Thomasville Insights
Welcome to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville! Located in Thomasville, Georgia, the podcast will cover everything from Thomasville history and events to daily operations and City business, all while having some fun in the process. Please visit Thomasville.org for more information. Thanks for listening!
Thomasville Insights
Intern Takeover- Season 6 Episode 1
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
We hand the mic to our interns for an honest look at what it’s like to work inside the City of Thomasville. From customer service and IT support to finance leadership and a historic building move, we hear what surprised them, what challenged them, and what they’d tell anyone thinking about applying.
• why the intern takeover matters and how the program builds a pipeline for city jobs
• how customer service includes multiple internal functions beyond phones and the front desk
• what municipal IT support looks like day to day with hardware, PCs, and ticketing
• advice to apply even if you doubt you’ll get picked
• a Thomasville “hot take” on food diversity and making better use of free community events
• how to learn coworker styles fast by talking beyond work and reading the room
• what working near a CFO teaches about leadership, multitasking, and stress
• why renovating a historic municipal building takes time, rules, and patience
• navigating internship pressure and using summer work to test career paths
• upcoming Kids Community Day details and where to find the community calendar
Just a reminder to subscribe to Thomasville Insights on your favorite listening app.
To learn more about the city of Thomasville, visit Thomasville.org or follow us on social media.
Welcome And Intern Takeover Setup
SPEAKER_02Welcome to Thomasville Insights with the city of Thomasville. On the podcast, we'll talk to experts on everything from Thomasville history and events to daily operations and city business, all while having some fun in the process.
SPEAKER_01Hello everyone, and welcome to Thomasville Insights. I am Austin Reims and I am here with Ricky Zambrano, the sports jinx, who every team he roots for, they have problems. I'm so sorry. I'm so glad you're here, but I'm so sorry about your sports teams. Columbia losing recently. Are you okay over there?
SPEAKER_03Nope. Not okay. Not okay. I actually told the you know our director, Mark and Christy Owens, our faithful leader. Yes. Uh, that I was not coming back to work for about a year, or maybe till the next World Cup. Wow. So uh I'm gonna stick to that promise. But I came in today uh just because you asked me to. That's right. That's right. Well, and you called me this morning, told me to wake up, show up. That's right.
SPEAKER_01We have a special show today. One of the favorites of the season, I think, by a lot of us, uh, because uh uh it is the intern takeover. So tell uh tell audience a little bit about that one.
SPEAKER_03It's a takeover, kind of like what you left out. Okay, you left out the takeover that the New York Knicks had at the San Antonio Spurs. So listen, when when my teams win, you gotta you gotta give me at least a little shout out. Because last place Mets, Columbia gets knocked out, the U.S. gets knocked out of the World Cup as well. I mean, Knicks and five, we at least gotta celebrate that one. So but in all seriousness, in um the internship program, you know what what a special uh piece of Team Thomasville. Fourth year now. Yep. And uh very proud to have been part of the HR team that launched the uh the internship program four years ago now. And uh, you know, it's been it's been phenomenal. Uh a lot of people may not know, but in 2025, our our group of interns out of our seven interns that we had in 2025, three of those were hired on and are now full-time employees with Team Thomas. Yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03And you know, and and we can talk a lot about what internships do, why do you do it, uh, but the reality of it is why do you not do it? Yeah. That you create opportunities, you create insight into the organization, and you're giving back to those that hopefully will replace us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Um not hard to replace us. That's right. We I I feel like I'm very replaceable. As as we say, we are AI can easily replace us. That's right. Uh Ricky and I, you know, we're in the marketing department. We are we are the thorn among the roses there, the marketing department. So uh no, no tattoos for me. Okay. Um but that's the part we were told we had to get tattoos for. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um we could get into a whole tattoo discussion, that would be interesting. But uh I back to the interns. Uh I'm always uh impressed, uh impressed by um uh the ones that we're gonna have on the show, but um uh a lot of great um uh interns that we've had with just work ethics and just uh knowledge that they have, enthusiasm that they have. Um it's always kind of a program look forward to to see. Uh and I I like learning from them, you know. Um there's always kind of little things that I pick up or things that they're learning in school. Um, so uh anyway, so I think our audience is gonna like it and I'm looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and this segment uh you know launched a couple years back, and it was it was the brainchild of the interns as well. And uh, you know, for the for the third year running now, we'll have our our intern takeover where uh our interns will run the show, knock us out of the way, and looking forward to uh introducing um our host for this segment, which would be Harper Page.
Harper Starts The Intern Takeover
SPEAKER_06Hi, my name is Harper Page, and I am going to be your host for today's intern takeover. I go to the University of Georgia, and I am a mechanical engineering major, and I am now working with the engineering department at the city of Thomasville as an intern. So, as mentioned, today's episode is going to be a little bit different, as we have our wonderful hardworking interns with us, including me, and we are taking over the Thomasville Insights podcast. So let me just introduce our first guest because there will be another segment. Our first guest is Alyssa Bradshaw. Hello. And our second guest is Takina Pettis.
