Neb. kids like hometowns

NORFOLK, Neb. -- Contrary to popular belief, high school students like their hometowns, and they want to stay or move back after graduation from college.

At least that’s what a survey of seventh- to 12th-graders in communities throughout northeast Nebraska indicates.

“You tend to hear about the problems and think all the kids want to get out,” said Brandon Day of Norfolk. “The survey tells us that’s not really true.”

Day and his sister, Nanette of Tilden, helped fund the survey through The Connie Fund, a foundation dedicated to funding youth projects in the area. The fund is named after their late mother, Connie Day of Norfolk.

A total of 1,833 students from 15 communities in northeast Nebraska were asked about their plans to attend college; how they would rate their hometown; whether they preferred to stay after graduation or return home in the future; if they had any interest in owning a business or entreprenuerial education; if they could imagine living in the Northeast Nebraska area in the future; and if any adults had asked for their input on making their community a better place to live.

The survey found that 52 percent rated their community as an above average to excellent place to live. Fifty-four percent pictured themselves living in their hometown if quality career opportunities existed.

“That’s much higher than most people would expect,” Day said.

The most disappointing statistic to Day was that only 29 percent said an adult had asked for their opinion on how to make the community a more attractive place for young people.

“That says to me that we have these kids who like their hometown and feel a strong connection, but we, as adults, aren’t helping them make the decision to come back here”, he said. “We’re just assuming every kid from rural Nebraska wants to pack up and leave.”

And that’s the reason behind doing the survey, Day said.

“We give a lot of lip service to the problems of declining population and brain drain,” Day said. “What we’ve done is adopted this defeatist attitude, and we don’t ever take any steps to do anything about it.”

Day serves as a board member of the Norfolk Area Recruiters, a group to attract graduates from the Norfolk area to return to the communities where they were raised.

While the group’s work has proven to be successful, it’s much more difficult to wait until young people go off to school, establish themselves in another community and then try to recruit them back to the area.

That recruitment process needs to start much earlier, he said.

“We need to give them some ownership in the community and make them feel from the get-go they have a vital role in the community. . . . We won’t see the results for at least five years, more likely 10 years, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen,” he said.

Students from Bancroft, Cedar Rapids, St. Edward, Columbus, Elgin, Humphrey, Lindsay, Newman Grove, Norfolk, Orchard, Stanton, Wayne, West Point, Wisner and Pilger participated n the survey.

The area survey results yielded little variation from results gained from a total of 40 communities throughout the state.

The survey was completed over the 2008-09 school year using a Web-based survey tool. Students were sent in to computer labs to complete the survey at designated times.

Along with The Connie Fund, the survey was also funded by the Nebraska Community Foundation. There was no cost to local schools to participate in the survey.

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