Internship Leads to Automating Adopt-A-Highway Program
Kellee Kruse gets the credit for creating a program organizing North Dakota's Adopt-A-Highway program for the Department of Transportation. What was once a bit difficult to track is now on-track thanks to Kruse's work as an undergrad intern with the DOT.
She is among the first interns with the Department of Transportation Support Center recently established with the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute. Now a research assistant with UGPTI, one of her assignments is supervising interns.
Her work with small database systems is what led her to the Adopt-A-Highway project. Adopt-A-Highway helps communities and the state make a good impression through a community involvement program. The program brings citizen volunteers together to keep roadsides clean, and educates and encourages people to stop littering and care about the environment. Since there are no federal dollars to fund litter clean-up, Adopt-A-Highway is critical.
Kruse automated the Adopt-A-Highway program, matching signs, highways and volunteer groups on a database. This information technology link means the DOT can keep track of what areas need coverage and what groups are available. It also means the signs thanking the volunteers are up-to-date a good public relations tool for the DOT.
She calls her internship opportunity perfect because she received class credit, real-life assignments and had mentors who helped her along the way. Kruse expects to keep internship opportunities as valuable for current interns, as she found, through the guidance of Dennis Jacobson, DOTSC director. Positive word of mouth about the DOT intern program is spreading on the North Dakota State University campus.
Susan Reule, one of Kruse's DOT mentors, is pleased with how the new program works. She wants travelers in the state to have a good impression.
Kruse has research interests in transportation maintenance management, geographical information systems, global positioning and workforce productivity.
She earned her bachelor's degree in May in management information systems. She plans to begin a master's degree program in business administration next fall.
