When I began searching for a summer professional work experience, I couldn’t find a position in my areas of interest that wouldn’t require me to move at least a time zone away from North Carolina. Fortunately, UNC MPA Alum Michael Evans was dead set on adding a UNC MPA student to the business intelligence team at the Hampton Roads Alliance. From my first conversations with Steve and Michael, I knew I would have the opportunity to do impactful work. And that’s what the job interviews were: conversations about my fit on their team and at the Alliance. I entered with no practical or academic economic development experience, but Michael and Steve assured me that my skills and strong will to learn would position me to have a successful summer with the Alliance.
My knowledge of economic development before working for the Alliance was entirely observational. Growing up in San Antonio, Texas, and spending all of my college years in Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, I was no stranger to living in a region experiencing an influx of jobs, people, and some of the subsequent growing pains. The Alliance’s approach to economic development was unique in its attempt to remain authentic to the region’s identity while prioritizing the development of the current Hampton Roads workforce. Michael and Steve’s approach to building my internship experience mirrored that through the respect they showed me and the skills I could bring and develop as a business intelligence team member.
During my internship, I co-authored the inaugural business intelligence report alongside fellow intern and UNC MPA student Layne Cole. The business intelligence report was a launching point that solidified my content expertise on the key industries, real estate offerings, and business resources in Hampton Roads, as well as familiarizing me with the 15 unique localities that comprise the region. Our joint effort on the 100-page report (people keep telling us that’s a lot of pages) permitted us the bandwidth to gain exposure to almost every responsibility of a regional economic development analyst. This array of responsibilities changed daily, if not hourly, from providing workforce data for a potentially record-breaking investor to outlining industry-specific economic indicators for a locality of 15,000 people.
Over the course of my 11 weeks with the Alliance, I had the opportunity to engage with dozens of folks across all sectors, industries, and localities in the region. One poignant thing I observed in every email communication, virtual meeting, and during my two well-accommodated visits to Hampton Roads was an unabashed commitment to the sustained success of the region. This network of committed economic development professionals I am now proudly a part of have one critical thing in common: a joint goal of economic and community resilience achieved through constant collaboration, bound together by the moderating and technically supportive force that is the Alliance.
National defense, manufacturing, warehousing/logistics, agriculture, and offshore wind aren’t flashy industries like tech or finance; however, they define Hampton Roads. Through the meaningful work I contributed and the continued growth of the Alliance, Hampton Roads isn’t putting itself on the map but strengthening its historical identity as a backbone of American industry.
In March of this year, I could not have imagined having had a professional work experience with the variety and depth of work I performed at the Alliance. Thank you, Michael, Steve, Doug, and everyone at the Alliance, for recognizing my willingness to grow in this unique public administration field. Wherever my career proceeds following the completion of my MPA in May, the perspectives, skills, and relationships I formed at the Hampton Roads Alliance will continue to guide my professional path.

~Colby Mask

Colby is an MPA student at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Government. Find him on Linkedin.