Creating Career Pathways

Jenny Nixon Author

10/08/2024 Added

3 Plays

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Craig Schroeder discusses his work with career pathways. Recorded 11/17/2021.

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[00:00:00.720]Our guest today is Craig Schroeder, who's a consulting associate with Heartland Center for Leadership Development.
[00:00:06.840]And we were having a conversation last week about really working to create career pathways for young people,
[00:00:16.040]getting them into labor, you know, to place, take place in our labor shortages,
[00:00:22.920]and really try to attract those students to our rural communities.
[00:00:27.320]And Craig has got a lot of experience behind him.
[00:00:30.100]So I thought it might be really great to have him share some of those ideas with us.
[00:00:34.380]So I'm going to turn it over to you, Craig, if you want to share your screen.
[00:00:37.660]Whatever you want to do, let's take it away.
[00:00:40.200]Great.
[00:00:41.760]Maybe I'll scoot this over if that's easier for you to see.
[00:00:44.080]Great.
[00:00:45.320]Well, thank you, Jenny and everyone here.
[00:00:47.500]I think, Christina, is that correct?
[00:00:51.440]I don't think you introduced yourself yet.
[00:00:53.120]Do you want to do that quick?
[00:00:54.500]Hello.
[00:00:56.640]Oh, yes.
[00:00:57.640]I'm Christina Foth.
[00:00:59.740]I'm with Valley County Economic Development and the Ord Area Chamber of Commerce in Ord,
[00:01:04.180]Nebraska.
[00:01:04.700]Great.
[00:01:05.740]Good to have you here.
[00:01:09.060]So, well, again, thank you for the opportunity to visit with you.
[00:01:11.820]Seems like a great dynamic group of people.
[00:01:14.940]So thank you.
[00:01:15.860]And what we're going to talk about really is creating career pathways, maybe building
[00:01:20.740]on the session you had last time with labor and adults and now reaching to, you know,
[00:01:25.740]young people and helping them create those kind of pathways so they can stay or come
[00:01:31.000]back to the communities.
[00:01:31.880]And so it's really about how we connect students with employers, also through entrepreneurial
[00:01:36.860]opportunities, and then attracting young people to our rural communities is really the goal
[00:01:41.820]of this work here.
[00:01:42.720]So those in economic development, you know, we kind of have a double whammy here.
[00:01:46.660]We obviously can address the workforce shortage that we're all struggling with, but also help
[00:01:52.460]more young people and families stay or come back to our small towns.
[00:01:55.660]And build their businesses and their lives there and have kids in our school systems.
[00:02:01.460]It's just young people are a huge driver of economic growth if we engage them and continue
[00:02:08.060]to stay engaged as they become young adults.
[00:02:10.400]So for some of you that have been around a while, this might be a little bit familiar.
[00:02:13.580]I've been doing this now, Mylon, I guess, for about 35 years, right, in different capacities
[00:02:18.840]and have had the opportunity both to go back home to my hometown when I was in my mid-20s
[00:02:24.060]with my wife from Los Angeles.
[00:02:25.320]And lived that experience.
[00:02:27.480]And Farm Boy goes home and City Girl moves to the country firsthand.
[00:02:30.900]And then some of you may know that one of the things I did was I bought my school building
[00:02:36.900]in my hometown.
[00:02:38.400]And then Janelle came with the vision for Grow Nebraska, which was based out of there
[00:02:43.220]for a number of years.
[00:02:44.380]And so between that incubator and Janelle's vision, you know, that was about 7,000 jobs
[00:02:49.600]created across rural Nebraska.
[00:02:50.920]And of course, Grow Nebraska continues on.
[00:02:53.800]But now it's done much more online and in the various malls around the holidays and
[00:02:58.460]things like that.
[00:02:59.260]But so that was some early experience.
[00:03:02.260]And through that, I started getting contacts from small towns, literally all over the country
[00:03:06.860]saying, how do we attract more young people back to our community?
[00:03:09.760]So this is the late 80s, early 90s, most of you weren't even born.
[00:03:13.780]And so that was very early.
[00:03:16.740]At that time, a lot of us were thinking that wasn't even something students were interested
[00:03:20.880]in because we were still in that industrial age model.
[00:03:23.840]Which was most of the jobs were being created in the cities.
[00:03:26.200]And so there's been really a paradigm shift, obviously, in entrepreneurial career pathways,
[00:03:32.300]online opportunities, our rural employers needing workforce.
[00:03:37.520]So it's a very different world.
[00:03:39.760]So if you still use that old mindset that the best opportunities for kids are elsewhere,
[00:03:43.820]which quite frankly, a lot of adults still, even if they don't know it,
[00:03:47.080]send that message to our young people.
[00:03:49.160]Where do you plan to go to college?
[00:03:51.080]I mean, that's the first question, right?
[00:03:52.340]So that's the first ticket out of 10.
[00:03:53.720]That may still be the appropriate pathway,
[00:03:55.720]but we want to connect that to opportunities to either stay in the region,
[00:04:00.960]attend a tech or community college, if that makes sense,
[00:04:03.760]or go off to college and come back at some point in the future.
[00:04:06.120]So we want to start building that base at a younger age and then grow from
[00:04:09.980]there. So that's what I want to talk to you about today.
[00:04:12.420]But before I get into that, I just would like to,
[00:04:14.520]for any of you that are currently doing work with young people,
[00:04:17.220]can you share a little bit about some of the work you're doing currently?
[00:04:20.680]We kind of got into that earlier with some,
[00:04:23.160]some work,
[00:04:23.760]but who's doing some work right now with students around career pathways and
[00:04:28.440]attracting young people back to your community?
[00:04:30.580]Well, I wouldn't call it actual work, Greg,
[00:04:38.100]but there are at least some discussions beginning to take place between my
[00:04:43.640]board,
[00:04:43.960]which is an economic development board and the local schools district here
[00:04:49.360]relative to career,
[00:04:52.600]career preparedness,
[00:04:53.920]career academies,
[00:04:56.080]giving students a little more taste for what might be out there as they get
[00:05:01.580]through high school.
[00:05:02.280]I shared with our rural prosperity task force folks last week about a
[00:05:09.720]conversation I had with several guidance counselors,
[00:05:13.520]and it really has reinforced to me how important it is that as an economic
[00:05:19.720]development group,
[00:05:20.920]we take on,
[00:05:22.540]some of that effort and some of the responsibility perhaps to provide
[00:05:29.000]options for our kids.
[00:05:30.300]That's how we believe we're going to get them to stick around.
[00:05:33.440]And that's how we believe we're going to grow our own sort of needed
[00:05:38.440]trades people and that sort of thing.
[00:05:40.440]So not actual work being done per se with the students,
[00:05:44.640]but those conversations taking place.
[00:05:46.580]Great.
[00:05:47.320]Thank you, Deb.
[00:05:48.760]Anybody else?
[00:05:52.480]I'll speak on the Department of Labor.
[00:05:54.860]So one thing we're really working on is trying to get employers more
[00:05:58.180]involved in youth registered apprenticeship programs throughout
[00:06:00.780]Ritter, Nebraska.
[00:06:01.460]Another thing that we are doing with our partnership with Pine Ridge
[00:06:04.800]Job Corps is doing presentations for those individuals that are going
[00:06:10.100]to be graduating soon and providing labor market,
[00:06:12.940]detailed labor market information about local areas.
[00:06:15.560]So that we're trying to give them a visualization of the skills that
[00:06:19.620]they have obtained through that job for how we can assist
[00:06:22.420]them in increasing those skills and experiences through our
[00:06:25.440]Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
[00:06:27.420]And then really just giving them a picture of all the employers
[00:06:31.080]in our local areas.
[00:06:32.140]So within Grand Nebraska, we cover the 88 counties.
[00:06:35.100]So we make it where every region gets an opportunity to present
[00:06:39.840]to these upcoming graduates so they can showcase their local areas.
[00:06:43.300]So we can try to incentivize them relocating once they graduate
[00:06:47.880]to the rural parts of the state.
[00:06:49.920]Great.
[00:06:51.200]Thanks, Josh.
[00:06:52.360]Yeah, exposing students to the careers available is really important
[00:06:56.080]because that doesn't just happen nationally.
[00:06:58.180]So that's wonderful.
[00:06:59.480]Thank you.
[00:07:00.060]Anybody else?
[00:07:01.020]I might just share that in Ballantyne, we've started this year doing CNA classes
[00:07:08.620]through the high school, working with Mid-Plains Community College
[00:07:11.040]for an opening up for a career path there.
[00:07:13.380]Some of you guys have probably already done that.
[00:07:15.080]But we've been working with, in fact, we just had a meeting yesterday
[00:07:18.520]with middle school, high school principals and trying to get some things going
[00:07:22.300]with Mid-Planes on a youth entrepreneurship program,
[00:07:26.620]maybe doing a contest for a business plan type thing,
[00:07:30.600]trying to get them started in that.
[00:07:32.680]Mid-Planes has done that before, and we're going to try to duplicate that
[00:07:35.300]in our own fashion here, working with Mid-Planes.
[00:07:38.020]And then my associate, Rhianna Wirth, who is with Lead for America Program,
[00:07:43.560]who's on this call, she's got a venture program of reaching in
[00:07:47.240]and doing some professional career consulting, you might say,
[00:07:52.240]with some high school students and maybe even working down into middle school.
[00:07:55.740]So maybe Rhianna wants to share a little bit about what she's got planned for that.
[00:08:00.340]Rhianna?
[00:08:03.280]Yeah, so basically I'm hoping to get involved.
