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What if learning to ride the bus was part of the school day?
Natalie Lawrence returns to That Transit Show to share how Community Transit is helping young people build the skills and confidence to use public transit.
Natalie was the very first guest on That Transit Show. Now she’s back with an update on Bus and Basics, Community Transit’s youth education program that brings transit lessons directly to schools across Snohomish County.
Students learn how to plan a trip, use a Youth ORCA card, ride safely, use features on the bus and ask a bus driver for help. Then they put those lessons into practice aboard a real Community Transit bus.
Natalie joins host Monica Spain to talk about what kids really want to know about transit, how their questions and feedback are shaping the program, and Transit Tales, a program that introduces younger kids to public transit. They also explore how learning to ride at an early age can give young people more independence and more options for getting where they want to go.
Hear how Community Transit is helping a new generation learn how to use public transit with confidence.
Learn more about Community Transit: https://www.communitytransit.org/
Creators and Guests
What is That Transit Show?
That Transit Show is produced by Community Transit in Everett, WA. It highlights the people, services, and stories behind public transportation in Snohomish County, Washington.
(upbeat music)
- Welcome to "That Transit Show."
I'm Monica Spain.
What if learning to ride the bus
was built into the school day,
kind of like PE or health?
Well, today,
we're talking with Community
Transit's Natalie Lawrence,
who spends much of her time
in Snohomish County schools,
helping young people
learn how to use transit
and discover the freedom of
getting around without a car.
Her work has helped
grow Community Transit's
Youth Education Program
to reach thousands of students each year.
We'll talk about what
kids really want to know
about riding the bus,
what they're teaching us,
and how you build the next
generation of transit riders.
Welcome aboard.
(upbeat music)
Natalie Lawrence, welcome
to "That Transit Show."
- Thank you, excited to be here.
- Well, it's great to have you back.
And I want to say congratulations
because you were just recognized
as one of Mass Transit
Magazine's 40 Under 40.
These are individuals
who are being recognized
for their contributions
and positive impact to
the transit industry.
So, congratulations.
- Thank you. Yeah, thank you.
- How did that feel to get that award?
I think it was a surprise.
- Yeah, it was, and a very sweet one.
I really love my job
and I love the work I get
to do with young people
and kind of any opportunity I have
to share that with people
in the industry is awesome.
So, that's great and
great for the agency, too.
So, yeah, very honored
and flattered, yeah.
- Well, and I think there's
a leadership component
that goes along with that
besides just doing your everyday job.
We'll get to that a little bit later.
But, I wanted you to tell us a little bit
about what you do with young people
because we're going into our fifth year
having the youth aged 18 and under,
having the ability to ride
transit free in our area.
So, tell us a little bit
about what you've been doing
to help promote that idea.
- So, the biggest piece of my job
is working on a school
program called Bus and Basics.
So-
- Bus and Basics.
- Bus and Basics that we kind
of, I feel for a long time,
we just called it the Community
Transit Youth Program.
But Bus and Basics started to
kind of be the title we used,
and it's really now stuck,
and that's what teachers and
student students know it as.
So, Bus and Basics is our school program
where we visit classrooms
across the county,
mostly at the middle school level,
some into like the early
high school years, too.
And we visit those classes to
teach transit basics to teens.
And part of that lesson is in-class
and they learn about route planning,
they learn how to get from their school
to like a specific location of interest,
such as a Boys and Girls Club or a YMCA.
And we kind of run through everything
they would need to know to
safely use transit independently.
And then, the second part of the lesson,
we have a bus stationed
outside of the school,
and students get to join me
and one of the operators
that joins me that day.
I have a special group of
operators that I work with.
- [Monica] Bus drivers.
- Yes, bus drivers.
And they'll join me for
these visits in schools.
And that second part is
just the hands-on experience
of kids being able to get on the bus,
see what it looks like in person,
and hear kind of like a seven-minute spiel
from the bus driver
on, like, what the driver
would want young people to know
about riding the bus.
So, we go through a little
bit more on, like, safety
and the kind of how to be
in a shared social space.
And we also teach them
how to use the bike rack,
how to kind of use like,
functional parts of the bus,
like pulling the cord or pulling
down the seats in the front
or requesting the ramp,
that kind of thing.
So, it just breaks up a
little bit of the lesson
to help make it more hands-on.