SPEAKER_05Hi.
SPEAKER_06All right. Y'all two, will you give us a little bit of background information, you know, where you're from, your major, what school you go to, and what department you're working in?
Customer Service Intern Reality Check
SPEAKER_08Um my name is Alyssa Bradshaw. Um I grew up in Thomasville, and you know, this is where I lived. That's one of the reasons I chose to work with the city of Thomasville. Um, I currently go to Valdassa State University and am majoring in business management with a minor in international business, and I currently am working with the customer service department as an intern.
SPEAKER_05Um my name is Jaquina. I go to Valassa State University. Um I'm from Thomasville, Georgia. Um I'm a senior and my major is computer information systems, and I'm an intern for the IT department.
SPEAKER_06Wow, two people from the same university. Alyssa, I have a question for you. What is something that surprised you about the customer service department?
SPEAKER_08Something that is surprised me about the customer service um department. I will say it was a shock to me whenever I learned that there was multiple departments inside the customer service department. You would think, oh, all they do is answer calls, take people where they need to go, um, be the people who help them at the front desk. It's a lot more than that. There's like seven different departments. What are all of them? Do you can you name them? Uh maybe. Um So I'm currently with cashiering for a couple weeks. They have me going around to each one. Um cashiering, billing, uh collections, call center, new accounts, dispatch tax, and something to do with like business tax or whatever.
SPEAKER_06Oh wow.
SPEAKER_08I'm not sure about that one. I'm not going to that one.
SPEAKER_06So you're the intern for all of those departments? Essentially, except for that last one. Okay, okay.
What City IT Supports Daily
SPEAKER_06Um so, Jaquina, you know, IT is a very big part of, I mean, honestly, any company in general, especially the city of Thomasville. Um, so I just kind of want you to tell us in the audience a little bit about what you do on a day-to-day basis. Any products you're working on, I know you help with the ticketing system. I've used your help multiple times for my computer. Um, but just tell us a little bit about that and what you're doing.
SPEAKER_05Um, yeah, it's a very critical part of Thomasville. And I really didn't realize it until I actually did the internship. Um, on a daily, I help with printers, monitors, PCs, like anything involving a computer, basically. But um, yeah, I've helped with tickets, of course. Um, yeah, that's about it, literally. Anything technical related.
SPEAKER_06Do you have any projects that like they've assigned you, or are you more focused on like helping the people within the city?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I wouldn't call them projects necessarily, but it's like tasks that I've had been assigned. And they're not big tasks, of course. But yeah, it's been a lot. And then we also go to Camilla every two weeks, so it's like I'll be able to help. Have you how many times have you been over there so far? Um maybe three. Because we go every other Thursday.
SPEAKER_06So oh wow. Um, so just a quick question.
Internship Advice And Thomasville Hot Takes
SPEAKER_06What do you think would be your advice for those that are planning or want to apply for an internship with Team Thomasville next summer?
SPEAKER_05Um, I would honestly say just apply because me, I didn't think I was gonna get it. Me as well. It was just like off of faith thing. Like, I say just do it. Yeah. It's definitely, it's definitely some good experience. Because like now I have insight on what I want to do like when I graduate. So yeah, it's very helpful.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_08Alyssa. Yeah, I completely agree with that. Um, I think especially like the customer service internship, it gives you a lot of insight in how like companies deal with customers, both the good and the bad. Yeah. And I think it's really interesting.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I think it's really interesting how you know your major is not exactly customer service. Not exactly. And I think that it's so neat that you got the opportunity to intern with something outside of what you're planning on doing, but it still was um useful for you. And there's other interns like Keely, who will be in our second segment, who is not within um what their major is, but is still gaining valuable experience. All right. Um, I have a quick little fun quit for y'all. Do you have a Thomasville hot take? Something like maybe that is a slightly disagreeable opinion, not too crazy, um, but maybe like an underrated restaurant or your favorite activity to do that not a lot of people know about here in Thomasville. It's okay if y'all need a moment to think it over.
SPEAKER_08I don't think it's really a hot take. I think we need more diversity in our food choices. I feel like we have a lot of Mexican Mexican, yes. And a lot of chicken.
SPEAKER_06We are in South Georgia, so I've I think the the fried chicken does make sense.
SPEAKER_08True.
SPEAKER_06I know a lot of my coworkers love to go over to Chicken Delight, which is just across the street from our office. Yes. Almost every single day. Jekana?
SPEAKER_05I can't really think anything, but I agree on what you say. Because eat the same thing almost every day.