[00:08:08.140]Originally, I had the plan that I was going to work with all high school students,
[00:08:11.780]but I think we're leaning more towards the freshmen coming in
[00:08:16.800]and basically helping them with mentoring them with business
[00:08:22.180]relationships and getting their resumes good to go
[00:08:27.000]and kind of just helping them along with cover letters in career professionalism
[00:08:31.580]so that when the next part of their life comes past high school, they'll be prepared.
[00:08:36.660]Excellent. Good. Sounds exciting.
[00:08:41.340]Anybody else?
[00:08:43.040]Okay. Well, that's exciting work, and I'm so encouraged
[00:08:52.120]that you're taking the initiative, and some of the things I talk about
[00:08:55.980]will maybe help support some of the things you're doing,
[00:08:58.420]maybe even share some new ideas that would enhance what you're doing as well here.
[00:09:02.560]So let's move on here.
[00:09:04.900]So obviously, the big challenge we have right now is that we have a labor shortage.
[00:09:09.620]We've got employers in our rural communities that are struggling to grow
[00:09:12.760]or even sustain what they're doing now, and, of course, the threat for us
[00:09:16.220]in rural economic development is that we could lose those viable employers
[00:09:20.180]if they can't find workforce.
[00:09:22.060]Simultaneously, when you go into a high school and you talk to students
[00:09:25.460]about their community, one of the complaints they have is there's no jobs
[00:09:29.180]in this community, and so it couldn't be any clearer that we have a disconnect
[00:09:32.700]between students and employers that we need to fill the gap on.
[00:09:36.900]Some of you shared some things you're doing currently to address that,
[00:09:40.300]so that's a very important thing.
[00:09:42.300]The other thing, of course, is all these opportunities now with e-commerce
[00:09:46.820]and remote work and those kinds of things that, you know, when I grew up,
[00:09:50.480]those things weren't possible.
[00:09:52.000]But now it's a whole different world.
[00:09:53.380]You're very familiar with that.
[00:09:54.500]And one way that we see a lot of young adults finding their way back
[00:09:58.080]to rural communities is bringing their job with them currently.
[00:10:00.460]So they're finding a way to maybe went away and got an education
[00:10:04.320]or employed by an employer in a big city somewhere,
[00:10:07.440]but now they want to raise their kids in a small town and be close to grandma
[00:10:11.020]and grandpa and have their children in a safe small school district.
[00:10:14.920]That's becoming a growing interest in safety, of course.
[00:10:17.740]And so, you know, not just the employers, but also how do we create these
[00:10:21.940]other opportunities with co-working space and incubators and things like that.
[00:10:26.840]Here's another thing that almost nobody's talking about,
[00:10:31.040]which I think is going to be bigger than the internet, quite frankly.
[00:10:33.520]So most of you have probably seen a 3D printer, right?
[00:10:36.440]And so, you know, if you've seen the basic ones,
[00:10:38.680]it takes about three hours to make something that kind of looks like a pencil holder.
[00:10:41.800]And you say, well, that's kind of an interesting toy,
[00:10:43.560]but what application could that ever have?
[00:10:46.220]But very quickly, we've got these advanced technologies coming on, MIT,
[00:10:51.880]graduates have created one where you shoot laser beams into a container of carbon fiber
[00:10:58.120]and it fuses the resin immediately and creates a finished product in seconds.
[00:11:02.320]And so this whole new world around remote manufacturing,
[00:11:06.120]which of course creates a lot of wealth.
[00:11:08.200]And so you don't need a million dollar factory.
[00:11:10.960]You can have a 3D printer, maybe even the school,
[00:11:14.680]and have a co-working space that the community could use.
[00:11:17.540]Actually, I'm sorry, a maker space that the community could use along with
[00:11:21.820]school students to kind of learn some of these new opportunities.
[00:11:24.780]And it even goes beyond that because just like laser printers,
[00:11:28.560]when I was the age of some of you on here, a laser printer was $10,000.
[00:11:32.860]And now you can buy one for $300, right?
[00:11:35.660]Same thing is going to happen with this technology.
[00:11:37.800]So someday people will have these in their homes.
[00:11:40.100]And so now as a young person, you come up with this really great idea
[00:11:43.920]for a carbon fiber bicycle design, and you don't have to even manufacture it.
[00:11:47.840]You just sell your design online as they print it in their living room, right?
[00:11:51.800]So, you know, we've been doing information technology for a while.
[00:11:55.780]That's really been a great thing for us.
[00:11:58.800]But I think there's going to be a whole new vast set of other opportunities
[00:12:01.640]that we need to expose young people to, as well as our industry people,
[00:12:05.280]to understand this is coming online pretty quickly.
[00:12:07.340]And if you're in the old mode of manufacturing,
[00:12:10.060]you might want to take a look at some of the things that are happening.
[00:12:12.620]And again, that's where students can also help existing businesses transition
[00:12:16.620]to some of these new technologies because, you know,
[00:12:18.900]they kind of like playing with the stuff and are pretty good at it.
[00:12:21.780]So lots of opportunities around that.
[00:12:23.840]So again, I already talked about this, but, you know,
[00:12:26.780]thinking about maybe taking that ag shop and repurposing it into a maker space
[00:12:32.640]kind of space, or maybe you've got a place,
[00:12:34.740]a vacant building downtown that this can be done in, but not just students,
[00:12:38.760]but actually the community coming together around creating some new opportunities.
[00:12:43.040]So the other thing I want to just talk about,
[00:12:45.640]and some of you have seen this before,
[00:12:47.060]but if you're not aware of just how many young people actually want
[00:12:51.760]to stay or come back to our rural communities, it's pretty shocking.
[00:12:54.940]You know, we're just doing the work up there in the Northwest region
[00:12:58.420]that Deb Cotter, you talked about.
[00:13:00.260]And, you know, in some of those communities like Hayes Springs,
[00:13:04.120]57% of the students want to stay or come back to the Hayes Springs area
[00:13:07.680]if they could.
[00:13:08.320]But most of them are telling us right now they're not being engaged
[00:13:14.100]by adults in our rural communities around those opportunities.
[00:13:16.400]Some of you are very engaged.
[00:13:18.100]But in a lot of places, we're still not making those connections
[00:13:21.740]with the community around specific job opportunities
[00:13:25.140]that fit with their career interests or learning entrepreneurship skills
[00:13:29.860]that they could use to create a business
[00:13:31.400]and also getting them involved in their community.
[00:13:34.200]Some of the projects you were talking about earlier
[00:13:36.480]are really valuable to that too.
[00:13:37.880]So I won't go through this in detail,
[00:13:39.860]but there's just these really great opportunities
[00:13:42.000]to engage young people.
[00:13:43.880]But one thing I want to point out is that second bar chart,
[00:13:46.360]which talks about planning to attend college or trade school.
[00:13:48.940]You know, we have a really high education attainment
[00:13:51.720]I mean, this is over 40,000 young people
[00:13:53.640]from across the country
[00:13:54.620]and look how Nebraska beats them all
[00:13:56.220]in planning to go to some form
[00:14:00.600]of post-secondary education, right?
[00:14:02.220]So if the conversation in the community
[00:14:05.020]is around retaining young people,
[00:14:06.820]we want to keep you guys here.
[00:14:08.100]You've just lost about 80% of the students
[00:14:10.400]in that conversation
[00:14:11.140]because that's not their vision.
[00:14:12.360]Their vision is I want to graduate from here,
[00:14:14.180]get good grades, go off to, you know,
[00:14:16.200]maybe a good college, see the world,
[00:14:17.840]and then maybe when it makes sense,
[00:14:19.280]think about coming back here.
[00:14:20.520]So I would,
[00:14:21.700]I encourage you to really talk to young people
[00:14:23.420]about what I call youth attraction.
[00:14:25.760]That is how do we create attractive opportunities
[00:14:28.020]for you to stay or come back?
[00:14:29.500]But this should be a good choice,
[00:14:30.800]not a subtle kind of choice.
[00:14:32.560]Like, well, I guess I can't do anything else.
[00:14:34.080]No, we want the young people
[00:14:35.460]to be everything they can be.
[00:14:36.560]So by attracting them,
[00:14:38.040]we focus on that, okay?
[00:14:39.600]Look at that one about picture living
[00:14:42.060]in the area in the future.
[00:14:43.120]That a little over half of our young people
[00:14:45.840]across Nebraska say
[00:14:47.500]they would picture living back in their hometown
[00:14:49.200]if there was a good opportunity.
[00:14:50.660]Try this.
[00:14:51.680]Sometimes if you're working with a group of students,
[00:14:53.420]ask them this question.
[00:14:54.660]How many of you plan to stare come back here in the future?
[00:14:57.360]And I'll bet you'll get maybe two or three hands
[00:15:00.600]to maybe kind of go up like this, right?
[00:15:02.700]Then say, well, let me ask it a different way.
[00:15:05.360]If there was a good career or business
[00:15:08.100]or ag opportunity for you here,
[00:15:09.760]how many of you would like to stare come back?
[00:15:11.860]I'll bet you'll see half those hands go up in that room.
[00:15:15.340]It's that perceived lack of job or business
[00:15:18.960]or ag opportunity that's causing young people
[00:15:21.660]to think they can't come back or stay.
[00:15:23.820]And so that's really the gap that we need to fill.
[00:15:26.420]And again, some of you are doing some good work
[00:15:28.020]around that right now, okay?
[00:15:29.580]And the last thing I'll just point out here
[00:15:32.620]is that last one about how does an adult
[00:15:35.200]ask you to become involved?
[00:15:36.400]And you can see Nebraska's behind the rest of the country
[00:15:38.600]there a little bit,
[00:15:39.380]but still over half our kids would picture living here.
[00:15:42.500]So just imagine if we actually engage that other 75%
[00:15:45.300]that haven't been asked how much we could actually
[00:15:49.020]accomplish that vision with those young people
[00:15:51.640]as opposed to just being a dream for them.