- As part of this,
you are working with all
kinds of different people,
and this is happening
alongside, I don't know,
PE, and math, and all the other classes.
So, what are you bringing
to these students
in terms of learning it's not
just about riding the bus,
although it sounds like
that's a huge part of it.
What else are they learning?
- I feel like so much of it
is how to be in those
shared social spaces.
A lot of young people, a lot
of the ones we're working with,
saw kind of very formative
years happening during COVID.
So, I feel like
some of that how to be in
public spaces awareness
kind of changed during
those times, understandably,
as it did for all of us.
- Yeah,
maybe they kind of missed out
on a couple years of experience
where they might have been in more places
around in the public
and that sort of thing.
- Totally, with a variety of people
that are a variety of ages and
from different backgrounds.
And so, a lot of what
we talk to them about,
on the bus especially, is,
"This isn't just your ride.
You might be on this bus with
all types of different people,
and every person that rides
deserves to feel safe,
and respected, and valued."
And that includes you,
that includes whoever we're talking to,
that includes the young people, too.
So, really helping them learn
how to be in that shared space,
what are some of the norms we
sort of all need to adhere to,
to make that a peaceful
copacetic experience
for all types of people.
And I think that's a big lesson.
And then, another part of it
is kind of how to navigate
conversations with strangers.
They know that the bus driver is there
to help get them where
they want to go safely,
but they also need to know
they can go to those drivers
with bigger questions,
or needs, or concerns.
And really having our drivers
out with us at schools
helps those young people
establish a relationship
with a frontline staff person
that they might actually see
when they're out riding in the wild.
And I think just inspiring
a little more confidence in young people
to ask questions of those
frontline staff members
to make sure they know that
those people are resources,
not just kind of authority
figures or disciplinarians,
that those people are there to help them.
And so, just building
relationships and how to...
Yeah, how to kind of start doing that
with members in your community, I think,
is a big part of the lesson, too.
- Back to the bus drivers.
- [Natalie] Yeah.
- Tell me about that group of people.
I think they're a special group of people
that you've kind of
cultivated and worked with.
- Yeah. So, we call them our YES drivers.
So, that's kind of an acronym we have.
It's Youth Engagement Specialist drivers.
And these drivers went through
a sort of pseudo-interview process,
where they were asked in their interview
to kind of go through a mock presentation
on what they would want
to tell young people
that were new to riding.
And these drivers were
sort of specially chosen
kind of based on the
presentations they prepared.
So, we have six right now.
And as the program grows
and as certain drivers get
promoted into different roles,
I imagine that pool of
drivers will also grow,
which is exciting.
But those drivers,
they bring a lot of energy to the program,
and they all deliver their own
unique onboard presentation,
and they all have their
own ways of doing that
in their own kind of anecdotes
and hooks that they use
to really capture the attention
of the young adults we're working with.
And it's way more fun for me
because it breaks up sort
of the speaking that I do.
And, again, it helps
establish that real connection
that students are able to make
with someone they might see
when they're riding in real life, yeah.
- I'm wondering, too, like, okay,
so when you're putting
this program together,
you're working with adults,
we're adults.
- [Natalie] Mm-hmm.
- How do you incorporate youth
into the planning process?
How do you make sure that it is something
that will resonate with younger people?
- Great question, and
when we first started,
we did a lot of testing
of this presentation
with youth focus groups or not,
I guess that's kind of a formal phrase,
but kind of tested this presentation
in front of different youth organizations.
And so, we partnered with a
couple of Teen Advisory Boards
and Youth Volunteer Councils
that were part of the
different jurisdictions
Community Transit serves.
And we tested this presentation,
and we had a survey that our research
and analytics team kind
of helped us build,
and we got feedback from
a lot of different teens
from these different groups.
And I think we collected
over 120 survey responses.
And the overwhelming kind
of feedback from that
was that they wanted a
more hands-on opportunity
to break up that lesson
because at the time when we
were testing the presentation,
we weren't including the bus
or the drivers as part of it
because we just thought that
might be too much logistically
to manage and to scale.
But, after seeing all of that
feedback from young people,
we were really convinced
to bring drivers and buses,
a bus kind of into the program.
And I'm so glad we did
because that really
does break up the lesson
and lets young people set
foot on a real bus at school,
which is a safe space for them.
