Anything and everything. This was what Jacob Ellis was told he would be doing when he reported to work on day one as a Governor’s Fellow interning in the office of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s chief of staff.

Ellis said it was an accurate job description and an exceptional learning opportunity.

“I might start my day getting organized for a cabinet meeting,” Ellis said. “Then I’d work on a project for one of the secretariats, such as transportation or education. Something would come up, and I’d be asked to help the legislative affairs team with a bill signing. Then it would be, ‘Hey, the governor has a meeting in 45 minutes. Could you write him a meeting brief?’ This would all happen before noon, and I still had five hours left in the day.”

Ellis, a Presidential Scholar who is majoring in leadership studies and philosophy, politics, economics, and law, received a Burrus Fellowship from the Jepson School of Leadership Studies to support his Virginia Governor’s Fellows internship this summer. It was a dream internship for the senior from Virginia Beach who has a long-standing interest in public policy and governance.

“I worked closely with the chief of staff and the governor every day, often handling confidential material,” he said. “I also had the opportunity to work with every secretariat and many agency heads. The internship gave me an all-encompassing view of the executive branch.”

This was not Ellis’ first exposure to state government. During his last three years of high school, he researched bills as an intern in the office of Virginia Delegate Jason Miyares. As a rising college sophomore in the summer of 2022, he received Spider internship funds to intern again with Miyares, who was by then the attorney general of Virginia. Ellis worked on criminal justice and public safety policy, an experience he called profound.

The public policy devotee has balanced these hands-on state government experiences with deep dives into research. The School of Arts and Sciences awarded him summer research funding in 2023 to analyze nearly 4,000 pieces of legislation from the Virginia General Assembly. Political science professor Dan Palazzolo served as his faculty mentor.

“I researched how the backgrounds of health care professionals serving in the General Assembly impact their legislative portfolios,” Ellis said. “They introduce and pass health-care-related bills at a statistically significant higher rate than the pass rate for other legislation, which shows the trust their fellow legislators put in them regarding health-care policy.”

In spring 2024, he shared his findings in the article “Health Care Professionals in the Virginia General Assembly,” published in the Virginia Social Science Journal.

This year, the senior has pivoted from state to city policy. With leadership studies professor Thad Williamson serving as his faculty mentor, he is researching City of Richmond zoning laws for his Jepson senior honors thesis.

“I’m examining how zoning laws rooted in racist and classist systems impact the city’s climate and economy,” he said. “The city is currently rewriting its zoning ordinances. Will the changes it is making be sufficient? How can we make the city more walkable, more vibrant?”

When not working on city or state policy and his academics, Ellis trains and competes as a Spider varsity men’s cross country and track team member. He also spends time applying to public policy and law graduate programs, with an eye toward working in state public policy and governance.

“I want to promote good policy for Virginia.”