“Our biggest export from rural Kansas isn’t wheat or corn – it’s our young people.” That statement describes one of our rural communities’ major dilemmas, which is the outmigration of youth. Today we’ll learn about an initiative in north central Kansas which is helping make young people aware of the opportunities they have locally without having to move away.
Doug McKinney is executive director of the North Central Regional Planning Commission which serves 12 counties in north central Kansas, plus providing other services beyond that region. The commission’s main office is centrally located in the region, in Beloit.
Doug explained that he and other community representatives were invited to a Kansas Department of Education forum in Topeka in December 2016. State Commissioner of Education Randy Watson invited school districts and others to come to this forum on the topic of summertime career exploration and leadership development. The one-day forum featured a school district in New York state that used summer programming to address several problems found in that school district.
Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Doug McKinney – Career Exploration”