It's a place they're used to.
They're getting to do that
in a low-stress environment
with their peers, which, I
think, is really special.
So, that was one way we sort of made sure
this program was youth-centered
and then constantly iterating
the language we use,
how we talk about certain points.
This summer, we partnered
with Kamiak High School's
Theater Department,
and we actually recruited teen actors
from-
- Oh, fun.
- Yeah, some really great theater kids
from their theater department.
And those kids were in it.
They're going to be in
this, like, refreshed series
of video clips that we're
going to use in Bus and Basics
that help illustrate
the sort of youth-specific parts of riding
because their experience riding
is a little different than adults.
And I think it's things like that.
It's finding creative ways
to engage real young people
from the communities we serve.
And we are constantly looking
for new ways to do that, too.
So, we see this program as iterative.
It's always going to be changing.
And I think youth feedback has
to be what drives that change
so that it stays relevant
and it's who it's for.
- You mentioned there's some differences
for riding the bus for
this younger population.
What are some of those differences?
- Yeah, a big one is they don't have
to pay to ride, obviously,
but they also don't need to
prove that they're a certain age
to access the free fare.
When this was all rolled out,
young people were told, "You
can just hop on the bus.
If you can remember,
try to just let the driver
know that you're a youth,
or you can get a Youth ORCA card,
and that helps our drivers know right away
that you don't have to pay."
But, of course, that sort
of mixed messaging has,
I think, led to some
confusion for young people.
- Making messaging like,
"You don't need an ORCA card,
or you just need to tell them,
or you can just hop on the bus."
- Exactly.
- [Monica] Yeah.
- It can kind of muddy
the waters a little bit.
So, we want to make sure
they know all of the ways
that they can hop on,
but that, obviously most important,
is that they ride for free.
If they don't have a card, that's okay.
They can just hop on.
They don't technically have to
say anything to the operator.
But what we advise in Bus and Basics
is it's a great way to
avoid any miscommunications
between you and the driver.
It just helps us know right
away that you're under 18,
that you ride for free.
So, we try to encourage them
to use their Youth ORCA cards,
but that's a hard thing to
kind of explain in just neat,
like in dialogue in a classroom lesson.
And so, we wanted to make
sure we captured that
on the video clip,
like really showing the
different types of ways
that youth can board that
are all totally fine,
but really just make sure
they have a clear idea
of what that interaction's
going to look like.
And on that kind of note,
we have service ambassadors
who regularly are checking people's fares,
and they're checking in
to make sure people don't have questions.
And we wanted to make sure
that youth knew what to expect
if a service ambassador were
to come up and ask them,
"Oh, do you have your ticket
or your ORCA card today?"
And wanted to make sure they
were prepared to say like,
"Oh, I'm a student, I ride for free."
Or that they were prepared to
show the service ambassador
their Youth ORCA card.
- What are the top questions
you get from teachers
or students when you
go into the classrooms?
- A big one is usually
around Youth ORCA cards.
It's like, "Wait, do I
need it or do I not?"
And then we sort of re-explain that.
That's something that
gets a lot of attention.
Another one that always surprises me is,
"Oh, can I use this on the train?
Can I use this on the link light rail?
Can I use this on the ferries?"
Even after we've sort of explained
where their ORCA card works.
- And it's all public transit, yeah.
- And it's all public transit.
A lot of young people still aren't aware
of how these agencies are
different but still work together.
So, we always make sure they
know like, "You can use this.
We are serving different communities,
but we're all working together.
We're just helping
different groups of people
move through different
parts of the region."
So, making sure they know
that this is, like, a
unified transit system
that they can get around on for free,
but that they don't need to worry too much
about the kind of differences between us.
And I think that always
surprises young people
because they think of us as businesses
that are maybe competing
against each other.
- [Monica] Wow. Exactly.
- And we're not competing.
We're just supporting
different communities
and helping different types of people
get where they want to
go across the region.
And so emphasizing that,
that we are not enemies
of sound transit or anything like that,
but we're helping more people,
yeah, connect to the region.
- Are there destinations
that they really are curious
about or really want to go to?
- If you've ever spent
time at the Alderwood Mall,
you will see that that
is where a lot of teens
in Snohomish County go to,
which is so funny because I feel like...
