> SOUTHERN INDIANA — While the statistics show brain drain, some college graduates are saying there’s no place like their hometowns in Southern Indiana

In 2009, Indiana ranked 44th among states in the percentage of the population with a bachelor’s degree or more education, with only 22.5 percent of the population holding a bachelor’s degree or higher. However, Indiana ranks 17th in the nation in post-secondary enrollment. Some view that difference as evidence of the state’s “brain drain” problem, where people attend college in the state in high numbers but then move to pursue jobs in other states.

Area graduates may not necessarily fall into that trend, though.

Leah Cissell is one graduate who moved back to Southern Indiana and said she is not alone. Cissell grew up in New Albany and attended Providence High School. After graduating from Indiana University with an elementary education degree in 2009, she briefly lived in Texas, Utah and West Virginia teaching and doing mission work. A job as coordinator of programming for the New Albany Deanery brought her back last August.

Cissell said while the job was the top reason she came back, she also wanted to be close to family and friends.

“I always knew, even going away to college, that this is my home,” she said.

 She said this area has a much different culture than other places in terms of the number of graduates who choose to return. Among her friends, most have moved back to the area. The rest moved away to find jobs, she said, and not because they particularly liked another area of the country.

“It’s always in their heads that they want to have this experience of going away, but that this is going to be their home and this is where they want to come back,” Cissell said. “They want to raise their families in the same place they were raised.”

In her experience, this is not the reaction of people from other areas in Indiana. Cissell said she met a group of recent graduates from Northern Indiana who were surprised she had moved back to her hometown. She said none of them had gone back to where they grew up or had any plans to in the future.     

“It was shocking for them to hear that I moved back to my hometown,” Cissell said. “We think that it’s normal, but for a lot of people, it’s not.”

For Cissell, returning to Southern Indiana was not a difficult decision. She said it allows her to be around familiar faces while pursuing her goals and helping others.  

“It’s good to give back to the community that gave me my foundation,” Cissell said. “I probably wouldn’t have had all the opportunities if I didn’t have that experience here.”



ANOTHER TAKE

Recent college graduate Amelia Martin said she never considered moving back to the Floyds Knobs area, which makes her an exception to her friends. But she did return to the state.  

Martin went to Floyd Central High School and graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., in May with a degree in political science. After applying for about 80 jobs in the Indianapolis area, she moved there to work as a program coordinator at the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Martin said she loves everything about Indianapolis, and the city provides more opportunities for shopping, dining and entertainment. She said it also is the perfect distance away from where she grew up.

“It was never in the cards for me to move home,” she said.

Of her high school friends, Martin said most didn’t even go away for school and most of those who did returned to the area. She said high school classmates who have moved away have plans to move back or stay in the town where they went to college. She said her decision to go to another area sparked conversation among her friends on a recent trip home.

“They all asked me, ‘Why wouldn’t you come back?’” she said.

Martin said going to school out-of-state and having the opportunity to travel helped her realize the experiences that existed elsewhere.

“By traveling a lot, I saw what else is out there and decided not to stay in the Louisville area forever,” Martin said. “They don’t even know what else is out there.”

While her family and friends still live in the Floyds Knobs area and she said it was a great place to grow up, Martin has no plans to move back. She said this is definitely against the trend of most of her friends who went away to school and then returned to Southern Indiana.

“I wanted to break that mold,” she said. “I don’t see myself sending my kids to Floyd Central.”



WORK CALLS

Lynn Prinz, assistant director of Indiana University Southeast office of career services, said most of the graduating students she deals with want to stay in the Southern Indiana area, but that the economy has made people less selective about where they go.  

“They just want to be placed right now,” Prinz said.

She said many students have existing relationships with people they worked with in college or know from other experiences. Their familiarity with these people and the area make it easier for some to stay.

“It’s about relationships,” she said. “For the time being, they want to be close to home. It’s the culture they know. It’s comfortable.”

IU Southeast graduates who seek employment outside of Southern Indiana usually fall into two groups, Prinz said. They are either very focused on the kind of job they want and know that it does not exist here or have a sense of adventure. She said they may also be choosing a lifestyle over a career opportunity.

“They’re willing to take the risks and are looking for something bigger or a whole different environment,” Prinz said.

The job search, whether here or somewhere else, should begin early, Prinz said. She said students should seek guidance from faculty, working professionals and career experts early in their college experience. Such preparedness and forethought can help students decide what job to pursue and where to look for jobs.

“I don’t think people should wait as long as they have been waiting to explore opportunities with degree programs,” Prinz said. “They need to start making sense of those degree programs early on.”