About Me

I am Joseph Brehm, an Arizona native. I graduate in December this year. I have my undergraduate degree in Justice Studies with a minor in Communications. I was introduced to public service when I was 18 and I joined the Mesa Police Explorers. I spent 3 years with them and donated over 1,000 hours of service to the city of Mesa. I started my undergrad at ASU and began work with the ASU Police Department in a student security position. I worked for the department for 4 years. I had every intention of going from ASU to a police academy when I met Dr. Vanacour while I was on duty.

He was teaching a weekend class when he needed me to open a copy room for him. While we were waiting 5 minutes for the ancient copier was he talked to me about the MPA program. Those 5 minutes in a small copy room at the Mercado building changed my life. I started thinking about what other career options were out there. I knew that the private sector never had interested me. I did some research into the MPA and it sounded very interesting to me. I realized that the academy would always be there, so I enrolled and was accepted into the program. It has been an exciting ride ever since.

I applied for the 2009 Marvin Andrews Scholarship which was hosted by the ACMA. This scholarship paid a local city or town with a population of 50,000 or less or county with a population of 100,000 or less to host the recipient as a paid summer intern. I was fortunate enough to be awarded this scholarship and now I am here in Oro Valley. It is a town just a few miles north of Tucson. It started off as a bedroom community for people wanting to live just outside the city. Now it hosts an international biomedical company called Ventana. With a population of just over 41,000 the community has grown 500% from 1990. I have never interned for a city or town before. I am working with the Town Manager and reporting to the Management Assistant.

There is so much to learn here. In addition to getting used to a 9-5 schedule I have to keep up with the jargon, slang and abbreviations for everything. My entire first week I was going to bed at 8 because I was so mentally exhausted. I am learning an incredible amount, and while the education from the classes set the foundation, I highly recommend an internship to see how everything we learn comes into play. I have had some interesting experiences so far and I look forward to reading yours. Thanks for reading.

Joe