[00:15:53.380]So again, some of you have seen this before,
[00:15:57.080]but this is the construct I've used now for 30 years
[00:15:59.520]because when I was on the tractor, quite frankly,
[00:16:01.760]when people were asking me from around the country,
[00:16:03.140]how do we get young people to come back to our community
[00:16:05.000]after I was doing that business incubator
[00:16:06.500]with the high school?
[00:16:07.160]I started thinking about what does it take
[00:16:09.700]for a young person to stay or come back to a rural community?
[00:16:12.480]And so some of this is based upon experience,
[00:16:14.860]but a lot of it's been based on research
[00:16:16.560]and work now around the country.
[00:16:17.860]But really these three things have to be in place
[00:16:20.560]to really have traction,
[00:16:21.620]you can't just talk about job opportunities
[00:16:24.340]when the message they're getting from the community
[00:16:26.840]is you have to leave here to be successful
[00:16:28.480]or there are no jobs here, so I have to leave.
[00:16:30.760]So as valuable as that is
[00:16:32.460]for preparing a young person for life,
[00:16:34.120]it doesn't connect back to even their goal
[00:16:37.180]of staying here and coming back,
[00:16:38.400]but certainly our goal in community economic development
[00:16:40.520]of helping more young people find that pathway.
[00:16:42.680]So we wanna connect that entrepreneurial career education
[00:16:45.940]with young people being involved in their community,
[00:16:48.240]just civic leadership and community service projects
[00:16:50.760]where they have a chance
[00:16:51.600]to put their fingerprints on the future of that community.
[00:16:54.660]And here's the great news for all of us.
[00:16:56.820]You don't have to solve all the problems
[00:16:58.780]to attract young people.
[00:17:00.500]You need to help them become part of the solution.
[00:17:03.080]So for example, if you have a real small town
[00:17:05.920]that's in danger of losing their school,
[00:17:07.900]that's a real deal.
[00:17:09.580]The kids know that.
[00:17:10.500]You can't sugarcoat that.
[00:17:12.720]But the message is,
[00:17:14.220]but if you and your friends came back here,
[00:17:15.760]you can be part of saving our school, right?
[00:17:18.020]So you got a legacy kind of opportunity there.
[00:17:21.580]And the reason this is just as important
[00:17:23.240]as the career opportunities
[00:17:24.300]and can't be done alone
[00:17:26.060]is if you don't do the career discovery,
[00:17:29.680]but you only engage young people in civic leadership,
[00:17:32.520]as much as they create ownership in their community,
[00:17:36.520]if they don't see any job or business
[00:17:39.080]or ag opportunities,
[00:17:40.060]their perception is,
[00:17:41.640]well, as much as I love this community,
[00:17:42.920]I can't stay here.
[00:17:44.200]I have to leave.
[00:17:44.980]So that's where I started playing with this
[00:17:47.220]now 30 some years ago.
[00:17:48.360]But what if we brought those two together
[00:17:50.060]in a coordinated way
[00:17:51.560]and then the third element
[00:17:54.060]that ties that all together
[00:17:55.760]is the community supporting youth
[00:17:57.180]and their enterprises.
[00:17:57.960]So that could be a business.
[00:17:59.360]It could also be a community project
[00:18:01.180]that they're doing
[00:18:01.880]and investing in young people.
[00:18:03.660]So if I was working in your community,
[00:18:05.120]one of the first things we do
[00:18:06.280]is do a map of your community around
[00:18:08.660]what are you currently doing
[00:18:09.860]in these three facets?
[00:18:11.020]How are you involving young people
[00:18:12.440]in entrepreneurship, education,
[00:18:13.600]career development?
[00:18:14.320]How are you engaging young people
[00:18:16.100]in civic leadership and volunteering?
[00:18:18.040]How is the community mentoring young people?
[00:18:21.540]And investing in them.
[00:18:22.780]And by doing that map,
[00:18:25.400]then we can build a strategy
[00:18:27.120]upon what you're currently doing,
[00:18:28.920]because we're already wearing
[00:18:31.040]too many hats in our rural communities,
[00:18:32.560]and then fill the gaps where they exist.
[00:18:35.040]Okay.
[00:18:35.600]And by doing this,
[00:18:36.960]we can more effectively engage,
[00:18:38.260]equip and support
[00:18:39.060]and invite these young people
[00:18:40.060]to stay or come back to our community.
[00:18:41.420]So everything we do really
[00:18:42.580]is focused on those three things
[00:18:44.240]in a coordinated fashion,
[00:18:45.400]in a framework approach
[00:18:48.800]that each community and school district
[00:18:50.480]can customize,
[00:18:51.520]to fit their environment, okay?
[00:18:53.260]So it's not a program,
[00:18:54.100]it's a framework approach to that.
[00:18:55.600]The other thing probably
[00:18:57.180]none of you have seen is this.
[00:18:58.700]This is the work I've been doing
[00:19:00.420]in recent years here
[00:19:01.600]with schools around the country
[00:19:02.940]on building a more,
[00:19:06.400]how do I put it,
[00:19:08.960]integrated and sustained progression
[00:19:12.180]of opportunities for young people
[00:19:13.980]to learn about the careers
[00:19:15.880]that they're interested in
[00:19:17.140]and opportunities in their community
[00:19:19.200]to pursue those,
[00:19:21.500]careers and entrepreneurship both.
[00:19:24.300]So starting even at the kindergarten
[00:19:25.920]through seventh grade level
[00:19:27.040]around people coming into the classroom
[00:19:30.000]and talking about the local economy,
[00:19:31.860]like Deb Cotter,
[00:19:32.580]you're going in and talking about
[00:19:34.280]the shattering local economy.
[00:19:36.520]What is it we do here?
[00:19:37.680]Who are our businesses?
[00:19:39.160]So getting young people really
[00:19:41.020]to understand their local economy
[00:19:42.820]and what they do.
[00:19:43.520]Doing entrepreneurship projects,
[00:19:46.060]field trips, things like that.
[00:19:47.520]And then as we move up into
[00:19:49.020]the eighth or 10th grades,
[00:19:50.720]doing job shows,
[00:19:51.480]shadowing, mock interviews.
[00:19:52.760]We talked about that a minute ago.
[00:19:54.220]There's like uscience.com,
[00:19:55.820]which is kind of a nice resource.
[00:19:57.200]Doing career fairs,
[00:19:58.940]those kinds of things,
[00:19:59.740]but not career fairs.
[00:20:00.740]Like sometimes you see
[00:20:01.620]where we hand out the pencils
[00:20:02.700]and things like that
[00:20:03.460]as the kids come by,
[00:20:04.180]but engaging career fairs
[00:20:05.600]where employers actually
[00:20:06.920]bring something with them
[00:20:08.080]that they do in their workplace
[00:20:09.400]so the kids can actually interact
[00:20:11.500]and learn a little bit more
[00:20:12.920]about those kinds of things.
[00:20:14.100]I'm going to show you career cabs
[00:20:15.960]in a minute too,
[00:20:16.480]which is another great opportunity.
[00:20:17.760]And then we move into,
[00:20:19.360]you know, the more advanced
[00:20:21.460]development classes,
[00:20:22.200]doing internship opportunities,
[00:20:23.820]things like that,
[00:20:24.620]and narrowing and narrowing
[00:20:25.880]on what those young people,
[00:20:27.660]Josh, as you were talking about earlier
[00:20:29.480]with the Department of Labor,
[00:20:30.560]helping those young people
[00:20:31.960]really get a sense of
[00:20:33.000]what is the career field
[00:20:33.920]I want to pursue
[00:20:34.600]and who are the employers
[00:20:36.200]that I could pursue
[00:20:37.680]those opportunities with.
[00:20:38.860]And so that starts really
[00:20:40.440]with an internship,
[00:20:41.100]but then moving into
[00:20:42.420]paid apprenticeships
[00:20:43.460]as they get into upper grades,
[00:20:45.240]high school, post-secondary,
[00:20:46.660]and the appropriate
[00:20:48.760]post-secondary education programs,
[00:20:50.560]things like that,
[00:20:51.440]and then ultimately
[00:20:52.180]these young people
[00:20:53.260]finding employment opportunities
[00:20:54.700]that really fit
[00:20:55.500]with what their interests are.
[00:20:57.380]So I have some examples
[00:20:59.640]of some of the things
[00:21:00.260]on the right side
[00:21:01.120]and then some student organizations
[00:21:02.860]that are available
[00:21:04.820]in various school districts.
[00:21:06.420]Not every school has all these,
[00:21:07.780]but again, if we can build on,
[00:21:09.500]for example,
[00:21:09.940]a really strong FFA program,
[00:21:11.520]you know, and bring these kinds
[00:21:14.100]of opportunities into that
[00:21:16.980]post-secondary or extracurricular
[00:21:19.800]activities with those students,
[00:21:21.420]we've got an advisor in place
[00:21:22.840]at the school that can help
[00:21:23.700]support that.
[00:21:24.340]Again, we want to build these
[00:21:25.780]things in as much as possible
[00:21:27.740]to what we're already doing.
[00:21:28.680]Okay.
[00:21:29.480]So I might stop there and just
[00:21:31.540]ask any thoughts or questions
[00:21:33.160]on this or the framework that
[00:21:35.380]I discovered or discussed.
[00:21:37.260]So Craig, are you prepared or
[00:21:45.020]have you gotten to the point in
[00:21:47.100]your discussions with the
[00:21:48.680]education commissioner figuring
[00:21:51.400]out a way to get this into every
[00:21:53.180]single school district in terms
[00:21:54.800]of school board level or
[00:21:57.260]administrative level?
