Virginia
Paid college internships: A smart way Virginia can ease its youthful brain drain – Virginia Mercury
Virginia needs to keep the Breyana Stewarts who are graduating from our colleges and universities from taking their brains, their energy and their winning personalities to other states.
In May, Stewart will become the first in her family’s line of descent to earn a degree when she graduates from Virginia Commonwealth University. At age 23, she’s smart, optimistic, instantly likable, and looking for a job where she can soon put her new bachelor’s degree in communications to good use.
She is a candidate for a permanent, fulltime, post-commencement job within Virginia. But she plans to search elsewhere, too.
“I just applied for my first communications job,” she said over a latte in a Shockoe Bottom coffee shop this week. “I think it’s a shot in the dark because I haven’t graduated yet, but I want to get the ball rolling.”
Too many newly minted graduates from Virginia’s institutions of higher learning are finding their futures outside the commonwealth, and it’s creating a demographic brain drain that could have economic consequences. That bothers Kirk Cox.
If the name sounds familiar, it’s because he was the 55th speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates from 2018 to 2020. A Republican and a career educator who represented Colonial Heights for 32 years in the House, Cox now heads the Virginia Business Higher Education Council, a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of leaders from the state’s business community and higher education institutions.
In an interview earlier this month, Cox was blunt about challenges Virginia faces from other states that are magnets for early-career professionals and recent college grads. And he’s advancing a solution that makes sense: paid internships that build bridges to connect Virginia college students — particularly diverse students and those of limited economic backgrounds — with relevant experience in their fields of study, which can lead to jobs here after college.
“They’ll tend to stay if they get a really good internship. If they don’t, they’re looking for other places to go,” Cox said. “The statistics show — and I think the kids will tell you —[that] if they get a meaningful internship, it’s much more likely that they get offered a job, [and] they’re much more likely to stay.”
The “stay” part has become a problem in the past decade. During the latter 20th century though the first decade of this one, educated, upwardly mobile, young professionals flocked to Virginia for jobs in such numbers that it created uncontrolled suburban sprawl, especially in Northern Virginia. That trend is now in reverse as more of today’s smart, youthful and affluent cohort are leaving for opportunities in other states than are moving here.
One way to track arrivals from other states vis-à-vis departures is Internal Revenue Service year-to-year personal income tax returns. The IRS aggregates data on the number of returns filed each year from within all 50 states and the District of Columbia and the number of individuals represented in them. Recent year-over-year comparisons do not inspire confidence for Virginia.
Thirty years ago, almost 15,000 more people moved into Virginia than left, according to the IRS data for tax years 1994-95.
Returns from tax years 2020-21, however, show that almost 9,300 more left Virginia than moved in. There were 243,217 departures compared to 233,924 come-heres. Twenty-seven states took more people from Virginia than migrated here from those states. Florida alone took in 10,584 more people from Virginians than came to Virginia from Florida, roughly the equivalent of Essex County.
Hamilton Lombard, the chief demographer for the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia, said the trend has hit Northern Virginia the hardest. Hampton Roads has also lost more than it gained, he said, but not as sharply. Smaller, less urbanized areas of Virginia, by contrast, have enjoyed net gains, especially since the pandemic popularized widespread use of working virtually from home, Cooper Center research shows.
Another worrisome omen for colleges and businesses in need of their graduates is that enrollment still struggles with pandemic disruptions.
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center data from last September shows that undergrad enrollment ticked marginally upward for the first time since the start of the pandemic, but freshman enrollment dipped by 3.6%.
That may be because teens see some recent college grads moving back home with their parents, working gigs as rideshare drivers, pizza deliverers and wait staff to repay college loans and seek work in their degree field. Short-term undergraduate certificate programs spiked by nearly 10% compared with a 3.6% jump in associate degrees and just under 1% for bachelor’s degrees, according to the NSCRC.
The idea of paid internships has done the nearly impossible: united Democratic and Republican policymakers. It’s no mean feat to get Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, and her frequent nemesis, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, literally reading from the same script as they did in this recent promotional video.
At the behest of the VBHEC and its development campaign, Growth4Va, the program is poised to receive either $24 million (under the Senate version of the budget) or $29 million (in the House version) from the state through June of 2026. Some of that will help small businesses pay for interns.
(Some disclosure is in order here. This initiative is advised by McGuireWoods Consulting, a public policy advisory services firm where I was a senior advisor for more than five years. I did not perform work for the VBHEC.)
Let’s put aside the retail politics as well as the commercial and macroeconomic considerations. Paid internships for all Virginia students stands on its own egalitarian merit because of the way it can improve the lives of kids like Breyana Stewart.