I feel like, for a while, we
thought malls were sort of dead
in these like empty ghost towns
that no one spent time in anymore.
But mall culture is, I
think, alive and well
with young people.
And then a lot of young people
also ask about those other third places.
So, Boys and Girls Clubs,
YMCAs, gyms, libraries,
and friends' houses.
Like, how can this help me
get to a friend's house?
And I know services we
offer, like Zip Shuttle,
really help in those situations
because it's that kind of
like last-mile connectivity
that can really help kids get
exactly where they want to go.
And so-
- Oh, do you think
that's a barrier?
People don't want to maybe
walk 1/4 mile, or 1/2 mile,
or 15 minutes to get from the bus stop
to their friend's house or...
- I think it's...
Funnily enough, I think
it's less of a barrier
with young people than it is with adults.
And I actually remember that
because we asked that in the survey,
and we said, "How far would
you be willing to walk
to visit your best friend?"
And I think most said over
1/2 a mile was fine with them.
And I know many adults would
have a pretty big aversion
to walking over 1/2 mile
to see their friend.
And so, I think the
appetite to do it is there,
but there's other
considerations around like,
"Is it a safe place to
walk? Are there sidewalks?
Is it in the evening? Is it dark out?"
And so, that kind of
last-mile connectivity
on services like Zip Shuttle
can be really helpful to young people,
and they ride that service for free, too.
And that's really amazing
because that's basically
like a free point-to-point
pickup/drop off service
for them to use if they
live within those zones.
So, yeah, I think Zip Shuttle's
really helpful with that.
But then, of course,
they're also using a fixed route service
to connect to light rail,
which then can take them down into Seattle
or really now across the county.
- Natalie, do you ever
feel like you're competing
with driver's ed?
Because, at this point,
a lot of these kids
are starting to think
about wanting to drive.
Maybe they're even starting
to look into classes.
How do you compete with that?
- It's a good question.
And I think that the more information
we can give young people
about ways to get around,
the better.
So, if that's driver's ed, great.
And we want safe drivers out there, right?
We all benefit from having
safe drivers on the road, but-
- Which is one great thing
about taking the bus.
- [Natalie] Exactly.
- Because our bus drivers
are trained-
- [Natalie] Yes.
- To be really safe drivers.
- [Natalie] Yeah.
- In all kinds of circumstances.
- You get to offload that stress a lot.
And I think if we can give
young people other options,
that's great, too,
because driver's ed and buying
a used car is something,
and paying for gas,
that's something that's
really out of reach
for a young person who's maybe
working a minimum wage job
and only working part-time
because they're balancing that with school
and family priorities or...
- And it's a responsibility, too,
that maybe some people aren't ready for
or want to wait a little while for.
- Yeah, a huge one.
And a lot of the young
people we're working with,
it is that like middle school audience,
and so they're not quite
yet to driving age.
They're maybe thinking about it,
but maybe if they're
able to form new habits
around using transit
and get comfortable with that
before that age of driving is upon them,
that could kind of inspire
a lifelong use of transit.
And it might not be everyday use.
They might not be regular
transit commuters,
but it might be something
that they feel much more
comfortable falling back to
if their car ever breaks down
or if they ever just need
to find a different way
of getting around.
So, I think the more information
we can give young people, the better,
and the more options they have
to get around, the better,
because then they'll get to plug into
more meaningful
experiences in their lives.
- Do you find that
talking with young people,
they have maybe a different
motivation for taking the bus
than maybe other people?
Are there sort of stories you've heard
or things people tell you that it's like,
"Oh, that's interesting
that that's what kids are thinking about."
- Yeah, that's a really good question.
And I feel like, anecdotally,
a few things come to mind.
I think this generation is...
Younger generations
are just navigating a
very complicated world
that's been built on really
unjust and unfair systems.
And I think younger
generations are really inspired
to fix some of those problems.
And that's something
I'm really inspired by
whenever I talk to young people.
And I think that the environmental
benefits of using transit
and how that kind of
improves your community
and improves CO2 emissions,
I think that that's a really
big motivator for young people.
They see this as a greener way
to get around their community.
And yeah, that comes up a lot.
- Okay, it's back to school
and summer has wrapped up.
So, how did you spend the summer?