[00:21:58.860]We've had some of those
[00:22:00.900]conversations, especially around
[00:22:02.120]revision, which has been pretty
[00:22:04.300]well accepted in schools and
[00:22:07.240]FFA, but we're not quite there
[00:22:08.700]in terms of having that all put
[00:22:10.040]together yet.
[00:22:10.600]But again, I think it's building
[00:22:12.780]on some of the current
[00:22:13.780]programming we have in our
[00:22:15.540]schools and bringing the
[00:22:17.420]community alongside and these
[00:22:19.700]employers with economic development
[00:22:21.380]to enhance the educational
[00:22:23.260]experience is really what we're
[00:22:25.260]focused on here.
[00:22:25.860]Does anyone know what revision is,
[00:22:26.600]Craig, do you think?
[00:22:27.380]Does anybody know what revision is?
[00:22:30.520]I will tell you that our school
[00:22:34.160]counselor people thought that was
[00:22:38.520]a little bit heavy on the meeting
[00:22:40.720]and discussing and planning side
[00:22:42.960]and not so successful on any sort
[00:22:46.400]of implementation.
[00:22:46.980]So go ahead and describe it if you
[00:22:49.220]would, please.
[00:22:49.700]Yeah, for sure.
[00:22:50.440]Well, that's a great question.
[00:22:51.360]It's a career and technical
[00:22:51.820]education CTE program that's
[00:22:54.500]designed to connect students with
[00:22:56.680]real opportunities, you know, in
[00:22:58.880]the workplace.
[00:22:59.300]And it's been deployed in
[00:23:01.520]different ways in different
[00:23:02.540]communities, Deb.
[00:23:03.380]And so I think there are several
[00:23:04.840]places that have really taken
[00:23:06.020]this and done some good things
[00:23:07.640]with it.
[00:23:07.920]I think in other places maybe
[00:23:09.120]they've seen that they're already
[00:23:11.200]doing some things that are
[00:23:12.260]similar and they don't need to
[00:23:14.000]add this to the mix.
[00:23:15.180]So it's been kind of a mixed
[00:23:17.580]response in that regard.
[00:23:18.760]But I do like in terms of it not
[00:23:20.700]being a kind of a
[00:23:21.340]one-size-fits-all approach.
[00:23:22.840]But I will take that message
[00:23:24.620]back.
[00:23:24.940]So I appreciate you sharing that,
[00:23:26.040]Deb.
[00:23:26.240]But that's just one of many.
[00:23:28.300]You know, you've got the health
[00:23:29.480]care organizations.
[00:23:30.660]You've got SkillsUSA.
[00:23:32.300]Obviously, we're really strong
[00:23:33.920]in Nebraska on FFA.
[00:23:35.360]4-H should be on here, by the
[00:23:36.600]way.
[00:23:36.720]I don't know why it got dropped
[00:23:37.820]off there.
[00:23:38.220]But 4-H should certainly be on
[00:23:39.500]that list there.
[00:23:40.240]It's not school-based, of
[00:23:41.940]course, but it is kind of the
[00:23:43.420]starting place for a lot of, you
[00:23:44.800]know, nine-year-olds.
[00:23:45.980]And then they tend to shift, you
[00:23:47.740]know, to FFA or FBLA or
[00:23:49.700]something when they get into
[00:23:50.500]high school.
[00:23:51.320]Sometimes.
[00:23:51.700]So anyway, the point of it is,
[00:23:55.440]Deb, is really here's some
[00:23:56.780]organizations that may be in
[00:23:58.060]place with students.
[00:23:59.760]Here's some activities you could
[00:24:01.420]consider.
[00:24:01.900]And then building this pyramid
[00:24:04.500]of engagement that helps a
[00:24:06.180]student to really hone and
[00:24:08.400]narrow in on what they want to
[00:24:09.500]do.
[00:24:09.780]You know, I'm going to talk
[00:24:11.600]about career cabs in a second
[00:24:12.780]here, but anything that relates
[00:24:15.080]to these students getting out
[00:24:16.600]into the workplace is really
[00:24:17.860]valuable because a lot of
[00:24:19.860]students tell me where they
[00:24:21.300]don't have those
[00:24:21.840]opportunities.
[00:24:22.360]They say, you know, I tested
[00:24:23.540]really well in STEM or in the
[00:24:26.120]health sciences or some kind of
[00:24:28.140]vocational area, and so I've
[00:24:30.160]been, I have an academic plan
[00:24:31.800]that relates to that, which is
[00:24:33.220]great, but I have no idea what
[00:24:35.060]they do in the workplace.
[00:24:35.920]I've never been in the
[00:24:36.740]workplace.
[00:24:37.000]I don't even know if I want to
[00:24:38.220]pursue this job, okay?
[00:24:39.660]So these opportunities to bring
[00:24:43.620]the employers together with
[00:24:44.880]students as young age as
[00:24:47.080]possible is really valuable in
[00:24:49.240]increasing the confidence of
[00:24:50.860]students.
[00:24:51.280]Yes, indeed, I'm pursuing
[00:24:52.640]something that I think I want to
[00:24:53.760]do with my future.
[00:24:54.480]It tends to improve grade
[00:24:55.820]performance.
[00:24:57.140]And I've also had college
[00:24:59.900]students tell me that, like, an
[00:25:01.680]internship experience was really
[00:25:03.420]valuable when they're doing labs
[00:25:04.920]like in health care.
[00:25:05.960]They can understand how that lab
[00:25:07.840]work in college relates to the
[00:25:09.140]workplace.
[00:25:09.480]So it's really valuable for a lot
[00:25:11.960]of reasons to create an
[00:25:13.600]integrated approach around career
[00:25:15.720]development.
[00:25:16.200]Okay.
[00:25:17.380]Real briefly, I'll just cover
[00:25:19.460]this quickly.
[00:25:20.020]This is kind of the
[00:25:21.060]strategy that we use with
[00:25:22.240]communities if we're going to
[00:25:23.120]build out a program like this.
[00:25:24.280]The first thing is we want to do
[00:25:25.480]you saw that survey results that
[00:25:28.120]we want to first do an
[00:25:29.320]assessment of what young people
[00:25:31.620]are thinking about their future.
[00:25:32.960]You know, what is it they want to
[00:25:34.360]pursue around a career
[00:25:35.960]entrepreneurial ag opportunity?
[00:25:37.760]What are their perceptions about
[00:25:39.560]their community?
[00:25:40.100]What's causing them to want to
[00:25:41.240]stay or come back?
[00:25:41.840]What's causing them to think
[00:25:42.620]that's not possible for them?
[00:25:43.920]And then what kind of resources
[00:25:45.920]using that resource map I just
[00:25:47.460]described with those three circles
[00:25:48.820]to begin to understand what resource
[00:25:50.840]we have to work with.
[00:25:51.700]And then from that, step two is
[00:25:53.300]developing a implementation plan
[00:25:55.700]for youth engagement.
[00:25:56.580]And then step three is integrating
[00:25:58.100]that with your community's
[00:25:59.100]economic development program
[00:26:00.340]and an alumni newcomer
[00:26:03.460]recruitment strategy.
[00:26:04.440]Because if all you do is engage
[00:26:06.100]these kids in high school
[00:26:07.140]and then they go across the stage
[00:26:09.080]and they never hear from us again,
[00:26:11.520]your likelihood of impact
[00:26:14.860]is going to be much diminished.
[00:26:15.900]But if you've got a strategy
[00:26:17.080]to stay engaged, like when they're
[00:26:18.480]home for the holidays, having
[00:26:20.620]an open house at your economic
[00:26:21.980]development office, perhaps.
[00:26:23.300]I know in O'Neill, they used to do
[00:26:25.920]that at the train depot.
[00:26:27.180]Nicole did that several times.
[00:26:28.660]And that's really powerful.
[00:26:30.120]And then developing ways to measure
[00:26:32.520]and evaluate the impact that you're
[00:26:34.040]having.
[00:26:34.360]And at the top there, you know,
[00:26:36.160]you engage a working group.
[00:26:37.520]You may already have a group that
[00:26:39.060]you want to build this around, like
[00:26:40.320]Deb, your board working with the
[00:26:42.040]school, perhaps.
[00:26:42.860]But in some communities, we start
[00:26:45.160]kind of from scratch and build
[00:26:47.680]a working group to support this
[00:26:49.380]work. So that's
[00:26:50.400]really kind of what the work looks
[00:26:51.920]like in that context.
[00:26:52.960]I want to get into this a little
[00:26:54.860]bit.
[00:26:55.120]One thing that we tend to do in our
[00:26:58.280]rural communities is focus on all
[00:27:00.140]of our problems and the challenges
[00:27:01.760]that we're facing.
[00:27:02.400]And what I think is really
[00:27:04.020]important is that we talk to our
[00:27:05.340]young people about our communities
[00:27:06.420]as a place of assets.
[00:27:07.480]And so this is something that
[00:27:08.940]Ogallala Commons, which I don't
[00:27:10.460]know if you heard about them, but
[00:27:11.320]they cover the entire
[00:27:12.820]Ogallala Aquifer region
[00:27:15.280]based out of Texas.
[00:27:16.920]But they did some research around
[00:27:19.000]this concept.
[00:27:20.180]And this isn't new.
[00:27:21.220]We have the Commonwealth of
[00:27:22.440]Virginia, right?
[00:27:23.340]So, you know, this idea of
[00:27:25.280]commonwealths of states, but
[00:27:27.440]organized around resources that
[00:27:29.760]are accessible to anyone in that
[00:27:31.800]community.
[00:27:32.220]So, for example, the ability to
[00:27:34.240]get an education, access to
[00:27:36.240]health services, leisure,
[00:27:37.480]recreation, the history of our
[00:27:39.340]community and region, having a
[00:27:41.340]sense of place and quality of
[00:27:42.880]life, the water cycle, arts and
[00:27:44.980]culture, wildlife and the
[00:27:46.300]natural world, soil and mineral
[00:27:47.680]cycles, food shed, renewable
[00:27:49.700]energy.