She knew she wanted to work in communications since her elementary school days in Hampton Roads, when she was an anchor of the school’s closed-circuit morning newscast.
“My mom always advocated for me to go to college,” Stewart said. “She was always saying how important it is to get a degree. I knew that when I started college that I would have to support myself … so I’ve always worked since I’ve gone to college.”
Now in her final semester, she works two jobs — one as a receptionist at a clinic and another as a promotions assistant at Radio One’s Richmond stations.
But the big differentiator for her career path is the three months she spent last summer as an intern at the Hodges Partnership, a marketing, PR and media relations shop in Richmond.
“Being able to have an internship that paid me for my time was definitely necessary,” she said. Because of that, she was able to cover her rent in Richmond during that time.
Might she wind up where she interned? Who knows. Stewart said she loved her time at Hodges and stayed in touch with the friends and colleagues she made there. Regardless, just listing experience with such an esteemed company on her résumé gives her an edge wherever her search leads her.
It’s time for Virginia to make paid internships accessible to any kid willing to learn and put in the work the way she did and — with a little luck — keep more of our most promising prospects home.
Most of the names that will fill Virginia Tech football’s 2026 stat sheet were wearing other uniforms last fall. James Franklin rebuilt this roster through the portal in a matter of weeks, which means projecting statistical leaders is less about what happened in Blacksburg and more about what these players did somewhere else. Here is a breakdown on who should lead the Hokies in each major statistical category.
Passing yards and passing touchdowns: Ethan Grunkemeyer
No other quarterback on the roster has taken a college snap, so the depth chart writes itself at the top. What makes Grunkemeyer more than a default pick is the 1,339 yards he threw for across seven Penn State starts, plus the head start he has on the offense after following coordinator Ty Howle to Blacksburg. He spent last year learning this scheme while everyone else is starting from zero. As long as he stays healthy, Grunkemeyer is the easy pick for these categories.
Rushing yards and rushing touchdowns: Marcellous Hawkins
Few backs produced in tougher conditions in 2025. Hawkins gained 749 yards on 6.3 per carry, drew an 84.6 Pro Football Focus grade, highest on the roster, and racked up 562 yards after contact, doing it against fronts that loaded the box because Virginia Tech gave them no reason not to. A passing game with some teeth should only loosen things up, and Jeffrey Overton Jr. figures to handle a meaningful share of carries without threatening the bulk of the workload.
The touchdown lead comes with a wrinkle worth pausing on. Hawkins reached the end zone just once on the ground all season, while quarterback Kyron Drones piled up nine rushing scores. Drones is gone, off to the NFL with the Green Bay Packers, which leaves that production up for grabs and the lead back in line to claim it. Overton, who broke a 38-yard touchdown run against Miami in November, is the back most likely to chip into the total.
Receiving yards: Que’Sean Brown
The most accomplished pass catcher in the room arrived from Durham. Brown posted 846 yards at Duke last season and 1,291 across his past two years, headlined by a 178-yard, two-touchdown showing in the Sun Bowl. Projected as the primary slot, he occupies the spot where targets concentrate in a timing-based passing game. Greene offers continuity and a higher floor, but Brown’s track record points to the bigger ceiling.
Receiving touchdowns: Luke Reynolds
Zero touchdowns at Penn State last year. That’s the case against Reynolds. The case for him is everything else: a five-star pedigree, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound frame built for red-zone mismatches, and a Howle offense with a track record of feeding the tight end near the goal line. The spring game gave a glimpse of what Virginia Tech’s offense will look like, with ght ends outgaining receivers 205 yards to 157 on Virginia Tech’s 428 total receiving yards. Reynolds led every target on the field, catching all five passes thrown his way for a game-high 69 yards.
Tackles and tackles for loss: Kaleb Spencer
With Caleb Woodson off to Alabama and Jaden Keller out of eligibility, the top of the linebacker room emptied out, and Spencer is what’s left standing. The Miami transfer quietly led the 2025 team in tackles with 67 while starting five games and playing all 12, and he’s logged more than 500 snaps in Blacksburg. He also led the team in tackles for loss, at 9.0, and as the every-down mike, he’s built to live in the backfield again. Sophomore Noah Chambers, who posted 44 tackles as a true freshman, is the closest thing to a challenger, while Kemari Copeland and any of the new edge rushers who pop could chip into the loss column. For now, the proven leader keeps both.
