OU student lands internship with city of Rochester

Oakland University student Natalia Pulawska is interning with the city of Rochester's human resources department.

By Eric Reikowski, media relations assistant

Oakland University student Natalia Pulawska recently landed an internship with the city of Rochester. The human resources management major was hired in February to assist with city administration and has been a welcome source of support to her colleagues.

“Natalia is enthusiastic, knowledgeable, helpful and professional,” said Holly Meyers, who manages human resources for the city. “She is a great asset to the city and pretty much exactly what we were looking for.”

Since coming aboard, Pulawska has helped manage city records, process employee leave forms and update personnel files. She also is learning to administer the city’s payroll and in the coming weeks will assume other projects such as putting together employee handbooks and creating custom employee calendars.

This is the second internship experience for the 22-year-old senior, who previously interned at Faurecia Interior Systems in Fraser. She said the Rochester internship has helped steer her toward a career in the public sector.

“I originally wanted to work in a hospital,” she said. “But I really like working in a city environment.”

While at OU, Pulawska has taken courses in motivation and work behavior, labor and management relations, compensation and benefits and advanced human resources management, which she said has been especially useful in the field.

“I have seen first-hand how HR managers in the workforce apply the theories and information represented in these classes,” she explained. “My management information systems class taught me how to use Microsoft Office and now I use it daily.”

Pulawska is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management and expects to graduate this spring.