On Thursday, November 17th, 2016, the Triad Business Journal hosted an event at Revolution Mill: Keep.Talent.Local. As community partners for the event, Cecelia Thompson, the Executive Director at Action Greensboro, spoke about prior research that helped lead to the development of the Opportunity Greensboro Fellows Program. In 2015, Opportunity Greensboro conducted research of over 200 local Greensboro organizations and 1,000 recent alumni from the seven colleges and universities. As featured in the recent Triad Business Journal’s cover story, “The local alumni survey revealed that 35% of respondents left Greensboro after graduating. Respondents also ranked features in Greensboro from the downtown area, to their neighborhood and regional attractions. The highest rankings included climate, cost of living, and restaurants/nightlife. The lowest ranked features? Internship opportunities, post-graduation job opportunities, and public transportation” (written by Katie Arcieri @TriadBizKatie).
In addition to sharing research data with attendees from the Triad region, Cecelia moderated a panel of four 
community members, which included three students and one professional from VF Corporation. The students were from NC A&T, UNCG, and HPU. Lisanne Bluemel from the inaugural 2016 Fellows Program represented UNCG and spoke highly of the Fellows Program as a way to learn all that Greensboro has to offer. This past summer, Lisanne interned with the Global Opportunities Center (GO Center) and now she works with the GO Center as their Community Engagement Coordinator!
As staff prepares for year two of the program, we hope community members continue to engage by hosting Fellows, serving as a volunteer community mentor, or sponsoring Fellows events throughout the 10-weeks. We are excited that the Opportunity Greensboro Fellows Program is beginning to move the needle on keeping talent local.
A big thanks to the Triad Business Journal for hosting this event and allowing members of the Triad community to learn more about the factors that impact local college students when making decisions about life/careers post-graduation, as well as the need for keeping more of our talent local!