[00:27:49.960]The faith community.
[00:27:51.520]So if you think about your
[00:27:53.480]community, you have all these at
[00:27:56.340]some level of capacity.
[00:27:58.180]Some are way diminished, like my
[00:28:00.180]hometown doesn't have a school
[00:28:01.160]anymore, right?
[00:28:02.180]But it has a very strong faith
[00:28:04.540]community, right?
[00:28:05.720]Maybe some of you are involved
[00:28:07.020]in the energy area, right?
[00:28:08.660]And so helping young people learn
[00:28:11.400]about their community
[00:28:12.960]historically being built upon
[00:28:15.440]assets, that's the only way a
[00:28:17.980]community could ever be
[00:28:18.780]successful is when it's
[00:28:19.740]built on authentic assets.
[00:28:21.240]And then working with those
[00:28:23.000]young people to create their
[00:28:24.000]own opportunities using several
[00:28:26.400]of these assets that they care
[00:28:27.620]most about.
[00:28:28.240]So maybe they're really excited
[00:28:29.560]about arts and culture.
[00:28:31.040]I work with some Native American
[00:28:34.200]and Hispanic communities that
[00:28:35.740]that's a big part and they want
[00:28:37.500]to really build on that, okay?
[00:28:39.600]So what this looks like is
[00:28:43.240]taking the young people actually
[00:28:44.920]on a tour of their community
[00:28:46.140]around these assets and showing
[00:28:47.820]them the places that relate to
[00:28:49.520]the community.
[00:28:50.120]Several of those assets, you may
[00:28:51.520]not want to show all 12, but
[00:28:52.800]which ones are really most
[00:28:53.800]important to your community?
[00:28:54.800]In this case, this is Darrell
[00:28:56.800]Birkenfeld of Overall Commons
[00:28:57.800]showing off the county
[00:28:58.800]courthouse, which was a pretty
[00:28:59.800]historic place in Springfield,
[00:29:01.800]Colorado, southeast corner of
[00:29:02.800]the state.
[00:29:03.800]And the kids are taking notes
[00:29:05.800]there, and then we went back and
[00:29:06.800]they, you know, design a project
[00:29:08.820]In this case, the kids wanted to do a community garden, okay, based upon the food shed, okay?
[00:29:14.350]So that was their project, okay?
[00:29:16.290]So that's just one example of how we can talk to students about assets and make it tangible
[00:29:20.890]by doing a project with them around something that they really care about.
[00:29:24.090]The other thing is we're really doing career-focused applied learning.
[00:29:27.730]I was actually just talking to a school this morning that's going to try to convert the
[00:29:31.070]entire K-12 school system into applied learning with community engagement as they're designed
[00:29:37.010]for your school going forward.
[00:29:38.250]This is an example of a school where the kids are recording music, and they actually have
[00:29:43.130]the industry standard recording equipment in their school to actually create digital
[00:29:49.530]music that they could go on into the music industry and use that technology that they've
[00:29:54.470]learned.
[00:29:54.750]Down in the left-hand corner, this is actually a fifth-grade class building suspension bridges,
[00:30:01.970]and the students evaluate each other's projects and give each other a score.
[00:30:07.690]And for their projects, not just the teacher doing that.
[00:30:10.490]And then down at the bottom, that's a maker space that I talked about earlier.
[00:30:13.770]Oh, actually, this class was making tennis shoes.
[00:30:16.110]They decided to 3D print tennis shoes as a project.
[00:30:19.170]The other thing is just bringing people from the community in to talk to them about, you
[00:30:23.890]know, career opportunities available in the community and get them engaged that way.
[00:30:28.570]Doing things with advanced technologies, like I talked about, the kids really like to get
[00:30:32.730]into the augmented reality.
[00:30:33.910]The Oculus 2 glasses are coming out now for $300.
[00:30:38.090]And I'm talking to some folks that are interested in maybe creating an entrepreneurship program
[00:30:41.790]around virtual reality in schools.
[00:30:44.970]So that could be pretty exciting.
[00:30:46.410]And then career caps, which I hit on earlier, but I want to kind of dig into this.
[00:30:51.550]So Josh, when you're working with the Department of Labor, with these employers and these students,
[00:30:56.290]I didn't ask you this question, and this is really for all of you, but it's really important
[00:31:01.550]to build upon the career pathways that students are pursuing and then connect them with employers.
[00:31:07.570]And employers really love that because the students they get to talk to are those students
[00:31:14.330]who are really interested in that career pathway as their career choice. And the students love it
[00:31:19.350]because I said earlier, they get a chance to actually see the work environment that they
[00:31:22.450]would be going into. And this tends to lead to internship opportunities, summer jobs,
[00:31:26.990]all kinds of really great things. So I don't know, Josh, if you want to talk about maybe some things
[00:31:31.970]you're doing related to this or want to do as Department of Labor or anybody else that is doing
[00:31:37.510]some of this kind of work right now. Yeah, and the biggest thing with us is just informing the
[00:31:43.470]industries of some of the initiatives surrounding youth that we are conducting throughout our
[00:31:48.650]regions on there. Like I said, the biggest thing is getting the employers on board with it. So
[00:31:53.690]really educating them on the different programs that we have on the WIOA youth side of it and
[00:31:58.430]how we can assist with that transition to either high school or post-secondary school
[00:32:03.430]and either do work experiences or on-the-job training
[00:32:07.450]where we actually pay the wages on behalf of the reimbursed employer for them to bring them in
[00:32:12.550]to kind of get them that real-world experience and just identifying
[00:32:17.650]what the skills, experience, credentials they are looking for so that they are driving
[00:32:22.570]our industry and sector initiatives for our youth.
[00:32:25.950]Excellent. Wonderful. Yeah, so if we were actually going to do this in the western part of the state,
[00:32:32.790]you know, we may take several clusters here, but what works really well is to have
[00:32:37.390]the schools drive their school buses into some central school district that's going to host this,
[00:32:42.970]and then we reload the buses by career pathway. So this activity can be done in one day,
[00:32:48.730]and we use each other's school buses, and then they go out in these career cabs in those career
[00:32:53.430]pathways. So students interested in the health sciences, for example, would be on that school
[00:32:57.450]bus going to visit the local hospital, clinic, dental office, public health office, all those
[00:33:02.910]different people that work in the healthcare arena. The students interested in ag careers would
[00:33:07.330]be on that bus going to visit a farm, ranch, somebody doing something in the crop consulting
[00:33:15.290]or livestock, veterinary, those kinds of things. And so that's how we do it. Then we come back at
[00:33:21.410]the end and we do a little evaluation with them, which is what that picture on the left is there.
[00:33:25.650]So anyway, we might have some things to really build on. Josh, I got your chat there. We'll
[00:33:31.230]connect later. That might build on some things you're doing now, but maybe make this a regional
[00:33:36.410]kind of thing.
[00:33:37.270]Which would be pretty cool. Okay. Here's an example of just kids getting out into the
[00:33:46.290]workplace, getting to see it firsthand. And then I talked about internships, apprenticeships,
[00:33:51.290]moving into that higher level, getting paid as a student to learn a career field, find
[00:33:58.250]out if it's something you really want to do. Now, I'll give you a little tip here that
[00:34:00.610]I learned years ago from a rural employer. He said, you know why I like internships?
[00:34:05.010]I said, why is that? He said, because it's a great way to learn.
[00:34:07.210]He said, because we're a really small town. And if I hire a high school kid or maybe a
[00:34:11.670]kid right out of school and it doesn't work out, I'm in a position to happen to fire the
[00:34:16.670]son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter of maybe my best customer. And what I like
[00:34:21.990]about internships is I get to engage with several young people each year or over a couple
[00:34:27.250]of years. And if one's a really great fit, then talk to them about becoming an employee.
[00:34:32.190]Right. And so sometimes it's interesting, you know, because in our small towns, we,
[00:34:37.150]actually are related in many cases, right? So you have to think about that dynamic that
[00:34:41.370]internships aren't just valuable for students and employers for, you know, making those connections.
[00:34:46.530]Sometimes there's a very practical reason too, that this would really help me to engage with
[00:34:51.910]students without making that commitment until I'm ready to make that commitment. So just something
[00:34:56.070]I picked up that for you guys working in rural areas might be of interest to you. Also pick that
[00:35:00.330]up with bankers. Bankers want to be able to select who they want to bring into the internship.
[00:35:07.090]For similar reasons.
[00:35:09.350]Craig, do you find that this is an opportunity for a kid to get a taste of a program that would
[00:35:15.970]in fact take some additional training that could ultimately lead to more from the apprenticeship
[00:35:24.830]side where they actually have to put in hours with someone supervising them?
[00:35:29.490]Sure. Yeah. So an apprenticeship, there's different definitions, but that's a longer term,
[00:35:37.030]all kind of relationship with the employer, which typically is with pay. And so there's more
[00:35:41.530]responsibility. And again, if you start with an internship for nine weeks and that's a good fit,
[00:35:46.190]then maybe you move into a paid apprenticeship, which maybe is a year or two, actually.
[00:35:49.830]So there is that accountability. The other thing is what we call credential stacking.
[00:35:54.730]And if you can get into a base level employment relationship with some of these employers,
[00:36:00.150]sometimes they'll help with your post-secondary education. So like in healthcare,
[00:36:04.530]I think one of you were talking about CNA.
