People who come from rural areas often leave to pursue ambitions and higher education. However, a recent study found new ideas about the rural brain drain.
In Harlan County, Ky., 20 years ago, a group of students were asked the big question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” by Tricia Dyk, the University of Kentucky’s director of the Center for Leadership Development. She surveyed students in the fourth through eighth grades.
Harlan County had a population of 30,759 in 2010, according to the state of Kentucky. It is in Appalachia near the southeast border with Tennessee. Coal mining is a significant industry.
A grant issued by the U.K. Center for Poverty Research helped Dyk track down those surveyed for her study “Pathways to Adulthood: Opportunities and Challenges for Harlan County Youth Employment Success.”
Jess Kropczynski is a sociology doctoral student who works in Community & Leadership Development. She was approached by Dyk to obtain the pool of data from Kropczynski’s previous work. According to Kropczynski, Dyk wanted to follow up with the students that participated in the survey who would now have established themselves in a career.
“Previous literature did not include studies on ‘intentional returns’ and only focused on four categories of study,” said Kropczynski in a telephone interview.
The quest was to learn about these students’ current progress in education and careers. The scholars found surprising results. A percentage of educated people wanted to go home to rural Harlan County.
The Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service chose Harlan County for the survey under the Literacy and Technological Literacy Area of Youth at Risk because the concept of brain drain fits an area like Harlan County.
“The number of people in our sample that we categorized as ‘intentional returners’ were 11 which represents 19 percent of the population we spoke to,” said Kropczynski, adding that “65 percent of all our participants no longer lived in Harlan, of those living outside Harlan currently, only one planned to return. They were finishing a doctorate degrees. Of those currently living within Harlan, 35 percent of participants, 88 percent reported having lived outside Harlan at some point in time.”
“This is typified by the best and the brightest of these areas leaving home for education and career and never returning. For this reason, rural communities often spend a disproportionate amount of effort, resources, and training on the children that are not likely to stay; and the ones who stay often get little attention.”
Based on the survey, many of the participants in 1991 described obstacles that they faced like drugs, alcohol, and pregnancy as roadblocks to their careers.
After extensive research and with the help of social media, a local librarian, and a preacher about 24 percent of the participants were located.
Focusing on a new perspective from this research, Dyk and Kropczynski developed a new category labeled ‘intentional returners’ aside from the ’achievers’ who are locals who succeeded and left Harlan County permanently, ’reluctant returners’ who are those who failed and returned, ’stayers’ who took over a family business or got a job during high school and remained and ’seekers,' who wanted to leave but couldn’t because they didn’t have the means to leave.
The ‘intentional returners’ are people who succeeded in their aspirations and careers and purposely returned to their hometown. This group was considered high performing.
“So there are still high numbers moving away to find jobs. The merit of this research was finding high-achieving students that decided at an early age that they wanted to live in Harlan, sought graduate degrees, and returned to their home community,” said Kropczynski.
In Harlan County, Ky., 20 years ago, a group of students were asked the big question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” by Tricia Dyk, the University of Kentucky’s director of the Center for Leadership Development. She surveyed students in the fourth through eighth grades.
Harlan County had a population of 30,759 in 2010, according to the state of Kentucky. It is in Appalachia near the southeast border with Tennessee. Coal mining is a significant industry.
A grant issued by the U.K. Center for Poverty Research helped Dyk track down those surveyed for her study “Pathways to Adulthood: Opportunities and Challenges for Harlan County Youth Employment Success.”
Jess Kropczynski is a sociology doctoral student who works in Community & Leadership Development. She was approached by Dyk to obtain the pool of data from Kropczynski’s previous work. According to Kropczynski, Dyk wanted to follow up with the students that participated in the survey who would now have established themselves in a career.
“Previous literature did not include studies on ‘intentional returns’ and only focused on four categories of study,” said Kropczynski in a telephone interview.
The quest was to learn about these students’ current progress in education and careers. The scholars found surprising results. A percentage of educated people wanted to go home to rural Harlan County.
The Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service chose Harlan County for the survey under the Literacy and Technological Literacy Area of Youth at Risk because the concept of brain drain fits an area like Harlan County.
“The number of people in our sample that we categorized as ‘intentional returners’ were 11 which represents 19 percent of the population we spoke to,” said Kropczynski, adding that “65 percent of all our participants no longer lived in Harlan, of those living outside Harlan currently, only one planned to return. They were finishing a doctorate degrees. Of those currently living within Harlan, 35 percent of participants, 88 percent reported having lived outside Harlan at some point in time.”
“This is typified by the best and the brightest of these areas leaving home for education and career and never returning. For this reason, rural communities often spend a disproportionate amount of effort, resources, and training on the children that are not likely to stay; and the ones who stay often get little attention.”
Based on the survey, many of the participants in 1991 described obstacles that they faced like drugs, alcohol, and pregnancy as roadblocks to their careers.
After extensive research and with the help of social media, a local librarian, and a preacher about 24 percent of the participants were located.
Focusing on a new perspective from this research, Dyk and Kropczynski developed a new category labeled ‘intentional returners’ aside from the ’achievers’ who are locals who succeeded and left Harlan County permanently, ’reluctant returners’ who are those who failed and returned, ’stayers’ who took over a family business or got a job during high school and remained and ’seekers,' who wanted to leave but couldn’t because they didn’t have the means to leave.
The ‘intentional returners’ are people who succeeded in their aspirations and careers and purposely returned to their hometown. This group was considered high performing.
“So there are still high numbers moving away to find jobs. The merit of this research was finding high-achieving students that decided at an early age that they wanted to live in Harlan, sought graduate degrees, and returned to their home community,” said Kropczynski.
