Madi: The strategic writing aspects of CDAE and what I've learned throughout my career at UVM has been incredibly helpful.

Interviewer: This is the official CDAE Alumni Podcast, where current students interview former students and learn about how their experiences as interns and undergrads led them to where they are now. Today we're with Madi Duffy. Madi graduated in 2020 and has a position as budget analyst at the Homeland Security. Hey Madi.

Madi: Hello.

Interviewer: How are you today?

Madi: Good. How are you?

Interviewer: I'm doing all right. So Madi, how did the transition happen from internship to career?

Madi: The summer before my senior year of college, I applied to be a student trainee at the Homeland Security. It's usually a summer position that some of the different offices offer. So I was accepted at the Human Capital and Training Office, and from that, after the summer around August, they decided that they'd like to keep me on throughout the full year. So I transitioned into a Student Pathways program. That's basically how I came from internship to hopefully a career.

Interviewer: Okay. And were there any hesitations you experienced when picking the internship or trying to get involved with Homeland Security in general?

Madi: Yeah. I think in the past, a lot of my job experience has been super hands on and I've always been ... I've always worked in coffee shops and not necessarily coffee shops, but just how much interaction you have with the general public in those jobs. So I was a little hesitant about going into an actual sit down in a cubicle every single day type job. So that was the biggest concern that I had when I was thinking about applying for an internship there.

Interviewer: Okay. And how did you know you were interested in this field? What made ... Going from a coffee shop, how do you transition to something like Homeland Security?

Madi: So in Vermont, actually, USCIS within Homeland Security has a lot of job opportunities, and there are a lot of people in my family who actually work for Homeland Security, so that's really how I heard about it. And I really liked how solid of a career it can become and the ability to move up and better yourself within the positions that are offered in USCIS Homeland Security, so that was what I really look towards and being a federal position and offers a lot of security in that, but also just benefits in general, which for me being very type A and wanting everything to be lined up, that was super comforting.

Interviewer: How relevant to your work is your undergraduate major?

Madi: In the particular building that I'm at right now, I think it's very relevant. Being a PCOM major, it's been a lot about communication and graphic design and I'm in the Human Capital and Training Office, so all of that kind of folds into what we're expected to do. So we not only take care of the budget, but we also organize the professional development program, so getting the word out for other employees to apply to get funding for classes that they might want to take. There's a lot of graphic stuff. We put out a lot of advertisements for not only that professional development program, but other opportunities within USCIS. So I think that part of my undergraduate major has been really helpful in the particular office that I'm in now. I don't know necessarily if I were to move into a different office, how much it would carry over. But as of right now, it's been super helpful.

Interviewer: So Madi, what parts of your daily tasks at work align with what you learned in CDAE?

Madi: So a lot of what I do at my job right now is communication with other employees, sometimes about their travel or sometimes about their application to the professional development programs. So I think the strategic writing aspects of CDAE and what I've learned throughout my career at UVM has been incredibly helpful in that communication between myself and the employees and just making sure that I'm communicating in an effective way that's also professional has been really helpful not only when I first started at the internship, but also to set me apart from other people at the office.

Interviewer: We're so happy for you, so we wish you the best and good luck.

Madi: Thank you.