Austin, TX
How an internship program hopes to end “brain drain” in Texas’ Permian Basin and other rural regions
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ODESSA — Katelan Crowder woke up in her childhood bedroom. Her dog, Daisy, was still snoring.
A year had passed since she graduated from high school, and the University of Texas student returned to her West Texas home for an unexpected reason: a summer internship.
The rising sophomore’s passion for design could have kept her in the ever-expanding metropolis of Austin or sent her to either coast. But living in those larger cities is expensive. And as much as she wanted to escape Odessa, a program that reconnects UT-Austin students with businesses for summer internships in their hometown appealed to her.
“We used to bond over hating Odessa,” Crowder said, referring to her high school friends. “But being here made me realize the good. I bonded so well with the people during the internship.”
Crowder, who is ending a nine-week research internship at the Ellen Noël Art Museum, is one of four UT students who returned to the Permian Basin this summer as part of the university’s Home to Texas program. It’s the third year businesses in Odessa and nearby cities have partnered with UT to bring students back to the blue-collar region known for high school football and oil fields.
Smaller industrial cities and rural towns in Texas and across the nation have long struggled to attract talent, much less retain bright-eyed students. To combat the phenomena of “brain drain,” organizations from rural chambers of commerce to school districts and universities have worked to establish programs that encourage young people to keep their talents in their backyards.
UT-Austin piloted an earlier version of the program in 2019, aimed at diversifying internship opportunities for undergraduate students. The program — which includes a $5,000 scholarship — attracted roughly 100 applications that year, said Dustin Harris, the program’s coordinator. Four years on, the program has only grown. This year, 420 students applied. Sixty-seven were placed in more than a dozen Texas towns, including nearby Midland and Big Spring.
“It’s never been more competitive to be a homegrown student,” Harris said during a recent reception for the West Texas interns.
At the museum, Crowder worked on several marketing and research projects. She even helped curate an exhibition.
Megan Baeza, director of internships and employer relations at UT-Permian Basin, said these internships are a boon for rural communities with limited access to a deep talent pool.
Sheila Perry, the executive director of Ellen Noël, said having summer interns reinvigorates her faith in the future.
“Katelan taught us to have a fresh perspective,” Perry said.
UT-Austin’s program has included more placements in the state’s largest cities, but Harris said he hopes the success in Odessa, Midland and Big Spring will inspire other smaller cities and towns.
“The idea of return migration has been around for a long time,” said Josh Wyner, executive director of the college excellence program at the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit think tank that works across various sectors including education, health and business.
To keep students in their hometowns, colleges and businesses need a strong relationship that produces relevant coursework during the fall and spring semesters and practical on-the-job training during the summer, Wyner said.
Wyner stressed for return migration to work, business leaders must take an active role in partnerships with higher education institutions.
“Employers have to lead,” Wyner said.
The formula UT-Austin and the Permian Basin businesses have established appears to be working. Several of the students who returned home this summer said they’re seeing their hometowns in a new way and are considering returning full-time after earning their degrees.
In Big Spring, William Cole interned this summer at the city attorney’s office. He’d never have the same up-close experience at a big-city law firm, he said.
“It really opened my eyes on being deadset about coming back,” he said.
Elizabeth Aguilar was offered a window into work-from-home life. She spent the summer living in her hometown of Midland but working on a project for the Initiative for Law, Societies, and Justice, a project based at UT-Austin studying different issues affecting Texans, including the criminal legal system and the mental health field.
Aguilar learned about available mental health providers in the Permian Basin by compiling information on the region’s hospitals and treatment centers.
Aguilar and her family moved to Midland in 2012. Like Crowder in Odessa, Aguilar grew up thinking there would be no professional opportunities after college. Now she wants to help break the stereotypes of the Permian Basin.
“This internship caught me by surprise,” Aguilar said. “I want to help build a place ‘little me’ would want to grow up in.”
Still, area business leaders admit they need to do more to make coming home inviting.
“There needs to be more to do,” said Debbye ValVerde, executive director of the Big Spring Area Chamber of Commerce. “A lot of rural communities may not have what they want to do in life.”
Reneé Earls, president of the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, said cities, especially those like Odessa, known widely for a singular industry, must reinvent themselves.
“We can’t do what we’ve always done. We want people invested here,” she said. “The saying in Odessa is that there’s nothing to do, and that’s just not the case.”
Disclosure: The University of Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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Austin, TX
Knicks set to acquire Mikal Bridges in a trade from the Brooklyn Nets, AP sources say
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NEW YORK (AP) — Mikal Bridges is being traded by the Brooklyn Nets to the New York Knicks, where he will join Jalen Brunson and his other former Villanova teammates, two people with knowledge of the details said Tuesday.
The first trade between the New York rivals since 1983 will put Bridges in the lineup alongside Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo, players who helped the Wildcats win two NCAA championships and were the core of a Knicks lineup that reached the Eastern Conference semifinals last season.
