Community Fellows Blog Posts

Coming from a background with a family business in the San Jose area, I understand the challenges many smaller businesses face, especially the high operational costs, shifting shopping habits, difficulties in finding employees, and rising expenses. Growing up in this vibrant, diverse community, it has always been important to me to impact locally, especially smaller businesses that form the heart of our community and San Jose economy. As a Digital and Information Systems intern for the City of San Jose Office of Economic Development, I’ve had the opportunity to distribute Storefront Improvement Grants ranging from $10,000 to $15,000 to help local businesses with renovations and exterior improvements based on their lease term. This fiscal year alone, we’ve distributed nearly $700,000 in grants, and I’ve had the opportunity to connect with multiple business owners to support their visions. 

Working at the City of San Jose, I’ve been surprised by our extensive access to data as employees. With access to detailed information on all the businesses in the region, I’ve analyzed and calculated the top 50 employers based on employee count. I’m researching the sales tax smaller businesses pay and finding correlations that reveal broader economic patterns. This real-time data and insider information provides a fascinating look at San Jose's financial performance. It's been enlightening to observe the city's dynamics as revealed by data, which provides analysts within the office with insightful information on how we may better assist local businesses. 

One of the main goals I aim to achieve at the City of San Jose is to enhance my project management abilities. I especially want to find new data-driven projects that will provide insights to lead analysts such as my manager, Sal Alvarez, contributing to the city’s economic growth. As I process my last grants, I want to calculate and see how many we gave out this year. Using tools like Tableau, I can create data visualizations that represent this information, showcasing the reach and impact of the Storefront grants to the diverse businesses throughout San Jose. By leveraging such tools, I aim to effectively communicate our positive impact to the community, illustrating how our support has empowered small businesses.

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