06-21-2006 2006 Evan J. Sears Award Recipient Announced

Home Browse Search

Evan J. Sears Annual I e oti l Scholarship Essay By: J enna Plawinski When I returned to my internship for a second year with the City of South Bend, I felt confident that I knew what I would be doing in airy job as a GIS intern. I quickly realized that I was riot the least bit prepared when I reported for the first day. While I thought that I would need some srefreshing" about tine equipment and the computer prograrns that I would be working with, I vas instead, reminded that the first priority in ley workplace is safety. T'hc utmost important topic in the agenda for craployccs of the city, and the inayo° especially, was for us to learn about safety. 1 respect the fact that the euithority figures within the city snake it a i:aandato v orientation and that they care about their employees. I grew up in a home where I had always been very careful and responsible for lily actions. I am still reminded daily by my parents "Wear your seat belt, be careful driving, park the car so you will not have to back up." Since my dad has learned to text message he sends me short messages, "R U wearing your safety vest? Your seat beit? B safe." Though 1 have received reminders over a thousand tunes, one can never be too cautious, and it only takes a, second to let your mind wander before you can get into a serious accident. It is comforting to know that while I am working hard for the city, they are mainly concerned for my well being. In my orientation meeting I was made aware of how to keep myself and others around me safe. Sometimes people may feel that they do not need to be reminded about safety tips, but no one can ever hear them enough. It is a tragedy that it took the death of an intern to bring this to the city's foremost attention, and at the same time they must have realized that preventing accidents is a serious topic for each and every employee. Safety in the workplace is the most important thing no matter what the job. I feel that learning about safety and feeling comfortable going out in the field is the most crucial of all tasks to be aware of. It says a lot that employees for the city take time out of their day to teach each of us interns this information. If it were not for the upper management of city officials and Mrs. Sears caring about our safety, we would never have the chance to learn the safety rules that we now follow. We not only have to look out for ourselves, we have to loom out for each other and with the help of the safety orientation we attended we can now do so. Thanks to the workers of the city and Mrs. Sears understanding how to reach the lives of employees, we realize how safety must be involved with the actions of our everyday events.