[00:36:06.970]You know, that's a great way to get into the health field and then work with an employer that
[00:36:12.770]can actually help you then get into a nursing program and things like that too. So kind of
[00:36:17.570]both benefits of increased responsibility, getting paid, but also more pathways to post-secondary
[00:36:24.810]opportunities, especially in the trades. I've talked to quite a few folks in the electrical,
[00:36:31.110]plumbing areas, especially who tell me, you know, if you could help me find the right young person
[00:36:36.910]I'd pay for their school. I'd give them all the tools, give them a pickup. I just can't find
[00:36:41.290]anybody. We had a guy out in the Sandhills once, I think Milo was around Mullen, as I recall.
[00:36:45.490]The only plumber in the area was 80 years old and he was covering like a hundred mile radius. And
[00:36:51.750]he said, you know, I'm getting these calls at midnight and stuff like that. You know,
[00:36:54.790]I just can't do it. If there was a young person that wanted to take this over, I'd give them
[00:36:58.130]everything because I, you know, I care about these people, but I can't continue to do it.
[00:37:02.210]So there's all these little, you know, gems out there that we just need to connect the dots,
[00:37:06.850]to create more opportunities. So I don't know, did that help address some of that, Deb?
[00:37:11.490]So here's another example of, you know, internship, but here's the other cool thing.
[00:37:21.530]So probably 20 years ago, I started to dabble in this area of business succession planning.
[00:37:28.170]Okay. And our idea back then was if we could find a young person with, you know,
[00:37:33.310]with the drive and energy and excitement to,
[00:37:36.790]take over a business,
[00:37:37.810]we could connect them with a retiring business owner who was looking to,
[00:37:42.430]you know,
[00:37:42.670]maybe retire the next couple of years and make a connection and help that
[00:37:47.310]young person get into that business.
[00:37:49.190]Well,
[00:37:50.350]the thing we didn't think about was the enormous importance of trust in that
[00:37:56.050]relationship, both directions that the young person needs to feel like, yeah,
[00:37:59.250]this is really something I want to do and make the investment to,
[00:38:03.030]to stay with it. And for the retiring business owner,
[00:38:06.230]who in many,
[00:38:06.730]many cases their entire life savings is in that business and they sunk
[00:38:10.350]everything they have into that business. And many times it's a family name too.
[00:38:13.850]There's a reputation tied to that. And I've had employers in the past,
[00:38:17.490]they, you know, Craig, my concern is if I sell this business to this kid,
[00:38:21.330]I'm going to get it back in five years because of default and it's going to be
[00:38:24.450]in worse shape maybe than, than when I sold it to him.
[00:38:27.370]And so internships and apprenticeships tied to business succession planning are
[00:38:32.990]a huge opportunity because that young person could have a chance to about
[00:38:36.670]a long-term commitment to see if this is a good fit. Same with the employer.
[00:38:40.190]If it makes sense,
[00:38:41.530]then they have a conversation about maybe a five-year buyout plan.
[00:38:44.430]And so maybe some of the salary that young person is paid in equity.
[00:38:48.110]So in five years or so,
[00:38:50.570]they go into local banker and the business owner says, you know,
[00:38:53.930]this is Susie or Johnny. They've worked for me for the past five years.
[00:38:57.110]They now own about 30% of my business.
[00:38:59.270]And I'd like to talk to you about a succession loan to help them buy out the
[00:39:04.870]rest of my business. And I'm willing to help with some,
[00:39:06.610]some gap financing if necessary,
[00:39:08.250]because I really think this young person has what it takes.
[00:39:10.390]That's a very different proposition than what we have sometimes now,
[00:39:14.690]which is the billboard goes up in the local cafe that we're going to lose our
[00:39:18.050]hardware store through an auction. Oh my gosh, we can't lose the hardware store.
[00:39:22.570]Who do we have that could start a hardware store? That never works, right?
[00:39:26.130]So if we can tie internships and apprenticeships to business succession
[00:39:29.730]planning,
[00:39:30.150]we can keep those viable businesses on our main street and and help both the
[00:39:35.730]owner and the,
[00:39:36.590]the prospective buyer both be more successful. Some of this, by the way,
[00:39:40.970]we learned in Ord when we were there a number of years ago,
[00:39:45.050]I don't know if he's still there or not, because I haven't been there for a
[00:39:47.790]while. I hope he is,
[00:39:48.910]but he actually used whole life insurance with seven elderly gentlemen who had
[00:39:55.610]started that grocery store and they took out whole life insurance policies in
[00:40:00.890]the name of that young person.
[00:40:02.050]So as they passed on their equity position in that business was paid off by the
[00:40:06.250]life insurance.
[00:40:06.570]And so that young person was able to buy that business for like one seventh of
[00:40:10.850]what it would have cost him otherwise,
[00:40:11.950]just by using a simple tool of whole life insurance for business succession
[00:40:16.250]planning.
[00:40:16.610]So there's these tools and strategies that we can apply to help keep our local
[00:40:22.570]businesses there.
[00:40:24.010]And also our next generation of young people bring new life into that business,
[00:40:27.610]right?
[00:40:27.950]Maybe they get them on the internet and increase the market area for that local
[00:40:33.450]business, things like that.
[00:40:34.990]So, but it's all,
[00:40:36.550]it's all based on trust.
[00:40:37.410]We talked a little bit about entrepreneurship and of course,
[00:40:42.030]some of you are going to do some work with Jenny here coming up on this kind
[00:40:45.330]of thing. But again,
[00:40:46.190]very important to at a middle school age level start to expose young people to
[00:40:50.770]think entrepreneurially, having an entrepreneurial mindset,
[00:40:53.770]no matter what they do in life, bring their creativity to the workplace.
[00:40:56.550]But the way we like to do these is actually even in a three or four day camp,
[00:41:01.410]put them in a position to actually start a business.
[00:41:04.050]And here down the bottom left corner, you're seeing,
[00:41:06.530]a showcase event where it's just kind of like a mini shark tank,
[00:41:09.210]where adults come to their booths and the students have to pitch their business idea.
[00:41:13.290]And we even do regional competitions where those students at the local level
[00:41:17.950]then come into like a community college setting
[00:41:19.950]and compete with each other across the region,
[00:41:23.370]from middle school through high school,
[00:41:24.970]even some two-year college students sometimes get involved in these.
[00:41:28.590]And then we bring the financial community in to contribute some money.
[00:41:32.410]And actually these kids, like in a shark tank environment,
[00:41:36.510]get up in front of those bankers and pitch their business idea.
[00:41:38.810]The other benefit we've had is that bankers tell us that they love doing this
[00:41:44.050]because they meet the next generation of clients.
[00:41:46.650]They say, these kids probably wouldn't walk through the door of my bank,
[00:41:49.750]at least not to talk to me about this.
[00:41:51.310]They may have a savings account or something.
[00:41:52.950]But I get to go to the students, interact with them.
[00:41:56.890]We typically do the booth first,
[00:41:59.270]and then those get selected then to do the shark tank activity later.
[00:42:02.630]And give out $500.
[00:42:06.490]And grants to help those kids buy equipment, get started in business.
[00:42:10.810]A couple of years ago,
[00:42:11.890]we had two high school juniors who had started a mechanics shop,
[00:42:16.490]big borrowing and stealing dads and uncles tools and stuff.
[00:42:20.190]And they wanted to win the $500 prize so they could buy their own tools.
[00:42:23.190]The banker, because they won the competition.
[00:42:26.070]And the banker for the team of bankers in the region,
[00:42:29.070]they also have to work together as competing bankers.
[00:42:32.810]As the young people came up to the podium
[00:42:36.470]to get their $500 check, he looked at him.
[00:42:38.770]He said, what you guys are doing
[00:42:40.610]is exactly what we need here in this valley.
[00:42:42.510]If you need more money, you know where to find me, right?
[00:42:44.430]Those kids followed up on that
[00:42:46.270]and they got a $30,000 loan.
[00:42:47.890]They're senior in high school
[00:42:48.970]to build out that mechanics business.
[00:42:51.570]So it's just unbelievable.
[00:42:54.410]Some of the connections that get made
[00:42:55.790]through some of these kinds of activities
[00:42:57.090]that you can't even anticipate.
[00:42:58.270]You just have to create the space for it to happen.
[00:43:00.490]That's the strategy.
[00:43:02.870]Here's again, another group of students
[00:43:05.090]that were doing entrepreneurs
[00:43:06.450]at the entrepreneurship camp,
[00:43:07.110]drones, 3D printing, things like that.
[00:43:10.810]This one's kind of funny.
[00:43:13.950]I didn't think about that
[00:43:15.410]until I just saw this picture.
[00:43:16.130]The young boy up there in the purple
[00:43:17.510]is looking back towards his sign.
[00:43:18.870]His great-grandfather actually
[00:43:20.750]was in the Hershey candy business,
[00:43:22.430]the Hershey company, right?
[00:43:24.630]And he knew that story.
[00:43:26.390]And so he ended up doing cookies instead of that.
[00:43:29.090]But these two young ladies and him
[00:43:30.930]were kind of in competition with each other.
[00:43:32.630]And of course he had the Hershey story,
[00:43:34.670]but that was kind of fun.
[00:43:36.990]So anyway, last thing I just want to talk about
[00:43:39.150]a little bit is opportunities for attracting young people.
[00:43:41.270]And just got one slide here free on that.
[00:43:43.830]But this was developed in Brookfield, Missouri.
[00:43:46.310]Some of you know about the mailbox campaign.
[00:43:49.450]Some of our communities in Nebraska
[00:43:50.850]have used this over the years as well.
[00:43:53.090]But it really kind of started talking to Becky Cleveland
[00:43:56.350]about this idea of giving luggage,
[00:43:58.230]the metaphor luggage for graduation,
[00:44:00.550]this message you have to leave here.
[00:44:02.070]She goes, what if we gave the students a mailbox
[00:44:04.190]with their name on the side of it for
[00:44:06.410]high school graduation? So you can see on the left
[00:44:08.450]there, the students are actually getting the mailboxes
[00:44:10.610]handed out to them at graduation.
