Community Counts on Intern’s Economic Instincts

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

Brayden Sherman means business.

His Anderson County Business Development Facebook page, which reports the latest news of comings and goings in business and industry in the county, now has more than 20,000 followers, and Sherman is often the first to report the coming of a new store or restaurant.

It’s not too surprising, since he started his evaluation of regional markets at age 10, when his parents were considering a move from Naples-Fort Myers, Fla., to a growing area closer to mountains.

He helped them narrow the choices down to the Upstate of South Carolina and the Knoxville, TN, area. They eventually chose Anderson as home, and almost as soon as they arrived Sherman began an even deeper dive into researching the economy and economic development of the county, spending hours reaching out to companies with questions about their plans to locate relocate here.

As a high-school sophomore, he landed a paid internship at McCoy-Wright Commercial Realty, where he learned the real estate side of commercial property and industrial development.

Sherman is now a student at Anderson University, where he is studying business and finance. As a student, he first served an internship at the Anderson Area Chamber of Commerce, and is now an intern at the Anderson County Economic Development office, where Director Burriss Nelson has called him one of most relentless the hardest working intern who’s worked in his office.

When he graduates, Sherman plans to continue his already blossoming career.