Because I know that you're
still busy in the summer
talking to kids, maybe
a different set of kids.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Summer, we get to focus a
lot more on younger kids.
And so, that kind of
elementary school audience
and sometimes even younger than that,
we partnered with Sno-Isle
Libraries for the second year
to do Transit Tales,
where we read transit-themed
children's books
onboard the bus.
And driver comes with
me to those events too.
And the driver always kind
of closes out the session
with a very rousing rendition
of "Don't Let the Pigeon
Drive the Bus!" by Mo Willems,
which if you aren't familiar,
requires a lot of audience participation,
mostly in the form of children
yelling, "No," really
loudly onboard the bus.
And so, those engagements are really fun
and allow us to connect with
kind of a younger audience
that we don't always get to prioritize
during the school year.
- I saw some photos.
I think you had a full house
on some of these buses.
- Yeah, we had really
good attendance this year.
I think all told,
over 300 people came
out for transit tails,
and we did them, I think,
at eight libraries around the county.
And that included Granite Falls,
Snohomish, Mill Creek.
So, really sort of all
corners of Snohomish County,
which was great.
And it's really fun to
work with little kids
just for like a change in pace.
- I feel like kids love big vehicles.
- Oh, yeah.
Toddlers and buses go together like PB&J,
and I feel like they're more excited
to just be sitting on the bus
than hearing stories sometimes.
- [Monica] Yeah. Yeah.
- So, the attention,
and it's hard to know
how much they're getting from the books,
but the experience overall is great.
And I love, too, because their
parents and their caretakers
will come with them
and then they also get
to set foot on a bus.
And I think that if it's even an adult
who doesn't ride the bus,
or doesn't take the bus,
or doesn't know much about it,
that can also be a really
great, like, low-stress way
to just step foot on a real
bus, and meet a driver,
and learn a little bit more
about what Community
Transit could offer them.
- So, working with little kids,
but also the middle school and
some of the high school kids,
like, how do the parents factor in here?
Like, what kinds of things
are you hearing from parents
or maybe do you ever hear from kids
that maybe their parents
don't want them to drive or ride the bus.
- Yeah, we do hear that, indeed.
And that's one of the main
questions we get from kids.
It's like, "Oh, like,
what if my mom doesn't
let me ride the bus?"
And we always like, if you
were to ask me that, Monica,
I would say you taking transit
is a decision you have to
make with your trusted adult
at home.
- [Monica] Sure.
- We are not here to tell
you to go do this thing.
You have to get permission.
We want to make sure everyone's being safe
and that someone always
knows where you are.
If this is a skill you are really curious
and eager to develop,
encourage you to invite
your parent, your guardian,
your caretaker to take a ride
together, and plan the trip,
and show them that you are responsible
and that you know how to use this system.
And maybe that'll help demystify it
a little bit for them, too.
And that can maybe open
the door for a conversation
that allows you to then
maybe ride independently
when the time is right.
So, we give, like, a suggestion
of how they can maybe
approach that conversation
with a reluctant caretaker or parent,
but ultimately we know
that it's not our place
to make those decisions,
and that everyone's comfort with transit
is very, very different.
And we also send home a
parent and guardian letter,
and we send that to all
the schools we partner with
either ahead of presentations
or following presentations.
We leave it up to teachers
and administration
to decide when they want to send that out.
But it really just outlines,
"Here's what we talked
to your students about,
here's what we said,
here's what we didn't say."
And just a little bit more information
around just transit in general,
so that they all leave
with kind of a better understanding of,
"Okay, what did this program
tell my student or my kid?"
And we want to make sure
we're proactive about that
so that, yeah, no one
has any frantic questions
about what we might have shared
with their student in school.
- You brought up safety a few
times earlier in the interview
and I'm hearing kind of a
little bit of that right now.
What kinds of things are you
talking about with these kids
when it comes to safety,
and young adults, too?
Because they're learning,
and they're out in the world,
and there is some, I think,
stranger danger sometimes,
which is it's fair.
Like, we all feel that sometimes.
How do you work with kids?
- We emphasize that riding
the bus with friends
is way more fun than riding alone.
So, don't ride alone if you don't have to.
I always like to give personal stories
about my own enjoyment of transit
and how I like to ride with friends
because it gives us more time to chit-chat
and get back in touch
with each other after
because none of us are
stressed about driving
or anything like that.