Sacks: Kemari Copeland
Copeland led the Hokies in sacks last season, and the tape backs up the kind of explosive athlete he is. He owns Virginia Tech’s all-time squat record, putting up 605 pounds for 10 reps, a number that turned heads well outside the football program when he set it. That kind of lower-body power shows up on Saturdays, where he’s capable of collapsing a pocket from the interior, not just the edge.
Interceptions: Jaquez White
No Hokie pulled away in the takeaway department last season, so the safer bet goes to the player who’s done it before. White intercepted three passes and broke up 11 more at Troy, production that earned him second-team All-Sun Belt honors. He’s joining a secondary that struggled to create turnovers a year ago, and a corner with his track record of finding the ball is exactly what that group needed. Isaiah Brown-Murray, the returning CB1 with a pick and five breakups of his own, is the closest thing to a rival for the lead.
Follow
Virginia
Motorcoach failed to slow for traffic in Virginia work zone before crash that killed 5 from Western Mass., NTSB says – The Boston Globe
A charter bus failed to slow down when it came upon a line of vehicles stopped in an overnight work zone on Interstate 95 in Virginia last month, rear-ending and killing a Worcester woman in her SUV and a family of four from Greenfield in their SUV, national transportation officials said Thursday.
The driver of the 57-passenger motorcoach, Jing Sheng Dong, was swiftly charged with involuntary manslaughter after the multi-vehicle crash on May 29.
The Massachusetts residents did not know each other yet their vehicles were stopped together in the work zone on southbound I-95 in Stafford, Va. at 2:32 a.m. that Friday.
Priscilla R. Mafalda, 25, of Worcester, was a passenger in a 2021 Chevrolet Suburban that was in the direct path of the 2013 Van Hool C2045L motorcoach. She was traveling with her husband to South Florida.
Also in the path of the charter bus was the Doncev family, a mother and father from Greenfield traveling with their 14-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son to a family wedding in South Carolina. Their 2020 Acura MDX was consumed by fire, the report from the National Transportation Security Board said.
In all, eight vehicles were involved, with dozens of people injured and hospitalized.
The bus, occupied by Dong, 48, who worked for E&P Travel, Inc., and two dozen passengers, was en route from New York City to Charlotte, NC.
The conditions were clear and dry on the six-lane roadway where three southbound and three northbound lanes were divided by two reversible express toll lanes, the NTSB report said.
An overnight repaving project had prompted the closure of the southbound center and right lanes, as well as the right shoulder, according to the report.
When the charter bus approached from the south in the center lane, it failed to slow done for stopped traffic, the report said. It did not say how fast the bus was estimated to be traveling.
The motorcoach continued to travel south for nearly a half mile, causing a chain-reaction crash into eight vehicles, the report said.
The overnight work zone was scheduled to conclude at 5 a.m., less than three hours from the time of the fatal crash, the NTSB said.
The investigation is ongoing while the NTSB determines probable cause.
The Virginia State Police, Virginia Department of Transportation, and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are aiding the investigation.
Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.
BLACKSBURG, Va. (WDBJ) – First responders never stop training, and this week almost 500 from across Virginia are honing their skills in Blacksburg.
The Virginia Association of First Responders now includes EMTs, firefighters, police officers and many others who answer the call in an emergency.
Thursday, a farm accident and a collision involving a car and school bus were just two of the scenarios they encountered.
“It’s a week-long opportunity, not only for technical stuff like this, but for medical classes,” said Covington Volunteer Rescue Squad member Greg Burton. “People call 911 every day for something. And we’re just here to help ease the problem a little bit.”
The annual conference also includes a Rescue Camp for young people with an interest in emergency services.
43 campers are taking part in a variety of activities, including a session on scuba diving Thursday afternoon.
Copyright 2026 WDBJ. All rights reserved.
-
New York27 minutes agoVideo: Fans Show Up to the Parade in Their Best Knicks-Themed Attire
-
Los Angeles, Ca34 minutes agoVictims sought after man allegedly points gun at passing cars in Santa Clarita Valley
-
Detroit, MI57 minutes agoBest barbershop in Metro Detroit: Finalists for this year’s Vote 4 The Best
-
San Francisco, CA1 hour agoHow to watch San Francisco Giants vs. Miami Marlins
-
Dallas, TX1 hour agoDrivers in North Texas struggle with Friday floods
-
Miami, FL1 hour agoThree wildfires burn more than 20,000 acres in Miami-Dade, force road closures
-
Boston, MA1 hour agoMBTA, state transportation chief apologizes for ‘insensitive’ employee hair-pulling incident
-
Denver, CO1 hour agoMan arrested on suspicion of murder in Denver shooting near South Park Hill, Hale
