Posts Tagged ‘Pennsylvania’

Think “youth engagement” before offering scholarships

June 15th, 2010

I’ve been in Tacoma, WA this weekend for my niece’s high school graduation (Congratulations Melissa!).  While waiting for the family to wake from their evening slumber yesterday, I stumbled across an article written by Jeremy Beer for Philanthropy Daily describing the success of a rural Pennsylvania community at reducing the outmigration of young people by providing scholarships to a nearby college. 

According to a 2009 article in Inside Higher Education, the two scholarship funds Beer references were established in the coal mining community of Tamaqua, PA in order to “to inspire local students both to go on to college and to stay close to home.”

Programs like this are of interest to me for a couple reasons.  First, I’d love to see rural communities everywhere develop “people attraction” strategies.  To me, people attraction strategies are about making communities places that people want to live.  This process begins with young people currently living in the community and extends out from there to adults everywhere.

Second, I wonder how it applies to the South Dakota Partnership for Teacher Education project.  Can scholarships work as an incentive for new graduates to teach in rural and Native American school districts across South Dakota?

Beer calls on leaders to extend scholarship programs like that of Tamaqua.  He writes:

Needless to say, these kinds of efforts could be taken much further. What if a local foundation decided to help pay off local students’ college loans, if they were to return to their hometown areas after graduation? Such a program would have to be designed with care, in order to avoid creating disincentives for colleges to give financial aid or to keep tuition low (in other words, if it were to have the same effect as the ridiculous federal student-loan programs, then we’re better off without it). But this could be an especially attractive option for the brightest of local kids who amass considerable debt attending liberal arts schools.” (Source:  Jeremy Beer, “Nudge them Homeward,” Philanthropy Daily, June 9, 2010)

I like the idea of extending these scholarship programs, but I’d recommend the extension be made in the opposite direction with youth engagement activities that connect young people to their community in the years before being offered scholarships.  In other words, get kids involved at an earlier age in meaningful community projects. 

As Dr. David Ivan from the Michigan State University states in a presentation at the 2009 Michigan Rural Partners Conference: 

Successful communities realize that the first step in reversing the brain-drain in small communities is to create a positive childhood memory that may serve as a consideration in future location.”  (Source: Dave Ivan, “Can Small Towns be Cool,” a presentation at the 2009 Michigan Rural Partner Conference, slide 38)  

It’s not that I think extending scholarships to more people is a bad idea.  I simply believe that communities need to build an emotional connection with young people before offering scholarships in order for the scholarships to produce the best possible effect. 

There are undoubtedly other similar scholarship programs cropping up across Rural America.  It would be interesting to learn more about their success and failures.

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Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, Economic Development, Gen Y, Rural | Comments (2)