Meet the Interns!

We are a group of students in (or freshly out of) Portland State University's Masters of Urban and Regional Planning program. Through partnerships between PSU, the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning and Design (CAUPD), and the Urban Planning and Design Institute of Shenzhen (UPDIS), we have been given the opportunity to live and work in China this summer. Through this blog we hope to give our family, friends, classmates, co-workers, and future interns a view into our experiences and the amusing mishaps that are sure to accompany them.

Andrew Parish hails from sunny San Diego and claims to not miss it at all, but nobody's buying it. He is specializing in land use and resiliency, and his interests include artsy electronic music, hot pickled carrots in dirty Mexican restaurants, and Peak Everything. Andrew will be working for UPDIS and hopes to someday learn to count to twenty in Mandarin.

Alex Steinberger is an engrossing storyteller with an enviable mustache that may or may not survive the journey to China.  He is planning on "upping his spice game" while abroad by eating unhealthy amounts of chili peppers while trying to impress his new hosts.  Alex studies transportation with a focus on urban design and travel demand modeling.  He will be working for CAUPD's Shenzhen office in their urban design studio and couldn't be more excited to get started.

Alison just finished her first year as a MURP focusing on local economic development.  As an intern with UPDIS in Shenzhen, she is excited to see how rapid economic growth is approached in the realm of Chinese planning.  She is looking forward to patronizing local water parks and checking out "third spaces" all over the city.

Caroline is a recent graduate of the MURP program and will be working for the CAUPD office in Shenzhen this summer.  She recently made it her goal to live to the ripe old age of 100, so plenty of almonds and running are in her future.  In China she hopes to seek out awesome places to eat, and maybe take a few salsa dancing lessons along the way (seriously, she actually found a place that offers them).

Collin recently finished his first year as a MURP student at PSU and currently works as a graduate research assistant in the PSU-China Innovations program.  As a native Floridian, Collin has often been heard boasting that he is ready for all the humidity Beijing can throw at him.  An avid cyclophile, he hopes to purchase a Chinese-made bicycle so he can join throngs of commuters as he makes his way to the CAUPD offices in Beijing every morning.

Michael is a veteran world traveler and MURP student studying environmental planning.  A huge Peter Hessler fan, he hopes to do some "country driving" in and around Beijing this summer, with a few epic road trips thrown in for good measure.