put on or attend. Through my internship with the City of Palm Bay, I built a strong relationship with the incredible women in the City Manager's Office and learned so much not only about being a great worker, but also about what women's leadership looks like as they're traditionally underrepresented in city management.
Overall, these relevant personal, professional, and academic experiences speak to not only my interest in local government, city management, and the fellowship but also my leadership potential and my commitment to public service. My life experiences, education, and involvement in my communities have well-equipped me with a heart to serve others, a great foundation of local government knowledge, a deep respect for my community, and an eagerness to learn more. I thoroughly enjoy learning about and participating in local government and would like to continue to do so in my career.
