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Leavey School of Business Santa Clara University

Community Fellows Blog Posts

Kate Laughton: Initiatives with Impact

Kate talks about her experience working at the San Jose Office of Economic Development for the past seven weeks.
For the last seven weeks, I have been working at the San Jose Office of Economic Development as a business development intern. It has been an eye opening experience that has given me a glimpse of the inequalities the community of San Jose faces and the various programs OED is working on to combat these issues.

So far, I have worked with the Storefront Initiative, a grant opportunity to help small businesses lease vacant spaces by helping to pay for the cost of city permits, fees and taxes. The goal of this program is to strengthen the economic vitality of San Jose. I have also helped create a workflow for the Banner Manager Application, which helps banner applicants display banners around San Jose. Finally, I have helped with researching economic development opportunities around AV technology.

The camaraderie within the organization is unparalleled; everyone is very open, supportive, and always goes out of their way to help me understand the type of work they do. Next quarter, I will have the opportunity to work with the housing department on the homelessness program.

The war veteran I see talking to a wall or the old man who is huddled under a vacant storefront on my walk to the office are perfect examples of the issues the city still faces and inspires me to keep making an impact. 
NPI, NPI Fellows