So, we emphasize not to ride alone.
We also talk about what to do
if you see something unsafe
or suspicious happening on board the bus.
Like, what can you do in the moment
to kind of keep yourself safe?
And a lot of that is encouraging them
to sit closer to the
front where the driver is.
We point out on the bus,
the driver has this tiny mirror
to see a whole 60-foot bus,
and that's all they have.
So, sometimes, they just
don't know what's happening
at the back of the bus.
So, sitting near the front
where you can kind of
keep an eye on that mirror
is a great place to be
because then the driver can
keep a closer eye on you.
And we really emphasize that
if something is ever happening
that is not okay on the bus,
that they can go and stand
right behind the yellow line,
that one that kind of keep people
from getting too close to the driver.
We tell them, "You can
just go stand right there
and let the driver know
exactly what's going on."
And the driver has a
whole dashboard of buttons
that are a press away
from getting kind of other
community resources involved,
if needed.
So, really making sure they
know there are other resources,
even outside of the bus driver,
that can be pulled in
to help in an emergency.
So, just really making sure
they know exactly how to
navigate those situations
and helping them feel
a little more empowered
to make those calls themselves.
- I remember something you said once
was that the seats aren't
assigned on the bus.
- Yeah, yeah, if something
is happening right near you,
you can get up and move.
You can change your seat mid-ride
and you don't have to ask
permission to do that.
You can get up and move away
from whatever is happening
and find a seat next to someone else.
And I think your point
about stranger danger
is an interesting one
because we talk about safety
and keeping to yourself on the bus,
but it is also a space
where we sometimes rely on the goodness
and kindness of strangers.
And I think sometimes those
examples are even more powerful
than the ones around kind of danger
because there's also lots of good things
that happen on the bus and
in shared social spaces
that remind us that
humans are pretty good too
and can help us if we're in need.
- I mean, I still feel like,
when I think about all
the bus rides I've taken,
like, these experiences are pretty rare.
- Totally.
- And I think they get a lot of attention,
and it's something that people
ask about and worry about.
But for the most part,
you're getting on the bus
and getting to where you need to go.
- Absolutely.
And the bus is like any
other shared social space.
It's like a library, it's like a mall.
We all have to encounter
strange things out in the world
from time to time.
But you're so right, those
are few and far between.
And the amount of positive
experiences we have
being out in these social spaces
vastly outnumbers these interactions.
And so important to remember that
and certainly important to share that
in these school presentations.
We don't want to inspire any
fear or stress around the bus.
We want them to feel equipped
and they have the information they need
to get where they want to go safely,
but we want them to feel
that this is going to be a safe experience
and that it's going to help them access
more of what they want to do.
- Have you ever had any stories
from young people who have
had a chance to take the bus?
Maybe you've gone back to a
school, seen somebody again.
What kinds of things do you hear?
- Actually, one I just heard this summer
at the Mill Creek Library,
they partner with, I think, the
Mill Creek Pride Foundation.
And the president of that foundation,
her son goes to Heatherwood Middle School,
which is one of the biggest
schools in our county.
And we did presentations
there twice this year.
So, we got both kind of
semesters of students.
And she said all summer long,
he was taking a bus everywhere he went
and had just totally figured it out,
and was going far and wide,
and he brought his bike on
because he knew how to use the bike rack.
And so, those stories are great,
and I've heard them at schools
I've gone back to as well.
I was at Sultan Middle School
and we did four days in a row at Sultan
to catch kind of all the kids
through, I think, social studies classes.
And one kid came up to me on day two,
and he had done the sort of
sample ride we had showed them
from Sultan to Monroe.
And he just, in a passing
period, kind of said to me,
"Oh, I took the bus yesterday."
And I said, "After this?"
And he said, "Yeah, just chill."
And I was like, "Awesome,
like, good for you.
I'm, like, so excited you figured it out."
So, there are those stories, too,
and I feel like that's
always really motivating.
- And you're also working with interns.
I think you developed
the intern program here
at Community Transit to sort
of get the next generation
of transit workers going in marketing.
- Yeah, and I think other
people have added interns here,
but I know for our department,
that was a relatively new thing.
So, we had two interns join
us last year, Ayden and Ivan.
Ayden was a guest on "That Transit Show"
and a major transit enthusiast.
