Yesterday, we showed how local employers are beginning to take notice of the YP movement. Today, we examine our final point, how local college students are taking notice of the region and its efforts to retain them.
Many years ago, when I worked as a career advisor at Virginia Tech, there were many companies trying to find ways to tap into the college - base for short-term, internship and full-time employment. We created a semester internship class matching students with local companies. In six semesters, we made about 200 of these connections. From that program, we knew this was just the tip of the iceberg. Since we started that program in 2001, we have seen more and more students wanting to stick around in the area.
Perhaps one rationale is Northern Virginia students come to the RNR for college and are removed for 4+ years from the congestion and realize they do not want to return to it. Also, since that time, you have seen more professional opportunities locate in places such as the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center.
Back in 2006 when I first started speaking to student groups, I asked one graduating senior from Hampton Roads if she were gonna stick around and work in the region. Her response was surprising. She said she would not stay because of a lack of arts and theatre. Knowing Roanoke has a lot of those amenities for its size, I asked her if she had been to downtown Roanoke. Her response was, “yeah, I have been to downtown Roanoke, I have been to Valley View Mall.”
Of course, Valley View Mall is not downtown Roanoke and she did not know the difference. From that exchange, we knew we had to get more college students to experience downtown Roanoke. Therefore, we created Roanoke Want U!
We partnered with student groups, primarily at Virginia Tech, and gave them free tickets on the Smart Way Bus from Blacksburg to the Higher Ed Center. At the Higher Ed Center, we held an info session with relevant local companies matching the majors of the student groups. After the session, we gave them a guided walking tour of downtown Roanoke, a free meal at a popular late night attraction, and sometimes a gift to get them to return at a later time. We have repeated this about 15 times with at least 5 more on the books for this spring. And we have heard stories of the college students returning on their own time.
A couple weeks ago, we partnered with a number of groups to create the Reverse Job Fair at Virginia Tech (which the students loved) and are planning some other exposures on all college campuses too.
But perhaps the most successful way we are connecting to college students was found in this unsolicited editorial by the Collegiate Times editorial board staff suggesting to the student body they should look to Roanoke upon graduation. We are not completely there yet, but there does seem to be a growing interest in our local college students to seek local employment opportunities upon graduation.
So where does this leave us? What is next? What work still needs to be done? Tomorrow, I will discuss some things we need to make happen to reach the tipping point - a point in time in which all our efforts are occurring naturally and the message of the RNR being a place for YPs is ingrained in the culture.