In this column I’ve often lamented Western New
York’s brain drain – young geniuses, reared and/or educated here, leaving our
region for greener pastures. It’s confounding, because the far western counties
are home to 25 colleges and universities with total enrollment in excess of
75,000. Despite the attractiveness of that intellectual environment there’s been
little to keep them here once their studies are done.
Despite that ongoing exodus, there is some hope
coming from the very brightest of those students.
Last week, I had the honor of taking more than
two dozen students from the University at Buffalo on a tour of Confer Plastics
and then speaking with them about the strengths and weaknesses that WNY poses
to manufacturers. Our plant was one of many stops that they made across the
region last week, as they also visited and heard from the New York Power Authority,
tourism leaders and economic development officials to name a few.
Their whirlwind
tour was a critical part of their unique educational program – the Western New
York Prosperity Fellowship. Funded by the Prentice Family Foundation, the
Fellowship is granted to gifted students who go through a competitive application process. The
University identifies these young men and women as future leaders of our
community and they chose only accomplished students that are civic-minded and
have an entrepreneurial spirit while being desirous of contributing their
talent to revitalizing and sustaining the region.
University
officials, led by program director Hadar Borden, have done a bang-up job of
selecting such participants. I and all of my tour guides were incredibly
impressed by each and every student on the tour. They came from all walks of
life and all communities with a wide variety of pursuits – some were MBA
students, others were PhD candidates, and their fields ranged from engineering
to health sciences to public administration to urban planning.
Each
and every one of them were completely engaged and interested and posed some of
the deepest questions ever asked on our tours. These are young people who “get
it”. They are certainly high-level achievers, the sort of people we want, need and
deserve running businesses, developing technologies, and ironing out public
policy in WNY.
Past
Fellows are doing just that. A list of recent alumni (the program started in
2009) reads of well-positioned professionals holding roles such as international
marketing managers and engineers at some of WNYs most recognizable and
important companies. These are people in their twenties and thirties doing
great things because they were exposed to WNY’s values and needs through the
Fellowship and saw a lifelong role for themselves in the region.
The
Fellows are the folks that in some way or another I’ll be working alongside, whether
directly or indirectly, for the next few decades as we strive to make the local
economy better. They are the same people who will be making the community a
better place for my children and one day theirs.
Sometimes,
based on past trends and present issues, I can’t help but pessimistically wonder
about the future of WNY. But, these students have given me some optimism….our
future is in good hands with Fellows like these.
From the 30 January 2017 Greater Niagara Newspapers
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