This semester, I had the privilege of working with a cross-disciplinary team of 11 Pitt students to enhance economic development in the Appalachian Region, specifically in Fayette County. The work we have done this semester has led to two main events. First, our November 17th presentation to residents, small business owners, and political figures in Connellsville, PA, and finally, our December 2nd presentation at the Appalachian Regional Commission Conference in Washington, DC. Both of these events were huge opportunities to not only showcase what we have researched and created, but to also get feedback that will help with the future cohorts after us. On a smaller scale, these presentations were opportunities for me to practice public speaking, learn how to alter my tone and words to different audiences, and overall to build my self confidence.
Our first presentation took place at the Connellsville Canteen – one of the town’s most prized possessions. It is a place where you can get great quality food while sitting in the middle of a World War 2 museum. They have a separate room for events which we reserved for a lunch-in. We invited many Fayette county residents who we met during our first visit back in October. Some notable figures in the room included Senator Pat Stefano, President Michael Edwards and Executive Director Daniel Cocks of the Fayette Cultural Trust, members of the Connellsville Lion’s Club, faculty from the neighboring high schools, and many more.
This was a very new and specific type of presentation for me. The only presentations I have ever done have been graded, and my audience only ever included my teachers and classmates for a school assignment. This time, my assignment was about real life, and my subject was real people. The people in the audience were there to actually listen to and internalize the words we were saying, and instead of doing this to give me a grade, they were going to tell their family and friends, who would tell their family and friends. The goal is that one day the things we spoke about would really come true.
The stakes were different here, because our audience included people who grew up in Fayette County or moved there recently, who love their town and want to see it thrive. We had to make sure we weren’t coming off as the type of people who only want to make a profit from them, instead of genuinely wanting to help them. We had to alter the way we were speaking to not come off as “know-it-alls”, and we had to make sure to encourage feedback, both positive and negative. Each cohort (urban studies, business, sustainability, political science) had 3-5 minutes to talk about the work they have done and their recommendations. We spoke a lot about the specific people we met with, the conversations and research we took part in, and the reasoning behind our recommendations. We had 30+ minutes at the end for feedback. We opened the floor for questions, concerns, comments, room to disagree or agree with anything we said, or space to give us more ideas or people to talk to for the future. During this time, we got a lot of invaluable information, leads, and concerns that each one of us responded to to the best of our ability and wrote down in our team documents for the cohorts of future semesters to consider.
Overall, this presentation was close-knit and incredibly meaningful. My favorite part was seeing the faces of the Fayette County residents nodding and smiling in approval of our hard work. It made me feel like we had a purpose and did right by the town.
Our presentation in DC was very different. We had to shorten it to 2-3 minutes per cohort, so 10 minutes total. No one in the audience lived in Fayette County. In fact, our audience included students and faculty from other colleges as well as members of the Appalachian Regional Commission. It had more of a corporate vibe that felt more like an opportunity to show off our work in comparison to the other school (I was fine with that because of how great we did). The time for questions at the end was short, and the questions were mostly clarifying questions instead of probing questions or feedback for the good of Fayette County, or suggestions for the future.
The biggest thing for me at that conference was that I would be speaking in front of about 150 people (I think I’ve only ever presented in front of 35). In preparation for that moment, I made sure to build my confidence. I reminded myself how hard we have all worked this semester on this topic that we are all extremely passionate about and personally involved in. This made it easier and less stressful when thinking about speaking in front of 150 people. In the end, those 150 people were there to hear us speak. And with that, my nervousness turned into excitement.
At the ARC DC conference, I got to hear many students from other schools talk about their projects. For the most part, everyone had a different area in the Appalachian Region, as well as different focus points and recommendations. It was incredibly interesting to learn about the struggles in all of these different counties. Even though they all seemed to be different, over time I started to notice that the patterns and issues throughout Appalachia follow the same trends. These places are underdeveloped, neglected, and run down. Surprisingly enough, their residents all have positive sentiments toward their hometowns. They care about where they live, and want their hometowns to thrive. The main goal is that one day these places will be able to compete with the rest of the nation (best places to live, visit, have a good economy, etc).
I learned so much about Appalachia and all of the different counties and towns within it. They all have something great to offer, and people who care about them. It’s all about the right attention and applying hard work in order to see these turnarounds. That is why the work that ACRI and ARC are doing is so important. I can’t wait to see what happens in the years to come!
