Intern wraps up two degrees
May 2004 - A Newsletter for the Employees of the Department of Management and Budget (iDMB)
Braulio Munoz-Buentello
In 2003, Braulio Munoz, CMU master of public
administration graduate student, received an outstanding graduate
paper award and a $750 scholarship from American Society for Public
Administration (ASPA).
Later this week, Braulio Munoz-Buentello will participate in two
commencement ceremonies. At Central Michigan University, he will
receive his master’s degree in public administration, and at
Michigan State University, he will participate in the law school’s
commencement exercises. And next week he will return to work in
DMB’s Agency Services.
This semester Munoz-Buentello has been an intern in state
government. He will continue working in Agency Services until fall,
when he officially will be finished with his law school coursework.
Before he came to DMB, Munoz-Buentello already had worked in state
and federal government, but those employers were in his native
Mexico.
Munoz-Buentello, who is 29, spent two years in an auditing office
for the Mexican state of Coahuila and three years as the
administrative assistant to the assistant director of the federal
police in Mexico City.
He earned his undergraduate degree in law from the University of
Coahuila. His sister’s experience in an exchange program with CMU
interested him in study in Michigan. He hopes to combine the
knowledge he gained in his study of public administration and law
with the experience he is obtaining in state government and apply it to
government work in Mexico.
“We follow the same processes,” he said of governments in Mexico
and the United States, “but not in the same way. Being here – inside
– I’m learning how the state of Michigan conducts these processes
and what practices can be transferred.”
A major difference between the countries is Mexico’s use of the
patronage system – the system in which bosses hire employees based
on family ties or political rewards. Munoz-Buentello’s master’s
thesis focused on civil service reform and recommended adoption of a
law to create a civil service system at the state level in Mexico.
“My supervisors are helping me to learn and understand,” he said,
“which is great.”
Although he has drafted his resume and soon will be looking for
permanent employment, he’s not sure if his next position will be in
Mexico or the United States. He is married to a Michigander, and
they haven’t decided where the next stage of their life will take
them. He and his wife Julie Fortino, who is a CMU employee, have a
son, Marco, who is nine months old.
Wherever his already extensive career takes him, Munoz-Buentello’s internship experience will surely enhance his skills.
