To stay or leave Wyoming?

LARAMIE — More than two-thirds of University of Wyoming students recently surveyed by the Wyoming Business Council said that a future in Wyoming is a “maybe” or a “no.”

Additionally, more than 60% of people who are born in Wyoming leave by the time they’re in their 30s. Most do not return.

Rather than lament statistics, the Wyoming Business Council came together with University of Wyoming students Tuesday night for a comprehensive event and panel discussion to encourage discussion between leaders and students in the hope of better understanding factors that contribute to graduates’ career decisions.

The event at the College of Business coincided with the WBC’s quarterly board of directors meeting Wednesday.

“It turns out that the people that are affected most by the economic challenges that Wyoming faces aren’t old people like me,” Josh Dorrell, Wyoming Business Council CEO, said Tuesday. “They are young folks. They are people that will inherit the decisions we make.”

The discussion included both students on the panel and in the audience, who shared concerns, visions and ideas about why they will stay in — or leave — Wyoming.

Ralph Fawaz, a Master of Business Administration student and former UW football player, moved to Laramie from Oklahoma and said he hopes to stay in state after graduation. Fawaz is the founder of Tele-Hope, an Albany County nonprofit that pairs UW athletes with grades sixth through 12th youth in the community. It was in Laramie that he found a sense of hope he did not have growing up, he said.

“We try to inspire athletes, and create hope for the kids in Albany County who are also athletes,” Fawaz said. “What inspired me to go out and help, really, (is that) I do love this place. I love this community.”

However, when he began searching for a business internship, Fawaz said he was forced to look outside Wyoming to find the type of work he was seeking. He now commutes to Denver for his internship, where he deals with traffic and other stressors he hopes to avoid if he can establish his career in Wyoming.

Other students in his cohort are thinking of leaving, he said, many of whom grew up in Wyoming. Some say they will return, he said.

But the data shows otherwise.

“We like this idea that we can leave and come back, but the reality is, and the data says that we leave and we don’t come back,” Dorrell said.

Putting Wyoming on an even playing field with places like Denver is a challenge, Dorrell said. Students responded in surveys that employment opportunities, proximity to family, access to third spaces, happiness and the economy all play into their decisions when it comes to future careers. Most students she talks to place job opportunities first, Gwen Hargett, a sophomore in political science said.

“When my classmates and I talk about where we want to live, I would say that the decision is about whether or not we have a job there, or whether or not there is availability to get a job,” Hargett said.

Shoshone native Korbin DeWitt, a sophomore majoring in entrepreneurship, said students he knows often express a desire to go outside Wyoming for work experience, but do say they’ll come back one day. DeWitt owns several businesses, including DeWitt Drone Services. and said he hopes to stay in Wyoming.

“I love that in Wyoming, you’re never too important to help your neighbor,” he said. “Starting in Shoshone, though I had the support of the community, they didn’t always know about what I was doing.

“Now that I’ve come to Laramie, my network has grown tremendously,” DeWitt said. “Because we are smaller, opportunity is bigger. It’s a lot less of a saturated market.”

Sophomore Daljit Kaur, a Burns native majoring in accounting and economics, said that she’s unsure what her future holds.

“I’m trying to figure out where I want to be, whether that be in Wyoming or not,” Kaur said.

Her grandparents were from India and her parents moved from New York to Burns when she was very young. They came for opportunity, she said.

“My dad was able to find an opportunity here and build his dream business,” Kaur said, adding that she grew up in a very supportive community.

Her career trajectory, she added, may mirror her decision to attend UW. She had dreams to attend a big-name college and receive all the accolades that that would bring. Ultimately, she chose UW to preserve the sense of community she loved while accessing meaningful educational opportunities. But as she considers the future, she worries about missed chances.

“There’s kind of an opportunity cost for me to stay here,” Kaur said. “Sometimes it feels a little disappointing to feel like there’s something left on the table. I don’t want to feel like I’m leaving something behind by choosing to stay here.”

The event, Dorell said, was not designed to bemoan the fact that young people leave Wyoming, and he closed by asking those present for suggestions to make Wyoming a more appealing place for young people.

“It’s really easy to kick the brain drain problem down the road for another 10 years,” he said. “But I think what we’re saying is that we don’t want to kick it down the road. We want to put things in place to experiment with, how do we stop this?”

Hargett suggested a comprehensive exit survey for all UW graduates, asking about future plans as well as students’ experience in Wyoming. That could better serve future students, she said. She also suggested focus groups at the University, community colleges and even high schools aimed at asking students what they prioritize when envisioning their future.

Kaur said broader messaging about different opportunities across Wyoming could help: Recent visits to central Wyoming with the Leadership Academy showed her that each community in Wyoming is unique, which she said she did not know before. Many graduates never see that side of Wyoming, she said.

Dorrell said the people present Tuesday — and who will continue listening to the youth-engagement work by the WBC — have the power to make decisions.

“We are here to create change,” he said.