[00:44:12.150]Now they actually have taken
[00:44:14.370]the next level and they actually do a whole video
[00:44:16.470]the night before graduation
[00:44:18.250]of the young people's life
[00:44:20.410]in their community, growing up with their
[00:44:22.450]pictures and everything. And then they have
[00:44:24.470]a keynote speaker talk to them about
[00:44:26.330]coming back to Brookfield. Two years
[00:44:28.610]ago, it was a pharmacist
[00:44:30.050]who was one of the first students
[00:44:32.550]to receive a mailbox who had recently
[00:44:34.570]come back and opened a pharmacy in her home
[00:44:36.390]town. She talked to the high school graduates
[00:44:38.470]about the importance of getting a mailbox from your
[00:44:40.470]hometown. And in that
[00:44:42.450]mailbox is a letter signed by all
[00:44:44.390]the community leaders that says
[00:44:46.290]basically, we've been honored to have you
[00:44:48.430]here for the past 18 years. We wish you
[00:44:50.330]the very best. We want you to know you're always welcome
[00:44:52.450]home in Brookfield. Just a
[00:44:54.350]very simple message as they're
[00:44:56.410]graduating after all the other work that's
[00:44:58.330]been done with the student as they go across that
[00:45:00.330]stage to think about your community
[00:45:02.210]as a place that first of all invested in you
[00:45:04.490]so you have these opportunities
[00:45:06.370]but also would love to have
[00:45:08.430]you come back or stay
[00:45:10.230]in the community in your future if you want to do that.
[00:45:12.210]So again, just connecting the dots.
[00:45:14.610]It's not just the work we do with elementary
[00:45:16.390]through high school kids. We've got to stay with
[00:45:18.410]them and sustain that engagement
[00:45:20.190]as we go on. So I'm going
[00:45:22.410]to stop there and would love to
[00:45:24.050]hear from you and some of the thoughts that you
[00:45:26.390]have based on what I talked about or some of the things
[00:45:28.430]that you're currently doing or would like
[00:45:30.350]to do.
[00:45:31.630]Anybody?
[00:45:37.510]Well, Craig, I might chime in just a little bit
[00:45:42.410]because I think it was a conversation yesterday
[00:45:44.390]that we had with one of our
[00:45:46.530]ag economists in Extension
[00:45:48.030]in Scotts Bluff, and she's
[00:45:50.650]part of the
[00:45:51.790]Center for Ag Profitability.
[00:45:54.670]And she
[00:45:56.490]showed me that they have this
[00:45:58.630]thing called LandLink, and it's really
[00:46:00.550]designed to
[00:46:01.390]provide
[00:46:01.610]people with land
[00:46:04.350]that need new ownership
[00:46:06.310]with people that are looking to farm
[00:46:08.690]a ranch. And I said,
[00:46:10.710]what would that look like
[00:46:12.230]if we did that with businesses?
[00:46:14.350]And so
[00:46:16.230]it's percolating around a little
[00:46:18.650]bit here, and I'm
[00:46:20.610]starting to think, how could something
[00:46:22.470]like that
[00:46:23.190]work?
[00:46:24.890]Good for them.
[00:46:28.190]I think that would be a great idea
[00:46:29.950]as you're having that discussion. Think
[00:46:31.370]about this aspect also that I've heard
[00:46:33.110]from business owners,
[00:46:34.530]especially those that are struggling a little bit.
[00:46:37.170]Because we do have businesses
[00:46:38.890]that it's been tough, right?
[00:46:40.990]And so sometimes they're very
[00:46:43.310]concerned about the community knowing that
[00:46:45.270]they're planning to close their doors in the next few
[00:46:47.290]years because they're going to retire.
[00:46:49.070]And so
[00:46:50.530]confidentiality is really important in this
[00:46:53.210]relationship too, how you think about
[00:46:54.990]engaging with those
[00:46:56.650]businesses.
[00:46:58.110]But great idea if it can be done the right
[00:47:01.130]way so that they don't,
[00:47:02.950]because they're saying, well, that's just one more reason
[00:47:04.970]people are going to go down the road and shop with somebody else because they
[00:47:06.950]know I'm going to go out of business.
[00:47:08.790]And we're all going to
[00:47:10.430]at some point retire.
[00:47:11.910]That happens to all of us, but there is that sensitivity.
[00:47:14.870]But I just would add that from what I've heard,
[00:47:16.830]but I love the idea, Jenny. So if I can
[00:47:18.850]be helpful in that discussion, let me know.
[00:47:20.770]Other
[00:47:22.910]people? Well, I
[00:47:24.590]see that Tanya is not on here anymore,
[00:47:26.770]but with the Nebraska Enterprise Fund,
[00:47:28.650]when they came and did a talk,
[00:47:30.890]taking it a step further beyond
[00:47:32.850]just the bankers, pitching your
[00:47:34.790]idea to a panel of bankers, but
[00:47:36.750]they also want, I think they call it
[00:47:38.730]bail. Is that right, Deb?
[00:47:40.090]And it's a banker, an attorney,
[00:47:42.870]maybe insurance.
[00:47:46.510]Accountant, lawyer. Okay.
[00:47:48.470]Accountant, lawyer, and something
[00:47:50.810]else. Yeah.
[00:47:51.670]Anyway, so just to kind of
[00:47:54.890]Like a team. Yeah.
[00:47:56.150]Pull the rest of those players
[00:47:58.810]into that same
[00:48:00.650]pitch and further
[00:48:02.630]develop that idea and stuff.
[00:48:04.630]So I thought that was really neat.
[00:48:05.990]They have some sort of a dashboard
[00:48:10.670]that helps with
[00:48:12.690]business creation too that I think
[00:48:14.430]we could
[00:48:15.230]take a look at
[00:48:18.690]and see if there's any way to
[00:48:20.130]make that
[00:48:21.650]middle
[00:48:24.370]high school
[00:48:25.650]appropriate in terms of
[00:48:28.690]what the outcome would be.
[00:48:30.410]Because I think that's one of the biggest fears
[00:48:32.510]that young people have about starting
[00:48:34.530]a business is they don't know where to start
[00:48:36.430]if you're going to start a business.
[00:48:37.870]And so at our
[00:48:39.950]presentation from the Nebraska
[00:48:42.170]Enterprise Fund, we actually also
[00:48:44.350]had a gal
[00:48:46.410]from Nebraska Business Development
[00:48:48.210]Center there.
[00:48:49.250]And their connection
[00:48:52.050]to some pretty
[00:48:53.910]tried and true strategies about
[00:48:56.150]business
[00:48:58.350]succession would be
[00:49:00.170]helpful as well. I know that
[00:49:01.650]even that program itself
[00:49:03.810]is a little bit daunting to someone who
[00:49:06.270]may or may not want the world
[00:49:08.270]to know that they're looking to
[00:49:10.130]sell their business. But
[00:49:12.150]a way to figure that out, I think
[00:49:14.370]would be really helpful. And particularly
[00:49:16.050]if you could
[00:49:17.530]identify students
[00:49:20.350]ahead of time that might be
[00:49:22.550]leaning that
[00:49:24.150]direction.
[00:49:24.830]And that sort of
[00:49:27.570]supposes that we start
[00:49:29.870]much younger in their career path.
[00:49:32.070]I love the idea that we're
[00:49:34.290]doing this seventh grade on up
[00:49:36.310]or even K through sixth
[00:49:38.230]grade.
[00:49:38.530]Yeah, if you wait
[00:49:42.230]until they're senior in high school, it's too late.
[00:49:43.630]If you build that foundation early. And as I said
[00:49:46.250]earlier, the internship is not threatening
[00:49:48.190]to the student either, even if they're thinking about
[00:49:50.230]business ownership. This is a chance
[00:49:52.190]to go learn about that business, see if it actually
[00:49:54.090]I would want to own it. And if it happens to
[00:49:56.070]make sense to work with that
[00:49:58.150]particular employer,
[00:49:59.570]to transition,
[00:50:01.170]all the better.
[00:50:02.390]But kind of take those first steps without
[00:50:05.390]commitment on either side just to see if it's a good
[00:50:07.770]fit or not.
[00:50:08.330]Yeah, and there is work to be done
[00:50:15.450]on the business ownership side too to make sure
[00:50:17.630]their business is positioned to be a good
[00:50:19.710]investment for a young person.
[00:50:21.010]That's the other thing. We want to make sure it's
[00:50:22.990]a viable business that can
[00:50:25.010]thrive and not struggle. Sometimes it's better
[00:50:27.650]to start a new business.
[00:50:29.270]Any other questions or comments?
[00:50:35.070]The thing I'd just leave everybody with, Jenny,
[00:50:42.850]is that think about the work you're
[00:50:44.890]currently doing and how
[00:50:47.090]you can
[00:50:48.010]create a progression
[00:50:51.310]of engagement opportunities
[00:50:53.230]from early childhood through young adulthood
[00:50:55.330]and how each
[00:50:57.250]entity in the community,
[00:50:58.970]whether that be 4-H, FFA,
[00:51:01.250]guidance counselor,
[00:51:02.650]economic developer, business community,
[00:51:05.370]has a role to play
[00:51:07.090]in that plan. So I showed you that
[00:51:09.090]three-step process and how
[00:51:11.170]we integrate this work with our community's
[00:51:13.270]economic development strategy,
[00:51:14.490]really defining what that looks
[00:51:17.210]like and how those pieces fit into your
[00:51:19.030]overall master plan. So it's not just
[00:51:20.790]hanging over here is something that we
[00:51:23.010]also do, but rather understanding that
[00:51:25.130]if we help more young people
[00:51:26.770]come back to our rural communities,
[00:51:28.670]they themselves
[00:51:31.090]are an economic engine for the future
[00:51:33.290]of the community. They create new wealth.