The Knicks will pay big to get him, with ESPN reporting that they are sending Bojan Bogdanovic to the Nets along with four unprotected first-round picks and one protected pick. The deal was confirmed to The Associated Press under condition of anonymity because it is not yet official.
The Nets acquired Bridges from Phoenix in the deal for Kevin Durant in February 2023 and he went on to average 26.1 points the rest of that season in helping Brooklyn reach the playoffs. The swingman scored 19.6 per game in 2023-24 but the Nets slipped to 32-50 and missed the postseason.
And while his team was struggling, he couldn’t help but notice how much fun his friends were having just a few miles away. The Knicks signed Brunson in the summer of 2022, traded for Hart in the 2022-23 season and then signed DiVincenzo last summer, and reached the second round in both seasons.
The four players helped Villanova win the 2016 NCAA title, and Brunson, Bridges and DiVincenzo were still there when the Wildcats won again in 2018.
They clearly can’t wait to get the band back together.
“This is crazy lol,” Bridges wrote on the social media platform X after the deal was reported.
Hart posted a picture of what appeared to be the four players smiling during a group video call.
The teams hadn’t made a deal since 1983, when the Nets were still in New Jersey and sent Len Elmore to New York for a future draft pick. This one gives Brooklyn more picks to build through the draft or package in further trades.
The Knicks had picks to move and have been looking to strengthen a team that has been on the rise. They were a game away from their first appearance in the Eastern Conference finals since 2000 last season despite losing a number of key players to injuries before and during the postseason.
Their new addition, on the other hand, doesn’t get hurt.
Bridges was the runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 and is currently the NBA’s most durable player, which should quickly make him a favorite of Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. He has played in all 474 games in his career — and never missed a game in college, either — and led the league in minutes played in both 2021-22 and 2022-23.
___
This story has been corrected to reflect that Brunson signed with the Knicks in the summer of 2022, not the Nets.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Austin, TX
‘It’s really helpful’: Central Texas workforce programs receive thousands in state funding
![‘It’s really helpful’: Central Texas workforce programs receive thousands in state funding](https://www.kxan.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2024/06/0625-SA-ABBOTT-WORKFORCE-GRANTS.00_01_31_05.Still004.jpg?w=1280)
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Central Texas nonprofits just got more money to help their efforts increasing our workforce.
Twenty workforce skills training and job placement programs received more than $6.3 million in grant funding, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday.
The funding came via the Texas Talent Connection grant program, an initiative designed to aid “innovative education and workforce skills training programs that lead to successful job placement, increased wages, and improved job retention,” per the release.
Two of those programs are in the Austin area: American YouthWorks and Skillpoint Alliance.
‘Reach out to rural communities’
Skillpoint Alliance received $210,000 from the grant program.
Chief Executive Officer Kevin Brackmeyer said it will help them reach out to rural communities throughout all of the areas they serve.
“We’ve seen a lot of individuals who are coming to our training come from outside of these rural communities. We felt that it was urgent that we start really reaching out to those communities and really helping them get trained.”
Kevin Brackmeyer, Skillpoint Alliance Chief Executive Officer
Brackmeyer said they are setting up pop-up trainings in those rural places. He said the grant will also help expand the times they can train.
“Adding more training sites at night as well as during the day with a focus on specific populations,” Brackmeyer said “One being the veterans that we love to serve.”
Skillpoint Alliance Electrical Instructor Matthew Singer is a veteran himself.
“It’s hard to reach veterans,” Singer said. “Often, large populations are in Killeen and San Antonio. So we try to go to them and provide them an opportunity to transfer from the military into a trade.”
‘Serve more young people’
American YouthWorks is another Austin nonprofit receiving the Texas Talent Connection Grant Program.
“Typically, students are spending half their time in our academic programs, finishing their GED or high school diploma and half of their time in the pre-apprenticeship job training programs,” said YouthBuild Program Director David Clauss.
Clauss said their $350,000 will go towards YouthBuild, a program for young adults who haven’t finished high school.
“Our YouthBuild programs job training is focused around the Austin economy,” Class said. “We provide job training in healthcare, IT, manufacturing and construction in the skilled trades.”
With this additional support, Clauss said they’re able to support over 120 to 150 young people.
The nonprofit said 80% of YouthBuild grads go on to higher education or a job in the Austin economy.
YouthBuild participant Eloy Vasquez is planning for that in his future.
“I actually want to like join trade school after this. A lot of the skills that I’ve learned here will definitely translate into what careers I’m trying to pursue.”
Eloy Vasquez, YouthBuild participant
Collectively, more than $50 million in grants have been awarded through the state’s grant program since 2015.
Austin, TX
Global aerospace co. Acutronic names Austin its divisional HQ, plans additional investment in area
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