SPEAKER_06Okay. I will give y'all mine since you didn't have an answer. Um, I think that everyone needs to start utilizing and taking advantage of the free community events that we have here. For example, something that I've really liked and enjoyed to do since I've been back home for the summer is there is line dancing classes that's put on by the community that is really fun. It's a great way to find community. And I would just say that that's definitely underused. Not a lot of people know about stuff like that, but keep an eye out for you know different pages and people that are trying to put on stuff because that's how you make a community. All right, that'll be all with this first segment. Um, thank you so much for joining us, Alyssa and Jakina. Um, but we will be back shortly for our segment two of the intern takeover podcast.
Segment Two With Finance And Main Street
SPEAKER_06Welcome back to the second segment of our intern takeover. I'm Harper, in case you didn't remember. Um, and today, right now, we have with us for the second segment Jack Lee, who's the finance intern, and Keely Walden, who's the Marketing Main Street intern. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us your school, your major, where you're from. Go ahead, Jack.
SPEAKER_04Sure. Um I'm from Jonesboro, Arkansas. I'm a uh rising second year at the University of Florida, and uh my major is finance.
SPEAKER_07And Keely. I am from Thomasville, Georgia. I currently am a junior at Mississippi State University. I'm an accounting major with a minor in business administration.
SPEAKER_06Wow, a lot of big SEC names in in the studio with us today. A lot of, a lot of um rivalries, let's just say. All right. As an intern, you know, we're exposed to a lot of different personalities and levels of professional experience that you aren't really accustomed to within a classroom setting. So, what have you done in the short period of time so far that we've been here to try and learn about your teammates and your coworkers, personalities, and just kind of the way that that their office works?
SPEAKER_04So, yeah, I think everyone has a different background and um different field of experience. So I think like what worked for me was um being able to talk to uh somebody in the office about something that maybe wasn't about work, maybe about football. My um the person who's uh who uh sits right next to me, her name's uh Lori McArdle, and she's this die hard Georgia fan. And on the first yeah, on the on the first day of um first day of the internship, we're actually talking about that a little bit. So yeah, I'd probably just say um talk to them about something other than work, something that you can relate to outside of it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I definitely say that that's a good um strategy to try and get to know your coworkers.
SPEAKER_07Keely? Um, one thing that has helped me learn about the people I work with is some of them are like go-with the flow and others are like quick with it and all over the place. So I think in the middle of like moving, I try to take each one to read the room, figure out if it's gonna be a go-with the flow day or like quick and everywhere. And that has definitely helped me learn everybody's personalities and how each day's gonna go. Yeah, how has moving been for you? Um, Austin gave me a drill, and I've built everything for the new building so far. So it's going good.
SPEAKER_06He's really putting you to work there. Yeah. All right. I will say something, a little piece of advice from me is definitely um talking to everyone in the office. That's what I've enjoyed doing the most. And um just saying good morning whenever you walk through the door. I feel like that's a very underrated way to talk to everyone, honestly. So, Jack, how is it working
Learning Under The City CFO
SPEAKER_06directly under the CFO? Also, what has that experience put into perspective of what you want to do like in the future career?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, um, I think it's pretty good. Our um CFO is Ashley Kaysen. Um she's very qualified. Um, and also I think that she has a lot of leadership qualities. So I think um, you know, being in the office, seeing how she like delegates tasks to all of her employees and like seeing kind of like how she works has definitely been helpful. Um as for um what I want to do in the future and basing it off of what Miss Ashley does, I'd say that um I think a lot of it is um multitasking. And um, I don't know, I think it's pretty um stressful when you have when you're trying to manage a $140 million budget um like Thomasville does. So, but I think that you know throughout college I'll definitely get to learn more about like my capabilities and like like how much I can handle. So I think a lot of it is a learning experience.
SPEAKER_06All right, Keely.
Renovating A Historic Municipal Building
SPEAKER_06Obviously you've been a part of the moving process um and the renovations for the the municipal building. Um, what's something that you've really learned or really taken to heart and you will move forward with in your own life from this experience?
SPEAKER_07One thing that I've learned during this renovation is it's not as simple as building a house. When you have a historic building, there's a lot of stuff that's been crammed in here over years that takes time to move. It also takes time to get grants and stuff signed because it is a historic building and there's a lot of rules and stuff that go into place. Yeah. So it's not as simple as snapping your fingers and get the construction going. So I think having to adapt and take your time to do something this big of a project is something I've learned.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I will say both of us have um seen similar things with our old high school because it's a historical building and they recently renovated it crazy. There are so many new buildings that I haven't even gotten the chance to see.
SPEAKER_07It's huge and so different than how it was.
SPEAKER_06Have you had a chance to go inside? It just looks crazy. There, the whole entrances are different and everything. Um, I do have a question, seeing as though, you know, we have all three of us are from very large, um, almost, I mean, state schools.
