Mayoral Fellowship Program

Overview

The Mayoral Fellowship Program is a premier opportunity for engaged, motivated, and civic-minded graduate/undergraduate students from all disciplines to apply their coursework to one of the greatest municipalities in the world: the City of Detroit.

Interns will serve the people of Detroit by supporting policy, communications, and public engagement initiatives within the city government. By working hand-in-hand with senior staff across many different City of Detroit departments and sister agencies throughout the city, interns will offer recommendations and possibly implement programs that improve the lives of Detroit's 673,000 residents. This unique opportunity to work with current decision makers and assist in the implementation of strategy will distinguish you and your skillset to any future employer.

• Interns are placed in a City department based on their stated experience, background and suitability for a specific project or office.
• Interns work under the direct supervision of a department mentor on high-impact projects designed to improve the quality of life for Detroit residents.
• Interns will have the opportunity to participate in our lunch and learn speaker series, which will expose them to both private and public sector leaders.
• Daily responsibilities will vary by position; regardless of placement, interns are guaranteed exposure to varied responsibilities within their role.

• The Department of Public Works (DPW) is committed to enhancing our city's well-being by providing essential environmental and infrastructure services, such as overseeing solid waste collection, promoting citywide recycling, addressing illegal dumping, and maintaining streets and alleys, snow and ice removal, sidewalk maintenance, and the establishment of traffic control systems.
• The Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) is the largest public transit provider in Michigan that serves the city of Detroit, surrounding suburbs, and neighboring cities, including Highland Park and Hamtramck.
• The Office of the Chief Financial Officer is a centralized financial management operation which consolidates all budget and finance related functions within the City.
• The Fire Department has seven (7) divisions, which operate under the purview of the Office of the Executive Fire Commissioner:
  Communications, Community Relations, Emergency Medical Services, Fire Fighting Operations, Fire Marshal Investigation, Arson, and Training. The Department maintains and operates 39 facilities throughout the City of Detroit.
• The Detroit Health Department assumes responsibility for ensuring that essential local public health services are provided in the city; that the State of Michigan MOE funding requirement for local government funding contributions is met, and that the public health of our community is improved.
• The Human Resources Department ensures that the 9,000 employees and job applicants of the City of Detroit are treated fairly on the basis of race, religion, color, age, gender, national origin, disability or other criteria prohibited by City, State or Federal Law.
• The Civil Rights, Inclusion and Opportunity Department serves as an alternative dispute resolution agency. The department is responsible for addressing barriers and/or discrimination issues that adversely affect the well-being and image of the city of Detroit, its residents, visitors and employees.
• The Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) is a central staff agency responsible for developing and providing information technology and consulting services to City agencies that will innovate on how they deliver services and interact with citizens. The responsibilities of DoIT include: strategic technology planning, business needs solutions, information management, Cyber Security, special project management, application development and implementation, system/application maintenance and support, telecommunications, data center operations, technology acquisition, data security and other services to empower agencies to use technology to improve operations and the quality of services provided to their customers.
• The Mayor’s Office missio…