[00:51:35.130]We also retain wealth.
[00:51:36.890]If the kids leave the community,
[00:51:38.590]where's that wealth going to go to the next generation?
[00:51:40.870]It's going to leave town. But if we keep
[00:51:42.490]one or more of the siblings in our
[00:51:45.030]community, we're going to retain that wealth,
[00:51:46.670]but also build wealth for the future.
[00:51:48.410]So this is a really important part of economic
[00:51:50.290]development. Now, sometimes I get
[00:51:52.510]pushback that this is a long-term strategy,
[00:51:54.670]and it is. It's going to be
[00:51:56.390]10 years before you see a lot
[00:51:58.370]of benefits from working with middle schoolers,
[00:52:00.310]right, and beyond.
[00:52:02.010]But think about this. Think about how many
[00:52:04.350]alums right now who grew up
[00:52:06.470]in your communities would love to be
[00:52:08.450]able to come back and raise their family here.
[00:52:10.170]And so how do we start with that other end
[00:52:12.530]of alumni and newcomer
[00:52:13.910]traction? You know, when I moved back to my
[00:52:16.470]hometown, you didn't have to convince me to move
[00:52:18.530]home. You had to convince my wife from
[00:52:20.410]Los Angeles, who had no context
[00:52:22.610]for that. There's one small town
[00:52:24.450]in Nebraska that every year has an
[00:52:26.410]alumni banquet that's so huge
[00:52:28.070]very small town, that only
[00:52:30.630]the actual graduates can
[00:52:32.430]fit in the gymnasium.
[00:52:33.610]So the spouses who aren't from
[00:52:36.270]that community, the kids that come along
[00:52:38.130]they have to kind of figure out something to do
[00:52:40.390]on their own while the
[00:52:41.810]alums are having their banquet.
[00:52:43.410]And so we talked to that community about
[00:52:46.270]what if you had a welcome
[00:52:48.330]basket or had a tour of the community
[00:52:50.170]or some other kind of activity for those
[00:52:52.170]spouses to make them feel
[00:52:53.930]welcome and viable.
[00:52:56.310]I know in Holt County
[00:52:57.770]years ago when you
[00:53:00.350]started to have a number of newcomers,
[00:53:02.150]I'm sorry, returnees coming back home,
[00:53:04.550]Nicole worked
[00:53:06.430]on at your annual banquet having
[00:53:08.330]a table of honor for those people
[00:53:10.330]who had recently moved to the community and
[00:53:11.950]celebrating that and
[00:53:14.310]recognizing those people who made a choice to
[00:53:16.310]move to Holt County.
[00:53:17.110]I mean, fairly simple
[00:53:19.230]things but just profound in impact
[00:53:21.510]because a part of the story I didn't tell
[00:53:23.410]you when I started out today
[00:53:24.450]was when I moved back to my hometown,
[00:53:27.470]every single person in my community asked me the same
[00:53:29.390]question and that was, what are you
[00:53:31.410]doing here?
[00:53:31.850]To come home was to fail.
[00:53:34.830]Why would you do that, Craig? You had a
[00:53:37.190]college degree, a good job in the city,
[00:53:39.370]a young wife. What happened? It was seen
[00:53:41.510]as a negative thing. And I'm
[00:53:43.430]just so happy that all these years later
[00:53:45.330]we've really changed that mindset
[00:53:47.530]and all of you are working on
[00:53:49.530]changing that perception. But
[00:53:51.170]we've got to really be intentional about that
[00:53:53.610]to make coming to our rural communities
[00:53:55.570]a celebration.
[00:53:57.170]And a great choice. And for people to feel
[00:53:59.390]great about that.
[00:54:00.190]So I'll leave you with that. Thank you very much.
[00:54:03.130]Thanks, Craig. We actually
[00:54:05.430]have a really
[00:54:07.290]vibrant
[00:54:08.850]high school foundation.
[00:54:10.950]And I think this is a perfect
[00:54:13.230]sort of
[00:54:15.090]suggestion for them to
[00:54:17.110]perhaps take on that
[00:54:18.490]trying to create some
[00:54:21.130]sort of a relationship that will last
[00:54:23.090]longer than maybe that five-year
[00:54:24.750]high school class reunion when they come back,
[00:54:26.870]the one-time preferred trade days or whatever.
[00:54:28.690]I mean, in our town, that's when they come back.
[00:54:30.870]But I love the idea of
[00:54:32.610]them developing enough
[00:54:34.810]of a relationship that
[00:54:36.230]it's not a big deal or it's not
[00:54:38.850]looked at
[00:54:40.950]as maybe
[00:54:42.410]trying to get something from somebody
[00:54:44.950]when you simply ask for the alumni
[00:54:46.850]list. There's
[00:54:48.950]a protection of we're not going to
[00:54:50.830]give that out to just anybody.
[00:54:52.190]But if you develop a relationship
[00:54:54.110]that's kept up year after
[00:54:56.570]after year, I think
[00:54:58.470]we could
[00:54:59.410]and even if it isn't
[00:55:02.250]maybe it's some 21st century
[00:55:04.670]version of the mailbox
[00:55:06.090]that
[00:55:06.910]you just kind of
[00:55:10.210]I love that idea.
[00:55:12.590]Right. So let me give you
[00:55:14.630]two thoughts on that. One is
[00:55:16.230]in addition to the foundation, Deb,
[00:55:17.970]lots of classes have like Facebook
[00:55:20.630]or Instagram or those kinds
[00:55:22.530]of groups now and ask to put
[00:55:24.450]information out through that group about
[00:55:26.270]opportunities or if you're coming home for the holidays
[00:55:28.530]or doing an open house, please come, that
[00:55:30.510]kind of thing. Here's another idea that I heard
[00:55:32.530]that uses social media. This
[00:55:34.350]enterprising group of
[00:55:35.750]yearbook students that wanted to make
[00:55:38.390]money to fund the yearbook
[00:55:40.510]put all the embarrassing photos
[00:55:42.670]from those old yearbooks up on
[00:55:44.430]a website and you had to pay to get them taken
[00:55:46.390]off. Can you imagine
[00:55:48.370]the buzz that created among the alumni?
[00:55:50.250]Susie, you got to go see that picture
[00:55:52.370]of you and prom, it's up there.
[00:55:54.410]Oh my gosh, it's up there.
[00:55:55.970]50 bucks to take it down. It's a great fundraiser,
[00:55:58.190]great way to connect back with the community.
[00:56:00.210]Be creative in how
[00:56:02.530]you use some of those tools.
[00:56:03.750]I'd be happy to talk
[00:56:08.450]to any of you further if you have some things
[00:56:10.390]you're working on or would like some input on it.
[00:56:12.590]My email address
[00:56:14.310]was on that last slide, Jenny, but it's just
[00:56:16.250]craigschroeder at mac.com
[00:56:18.690]and reach out to me.
[00:56:19.990]I'd be happy to have this conversation.
[00:56:22.010]Josh, I've got your email capture
[00:56:24.110]here. I'll follow up with you directly.
[00:56:25.810]And anybody else would like to do that.
[00:56:28.070]So again, thank you for the opportunity to
[00:56:29.930]visit with you. And I'm excited about all the great stuff
[00:56:31.990]you're doing. So keep it up
[00:56:33.650]and have a happy Thanksgiving.
[00:56:35.210]Thanks, Craig. Just a reminder,
[00:56:38.130]we do have a West Nebraska Development
[00:56:39.990]Network meeting coming up on Friday.
[00:56:42.070]Our SOC exchange. We're so excited
[00:56:43.990]to be going to Alliance.
[00:56:45.930]So any words on
[00:56:48.050]that from anybody?
[00:56:49.910]Chelsea?
[00:56:51.150]I think Chelsea had to jump off, but
[00:56:54.030]the plan is
[00:56:55.790]for the Western Nebraska Development
[00:56:57.730]Network, which is a throwback
[00:57:00.130]that you might remember, the
[00:57:01.950]actual Nebraska Development Network
[00:57:04.130]system. We've
[00:57:05.890]continued to meet and
[00:57:07.110]we look at Western Nebraska as
[00:57:09.970]a pretty broad
[00:57:10.970]description. So
[00:57:13.770]literally anyone that's interested
[00:57:15.850]is welcome. We'll meet at 10 o'clock
[00:57:17.690]at Chelsea's office in
[00:57:19.650]Alliance and do a little bit of
[00:57:21.770]retail surveying and
[00:57:23.930]research in downtown
[00:57:25.490]Alliance. And then we'll have lunch out at
[00:57:27.670]what used to be called the Country Club. I don't know
[00:57:29.710]what it's called now. And
[00:57:31.530]everyone brings
[00:57:33.790]festive Christmas socks
[00:57:35.730]stuffed with something really fun.
[00:57:37.290]And we put them in a pile
[00:57:39.410]and I don't know exactly
[00:57:41.510]how she's decided how to distribute
[00:57:43.450]them this year. But then
[00:57:44.770]we just have pretty much a social
[00:57:47.370]event. We have lunch. We talk about maybe
[00:57:49.490]what's going on in our communities and
[00:57:51.030]everyone goes home with a fun
[00:57:52.870]pair of socks for the
[00:57:55.190]holiday season.
[00:57:56.090]Thanks, Deb.
[00:57:59.270]All right. I think
[00:58:03.230]we're about ready to head
[00:58:05.290]into our Thanksgiving weekend.
[00:58:06.530]So have fun next
[00:58:09.310]week, guys. Be safe and we'll see you
[00:58:11.290]soon.
[00:58:11.710]Take care.
[00:58:14.810]- Sure.
[00:58:15.650]you

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Creating Career Pathways

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