And Ivan actually came back
and joined our team this year
as, like, a regular staff
person, which was awesome.
And that's always the hope you have
in starting an internship
is that it gives you
this great opportunity
to work with someone that could
then potentially come back
in a more full-time capacity
and support your efforts.
And so Ivan has been really
helpful with our team this year
going to events and outreach,
helping with outreach.
And he'll definitely be
joining me in schools
and helping with some
presentations as well.
So, great to have that full circle moment.
And I have two really great
interns that I've co-managed,
and we've kind of shared
that responsibility
between my team marketing programs
and the integrated marketing team.
And those interns have been
kind of supporting us equally
throughout the summer,
which has been great for them
because they've gotten kind of exposure
into different parts of marketing,
not just our team.
And that's been great, too.
So, it would be awesome to
have those two back full-time
sometime in the future.
- And I don't think we
can talk about the interns
without talking about what's coming next,
which is a TikTok channel
for Community Transit.
So, maybe you could tell
us a little bit about that,
what you know about that.
- Yeah.
As much as I work with young people,
I am pretty ignorant to, to TikTok,
but I know that integrated marketing,
that's who's kind of leading
this for Community Transit,
and the interns were sort
of specially selected
to really help with the launch of that.
So, Sage and Ava are
interns for this summer.
They've been really
busy capturing content,
and creating content,
and just generating a bunch of ideas
for that TikTok channel.
And so, I'm excited,
excited to see some of
their work just out there
for so many eyes to see.
And I think for interns,
really cool to be able
to leave an internship
and have kind of these actual projects
that have been seen by the
public kind of to your name.
So, really cool that they've been involved
with so much of like the content creation
and know that integrated marketing
will do a really great job with TikTok.
And so I'm sure many students
will probably talk to me about it,
and I'm excited to hear
their feedback, too.
- Yeah, in talking to
kids and young adults,
what do you think you've brought
back to Community Transit
and given kind of the
rest of us at the agency
that has helped kind of, I
guess, further what we do,
which is to try and grow our ridership?
- Yeah, that's a great question.
And I think...
I know not everybody here gets
to interact with young people
on a regular basis.
And I think if people don't have kids,
they really don't get to interact
with many young people on a regular basis.
And so I do feel like it's
important to bring back stories,
anecdotes, questions we get from schools,
and make sure the sort of
people across the departments
get to hear about that.
And I think about questions
teachers or students might have
around why they don't have a
bus stop nearby their school
or their home,
or why is there not a bus route
that takes them to this place.
And with those questions,
I can go back to the right
department, like planning,
and ask,
and maybe learn a little bit about why
and some of that context
and be able to offer
that back to the teacher
or the student that asked the question.
But I think sometimes,
hearing those questions
inspires us to investigate it further
and inspires the right people
to investigate it further.
And then, changes and
improvements can be made.
And I think that's what having
so many public-facing roles,
like how that benefits the agency
because we're constantly
hearing community feedback
and able to bring that back to
the agency to inspire change.
So, I'm really grateful
Community Transit does so much
to invest in their frontline staff
because I know operators,
service ambassadors,
our ride store staff, our
community engagement team,
all of those people are
constantly hearing feedback
from the community.
And I think we have such
a unique opportunity
to do a lot with that feedback.
And so, I feel lucky
to kind of be one of
the sort of messengers
of some of the youth perspectives
or the youth questions
that then get kind of asked back here.
- Do you think differently
about young people?
Because I think before you had this job,
you weren't working with
young people, were you?
- I will tell you,
if you want to get a pulse
on what's happening in your community,
spend some time in a school.
It is a true metaphor
for what's happening in
the broader community.
You see just so much and you
hear so much from teachers
who have these incredible stories
about what their families are
going through and navigating.
And it really does
inspire me very regularly.
I think young people, again,
have inherited a lot of complex issues
that they're having to fix and navigate.
And I think anything we can do as adults
to sort of help them move through that,
that is all of our kind of
collective responsibility.
But I'm constantly inspired and impressed
by the resilience of young people
and how they want to
see the world improve.
- Well, Natalie, thank you so much
for the work that you do in the community
and thank you for being
on "That Transit Show."
It's great having you here.
- Thank you so much, thanks for having me.
(upbeat music)