Diverse Aspects of Local Government

By Josh Spicer

Since September 2022, I have had the privilege of interning with the Virginia Beach Department of Economic Development (VBED). The Department of Economic Development headlines the zoning and planning for the city through the Virginia Beach Development Authority (VBDA). The VBED also deals with business retention, expansion, and attraction as well as tourism and GrowSmart which is centered around early childhood education. I primarily work with the International Business Attraction team although I have done other work with Tourism, Planning/Zoning, and Domestic Business Attraction.

As an intern, I am responsible for many menial tasks which greatly improve the workload of my colleagues. These tasks can include data entry as well as notetaking among other things. I get to attend many conferences and events as well.

I went to the Hampton Roads Alliance’s annual report, ODU’s Economic Outlook event, and I even got to go to one of our local company’s facilities, QED Systems, for a welding lesson. I have also had the opportunity to be a part of and work on company projects for VBED. When I first started, we hosted a large Spanish delegation consisting of Spanish companies as well as members representing the Spanish embassy. I was able to attend a number of the events we had for them and assist in showing them what makes Virginia Beach great. The biggest project that I was able to work on so far, that I was most involved with, was with a Spanish scrap metal company that we hosted for a visit, as they were looking to move to Virginia Beach. It was very interesting to follow this project from the start and work on it so closely as I was able to better understand what my coworkers do on a daily basis with various companies. Normally when I assist on a project I help out with things here and there. But the scrap metal project was one where I was fully invested which made it that quite interesting. There is a ton of other interesting stuff that I am currently working on as well which will hopefully pay dividends for the VBED and the City as a whole in the future.

Virginia Wesleyan and the Batten Honors College provided me with crucial coursework which has enabled me to be successful at my job. The main course that I think has helped the most was Dr. Gibson’s State and Local

Politics course that I took during my freshman year. That class gave me a lot of insight into the realm of local government and once I got my internship, the things I learned in that class became ever more prudent. The Honors Leadership and Literature course has helped as well in understanding my leadership weaknesses and strengths. Even though I am only an intern I have been given the opportunity to work on projects and other things independently and have had to be able to gather all the information and present it to the rest of my team and my bosses. Such roles have allowed my leadership capacity and build on what I learnt in the Leadership and Literature course.

Overall, this internship has been an amazing opportunity. I have been able to meet so many interesting people and have been able to do some really intriguing work. It has been a lot of fun to do local government work that has an international side as I am a Political Science and International Relations double major. I am very excited for the future work I’ll get to do and what opportunities this internship will lead to once I graduate and beyond.