Community Fellows Blog Posts

This academic year, I am working as an intern for the City of San Jose in the Office of Economic Development (OED), a segment of the city government that serves as a liaison between businesses, government, and private citizens. The office navigates the complex economic framework in which businesses operate within San Jose in a manner that both supports economic growth and ensures long-term sustainability. This goal is particularly complicated by the various issues that face the city, such as quantity and price of housing as well as the availability of employment opportunities within San Jose. My job as an intern is primarily to support the work of the Economic Development team through an array of projects focused specifically on business outreach. 

In my first few months of work, I’ve spent a great deal of time becoming acquainted with the complexities of economic development work, and the specific challenges with this work in San Jose. My first project involved direct outreach to companies to gather information about their most recent employment statistics among their San Jose locations to update the list of the city’s top employers for an annual report distributed by the OED. Now, I am currently working on creating a landing page for the city highlighting the officially designated opportunity zones within the city––low-income areas that offer tax incentives to encourage developers to invest via a national tax code signed into law December of 2017. For this project, I will not only be creating content but also designing the webpage. Through these experiences, I have been able to hone not only my professional communication and outreach skills, but also my analytical capacities. Both are skills that I want to––and believe I will––continue to develop throughout the rest of the year. 

Beyond completing projects, I have also attended several events related to economic development projects in the city. One particularly impactful event was a task force meeting about the development of the Monterey Corridor––the historic entrance to downtown San Jose. In this meeting, representatives of several governmental departments––the OED, the Housing Department, and Parks and Recreation––offer information and recommendations to the task force, led by two council members and comprised of various local business owners and other constituents. The meeting was incredibly eye-opening for me in terms of highlighting not only the complex politics surrounding economic development of a specific region of the city, but also the specific expertise and passion that each government representative brought to the conversation. 

In addition to completing my own projects, I have also been learning a great deal through talking to the OED team about their different projects as well as attending different events outside of the office––during this time, I have certainly been surprised by my different experiences and observations. Perhaps the most surprising thing simply about the organization itself is how many different stakeholders the OED must consider when searching for and enacting economic solutions. Oftentimes these stakeholders have entirely different and competing incentives that make an easy answer––or sometimes any answer at all––absolutely illusive. That said, the team of hardworking civil servants who works at the OED are not only incredibly informed about the nature of the tightrope they walk from problem to solution (and what lies at the bottom of the canyon), but are equally as passionate about and dedicated to bettering the city of San Jose in spite of the many obstacles they face. Before this internship, I had visited downtown San Jose no than a handful of times during my previous three years of college. I knew very little about the city’s geography, not to mention the economic landscape. But all of the individuals I work with at the OED care so deeply about the city and its future that––in the few short months I have worked with them––they have already transferred much of this enthusiasm to me. They have most certainly helped me to see San Jose in an entirely new light: one that both highlights the significant obstacles to growth that the city faces, but also the city’s vibrant culture, notable history, and significant economic potential that deservedly bring its citizens a great sense of pride.