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Haley J. Gammage

Mrs. Spruill

Legal Studies Internship

23 August, 2019

Legal Studies Internship Reflective Essay

This summer I interned with the Department of Emergency Management in Virginia

Beach. I had the pleasure to work with Erin Sutton the Deputy Emergency Services Coordinator.

Being able to see what happens in our community behind the scenes was fascinating. There are

so many aspects that we do not see, lots of moving parts. It was so mind blowing to see how all

the little pieces fit together.

The Department of Emergency Management in Virginia Beach “promotes a

comprehensive emergency management program to mitigate the community’s impacts from

manmade, natural or technological disasters and potential catastrophic incidents by utilizing

mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery strategies.” (vbgov.com) Behind the scenes,

Mrs. Sutton and her team plan all the events that happen here in Virginia Beach, like Something

In The Water, Patriot Fest, 4th Of July, The Air Show, and many more events. The office of

Emergency Management makes sure that everything is safe for the people in our community.

Weather, Temperature, and Capacity are all things Emergency Management needs to worry

about. Catastrophic events like hurricanes, floods, tornados, etc., are also events that the

department needs to be ready for at any given time. Recently the May 31st shooting happened

and the Emergency Management office had to deal with that too, on top of all the other events

they were still planning. They couldn't even recover from the shooting because the second it

happened they didn't stop working on relief for the victims. This incident really struck our
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community, so this summer we came up with the idea of the VB Strong Center. Which will be a

home for victims of the shooting. Its a guide for wherever the victims may need to go or sources

that they need to recover.

During my time at the Legal Studies Academy I have learned many things and have taken

classes that expand my knowledge. All my teachers have taught me different aspects of legal

fields and connected everyday situation with something legal. I have had the pleasure to gain a

legal knowledge that only the people in the LSA would understand. We all talk about murder and

politics as if its a normal teenager conversation. With learning about the law, I have learned how

to speak in public and stand up for what I believe in. Whenever someone asks me about high

school I always recommend that they come to the Legal Studies Academy because it has taught

me so much. I tell whomever was asking about high school, that choosing First Colonials Legal

Academy was “the best decision I have ever made.” I truly believe this because it has developed

me into the person that I am today.

As I described before I learned so much from the Academy and my internship separately.

But, my school taught me some things before I went into my internship. I already knew the basic

knowledge of legal procedures and disaster relief. I had recently done a project on the Federal

Emergency Management Agency in Mrs. Hills Oratory class. I had compiled research because of

the disaster that happened in Puerto Rico. I was fascinated by the topic and decided that I would

do something with FEMA for my Senior project. Thankfully, my best friends mom is Mrs.Sutton

and the internship fell in my lap. I was so excited to learn more about what actually happened

behind closed doors. I learned that Emergency Management was not what I thought it was going

to be. They take up every task and make sure that everyone, like police officers, EMS,

firefighters, etc., are all communicating so that our community stays safe. I didn't know the depth
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of work that goes into an event. Something in the Water 2020 planning has already started

because it is a huge event and there are so many potential disasters that could happen. Just little

things that you would never imagine are so important.

The May 31st shooting was such a catastrophic event for our community and since I was

working with the Department of Emergency Management we mostly worked to give relief to

victims of the disaster. The VB Strong center was created so that we could provide that relief. It

is funded by a grant, which was made up by lawyers pertaining to the event that happened on

May 31st in our community. When we had these meetings I knew some of the legal terms, and

could navigate myself through the conversation. If someone my age were to do the same thing as

me, but not have been in the legal studies academy, they would be confused. Intro to Law taught

me all the vocabulary I needed to know. It built the foundation for my basic knowledge in the

legal field. This helped me tremendously in my internship because I was able to understand what

the lawyers and staff were talking about. In most of my legal studies classes we would come

upon the topic of school shootings, whether we were debating, discussing, or talking about major

events. In my internship, we actually recreated an active shooter in a school, victims and all. The

police, fire department, EMS, and other forms of Emergency operators were on scene practicing

in the case of a real event. It was helpful to learn the faults so that when it actually happened the

departments would be ready. It's ironic because we did this exercise in March to then have a real

active shooter. The day of the May 31st shooting all the emergency services did really well at

working together and communicating because they had just recently done an exercise. Oratory

and Debate was also a helpful learning experience for my internship because for this job you

have to be able to speak in front of people and be able to articulate your ideas and points across

an audience. Mrs. Sutton is a great speaker and thrives when she is the leader in a conversation,
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she knows how to respond and never has an awkward moment. I do not have that expertise yet,

but I have grown to be able to speak in front of people through the Legal Studies Academy. I

really appreciate the strength and the tools it has given me to be able to feel confident when im

speaking in front of an audience.

Overall I learned so much during the last 3 years of my highschool career in the Legal

Studies Academy and in the last 3 months of my internship with the Department of Emergency

Management. I learned different and new things from both of them and they related to each other

in more ways than I thought. Being in the Legal Studies Academy taught me how to be myself

and speak my truth. My internship has taught me that there are so many behind the scenes that

we do not see or think about, it taught me that you have to be strong in order to get your job

done. You have to be willing to make sacrifices for your community in order for it to thrive.

Being there taught me that I want to help my community somehow when I get a job. Having a

hand in the process of making Virginia Beach, Virginia Beach, our home.