Rural Fellows—Gering & Scottsbluff

Russell Shaffer Author

09/13/2022 Added

2 Plays

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Student and Community Fellows talk about the community-improvement projects they worked on in Gering and Scottsbluff, Nebraska during Summer 2022.

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[00:00:00.270]This summer, we had the opportunity
[00:00:01.980]to work with Esther and Lauren
[00:00:04.470]on a project for our downtown,
[00:00:06.450]trying to make connections with businesses
[00:00:09.270]and put together some databases
[00:00:11.730]and information on our businesses,
[00:00:13.170]and also to kind of get a better feel
[00:00:15.120]for what the future of Gering should be,
[00:00:18.360]what people's vision is for it.
[00:00:20.520]And so it was great working with these two young ladies
[00:00:23.070]getting their ideas, getting their input
[00:00:25.410]and also seeing them grow and learn
[00:00:28.320]and figure out how to do things
[00:00:30.600]like hold an open house and how to interact with the public.
[00:00:33.928](lofi beats)
[00:00:35.700]In every community, I think it is essential
[00:00:37.920]that they take the time to consider what
[00:00:41.820]the direction that we should be going.
[00:00:43.290]It's incredibly important to plan for the future,
[00:00:46.920]not just let the future happen to you,
[00:00:48.660]not be responsive, but be proactive,
[00:00:51.120]trying to make the future what we want it to be,
[00:00:54.510]not what happens to us.
[00:00:56.070]And so, it takes time to do that
[00:00:58.080]and sometimes city staff doesn't have
[00:01:00.240]as much time as we would like to go through
[00:01:02.190]and do all the business visits
[00:01:03.450]and take all the surveys.
[00:01:04.950]So this was great having these two interns
[00:01:07.530]to help with some of that work
[00:01:08.820]so that we could do some of the things
[00:01:10.260]that we've been wanting and needing to do
[00:01:12.630]but just haven't had the day time to do the leg work.
[00:01:17.610]Esther and I spent our first five weeks
[00:01:19.530]working in Scottsbluff for City Hall.
[00:01:21.660]For our project there, we distributed surveys to businesses
[00:01:24.780]in the proposed creative district
[00:01:26.340]in hopes of getting feedback about the designated area.
[00:01:29.940]We created a database with this information
[00:01:32.250]and made a full business inventory.
[00:01:34.710]Then we spent the next five weeks
[00:01:36.060]in Gering working in the civic center.
[00:01:38.430]In Gering, we held open houses and distributed a survey
[00:01:41.610]to gather information about revitalizing the downtown area.
[00:01:45.270]Then we drafted webpages, created maps of the area,
[00:01:48.300]and put together a business inventory.
[00:01:50.820]I found that this opportunity
[00:01:52.260]with Rural Prosperity Nebraska,
[00:01:54.030]allowed me to experience and learn things
[00:01:56.040]that I couldn't in school.
[00:01:57.870]Speaking with active community members and leaders
[00:02:00.510]was especially helpful.
[00:02:02.520]Through this experience, I got to improve my communication
[00:02:05.400]and leadership skills, as well as live
[00:02:07.410]in a rural community for 10 weeks.
[00:02:09.720]No matter what my future holds,
[00:02:11.069]this experience has left me better equipped
[00:02:13.470]to succeed and thrive.
[00:02:15.930]The work we did in both Sottsbluff and Gering
[00:02:18.810]was a part of a project to improve their downtowns.
[00:02:22.392]And what we did here, is going to help them
[00:02:26.100]inch one step closer to their project completions.
[00:02:29.400]We might not be able to see the creative district in
[00:02:33.030]Scottsbluff completed or downtown completely revitalized
[00:02:36.540]in Gering, but the work we did
[00:02:38.086]and information we collected,
[00:02:39.600]the databases, they are going to be used in the next step
[00:02:43.029]to completing their projects or improving their downtowns.
[00:02:47.700]This experience has allowed me to develop
[00:02:50.130]my leadership skill sets, whether to be an inclusive leader,
[00:02:54.750]how to work in a group, my inclusive leadership skills,
[00:02:58.980]and these are all the skills that I'm gonna need taking
[00:03:00.960]with me to any career that I end up pursuing in the future
[00:03:04.980]and that I need to live and work with people
[00:03:07.650]on a daily basis, and I couldn't be more grateful.
[00:03:10.920]So the impact on the, our community, the Gering community
[00:03:13.980]and the immediate area of what Esther and Lauren have done,
[00:03:16.500]is basically going to set the roadmap for us moving forward
[00:03:20.490]on what the next steps are for our downtown development,
[00:03:23.550]for developing both our business corridor
[00:03:26.055]and the contacts that we're gonna make in the future
[00:03:28.740]that will improve and grow everything that we have to offer
[00:03:31.800]in downtown Gering.
[00:03:33.900]So I think the impact for me personally was twofold.
[00:03:36.990]First and foremost, recognizing how important it is
[00:03:39.960]to bring new talents and the new ideas and the strengths
[00:03:43.200]that our interns brought to our community.
[00:03:45.810]And secondly, I think it as me as a community leader,
[00:03:48.660]ensures that how important it is to have our youth voice
[00:03:52.320]in our community that will guide
[00:03:54.030]what we're going to be doing in the future.
[00:03:56.580]I just wanted to elaborate on some of the work
[00:03:58.890]that Lauren and Esther did.
[00:04:00.360]It made a huge impact on our community going out
[00:04:02.393]and talking to our small businesses
[00:04:05.070]about the proposed creative district was vital
[00:04:07.980]in laying that groundwork in our journey
[00:04:11.730]to becoming a creative district.
[00:04:14.190]And on another note, we did not have a database
[00:04:18.480]at all before they came here.
[00:04:20.820]So that database is going to impact small business outreach
[00:04:24.480]and economic development for years to come.
[00:04:26.970]And they gave us that. And it's such a great resource.
[00:04:29.490]The impact that this has had on me
[00:04:32.160]as an inclusive community leader is
[00:04:35.190]has just been tremendous.
[00:04:36.450]Just to see our community welcome these girls
[00:04:38.940]with open arms and them do the same.
[00:04:41.790]We really fell in love with them during their time here,
[00:04:44.476]and I hope that they felt accepted and appreciated.
[00:04:48.240]And that's what, I felt nothing but that from them, so.

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Rural Fellows—Gering & Scottsbluff

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