My experience with Discover Haverford has been extremely engaging and interesting through the first month of the summer. Initially most of my work revolved around the town festival that we were organizing, called “Haverfood Festival.” This event was composed of 10 food trucks, as well as face paint and games for kids. Thousands of people came, bringing their young kids and having a blast with the community. A ton of preparation went into this, so it was very cool to see the final product. The event was a huge success, and we raised money to go towards Discover Haverford’s efforts in their mission of continuing to revitalize the town.
Since then, my role as an intern has shifted from logistical and planning activities into more professional work. I’ve interviewed small business owners and written promotional articles about them to be included in our newsletter. I’ve engaged in data analysis with a lengthy report of socio-economic and demographic data about Haverford Township residents, to highlight different statistics that we want to advertise to prospective businesses. I looked at sales leakage data for the town to try and identify certain consumer demands that weren’t being met; potential opportunities for new businesses to capitalize on. As I am writing this blog post, I am at a Hilton Hotel in Scranton Pennsylvania, attending the Pennsylvania Downtown Center conference for economic revitalization. I have been to a ton of different workshops which have all been super engaging and informative.
The field of local economic revitalization is certainly a challenging one, but from what I’ve learned it can also be an immensely rewarding one. Since I have been at this conference I have heard tons of stories of local non-profit leaders whose programs have completely turned around the downtown identity of their respective communities. Having that sort of impact (contributing to the creation of a vibrant, exciting town atmosphere) is clearly very rewarding and valuable work.
One thing that I have learned so far is that to succeed in this field, you need to be good with people. I have met so many new people and engaged in long conversations with complete strangers, whether that be the small business owners of Haverford Township or the other non-profit workers at this conference. Creating lasting relationships is key in succeeding in fostering change within communities.
I would highly recommend this internship at Discover Haverford to any students interested in economics, public policy, or local governance. Also, the team at Discover Haverford is wonderful and the work environment is very friendly.
