Add the parameter on the other page when navigating to the page you want the dropdown set on. Then on that page the default value is based on get data from url that matches the option. Make sure querystring keys are consistent and that the value you use are consistent
Okay thanks! Your suggestion had me go back and look at why the syntax above wasn’t working. Bubble actually showed the answer. The default value I was asking for was returning a "list of departments for a default value which bubble doesn’t allow and doesn’t make sense.
So somewhere else I saw where people then added :first item after the query and it works perfectly.