Internship Pressure And Finding Your Path
SPEAKER_06What would you say was your experience or the pressure that you felt with getting a summer internship? And why, or if so, how did that push you to find this one?
SPEAKER_04I actually not not from Thomasville like the other interns here. Um, I think my first time stepping into Thomasville was for the uh interview for the internship. And um, I say the pressure on getting an internship. Um there's definitely a lot of pressure inside of like the business school on getting an internship, but I think you should just try to be the best um in being um, I guess like true to yourself and um just like being comfortable with yourself regardless if you get an internship or not. Um, but overall I think coming to Thomasville has been a um awesome choice and um definitely learned a lot since I've been here.
SPEAKER_07Keely. Um I feel like there's this pressure and norm that you have to have internships stacked up on your resume, but really I don't look at it that way. I feel like an internship is a way to learn where you want to go in life. So I think really the quote pressure for me to find an intern was to figure out what path I wanted to take in life.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. How has um this internship s even though it's not on kind of what the average person would see as on track for what your major is, how would you say that this has influenced your opinions towards your life path and your career path?
SPEAKER_07Um, it's people don't realize it, like you still do have accounting factors in marketing. Like we have to count and make sure everything balances with the register. Yeah. I definitely feel like it's opened my eyes up to not set straight onto an accounting job.
SPEAKER_06Other opportunities.
SPEAKER_07It's given me a lot of chances to figure out where I want to go in life.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Okay, Jack, I do have a question for you. You know, you said you're from Arkansas. Um, can you tell me a little bit about why first you went to UF, and then I know you said that you had never step foot in Thomasville for the interview, but how did you find the City of Thomasville internship, like even just July?
SPEAKER_04LinkedIn.
SPEAKER_06LinkedIn.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but also um I have uh grandparents in um Hey Hira. Oh my dad actually grew up in Tifton. Um, so I kind of wanted to uh intern somewhere um where I'd be close to them and be able to go um over on the weekends. Um so yeah, that was probably the main reason why um I wanted to find an internship in this area.
SPEAKER_06And then for UF, what drew you there from Arkansas?
SPEAKER_04Just the proximity to family or yeah, I'd say that and also the academics. UF um has some of the best academics in the southeast, um, but also I love the state of Florida. Um so yeah, I'd say just the whole vibe of UF and Florida.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I understand. What's something that what's something about this internship that really drew you in or is what made you apply for it that you weren't expecting? So like obviously, Jack, you really like the proximity
Why This City Internship Stands Out
SPEAKER_06to family. Keely, you know, you were raised here, you go ahead, Keely.
SPEAKER_07Um, something that stood out to me about the internship is that I grew up in a small town, and people don't realize how much the city of Thomas Hill does for our town. And so I was like, let me take a step into the city environment, see if I wanted to go like the city route or like private in the future. And I think some of that stood out was when I did my interview, April, Christy, and Katie were so welcoming, and like I didn't feel judged or like pressured to say certain things around them. And so once I applied for and did the interview and then got the position, it was easy, yes, for me to come on because I felt welcomed and didn't feel judged and had to act a certain way in the internship. Where I know like some of my friends are who are in bigger internships, they have to act or do a certain thing.
SPEAKER_06To be a very like professional, very yeah, I understand. I will say the team Thomas Well has been very welcoming. I feel like to all of our interns. We have a great team here, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to work with everyone. Jack.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I I definitely agree. Um I actually have never heard or I've never seen the word municipality before. Um but I think that working in a municipality, you can definitely see the impact of uh what you do for the community. I think of I think a lot of the work is meaningful. Um so yeah, I'd say just being able to see how measurable of an impact you have on the people in Thomasville.
SPEAKER_06Thank you so much, Jack Keely, our other interns. Um I just want to give a quick shout out to Colin Crocker and Cameron Jones, who are two of our other interns who couldn't be here with us on the show today. But we are so thankful for them and all the work that they do. Um I just want to go over some upcoming events and announcements.
Events Announcements And Subscribe Reminder
SPEAKER_06On July 24th, we have the Kids Community Day from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Ritz Amphitheater. This will have lots of back to school supplies, food, music, and so much more. And if you want to meet the faces behind the voices, all of the interns will be there, so you'll get your chance then. Um, if you would like to see any more community events like the Kids Community Day, you can go to discoverThomasville.com and go to the community calendar. Thank you so much for joining us, and thank you to our hosts who let me host this time. Uh, Ricky and Austin, thank you so much. Um, but just a reminder to subscribe to Thomasville Insights on your favorite listening app. Thank you so much for letting me host for you today.
SPEAKER_00You've been listening to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville. The show is produced by the City of Thomasville Marketing Department. The show's music is by pond5.com. To learn more about the city of Thomasville, visit Thomasville.org or follow us on social media. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite listening app so you don't miss an episode. Thanks for listening.