Greetings! My name is Jake Gehrlein, I am a 4th-year Urban Studies major with a certificate in Geographic Information Systems. I fell in love with geography at a young age, and continue to be fascinated by how it seems to impact innumerable facets of human life. One unique fact about myself is that I am an Eagle Scout, and my experience in the scouting program remains foundational to who I am today.

The Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative is a program funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission to encourage higher learning institutions located within Appalachia to conduct community-engaged research on their surrounding areas. Appalachia is a region of the country which has historically faced unique challenges in reaching the same level of economic prosperity as the rest of the U.S.; among the most notable of these challenges is the outflow of highly educated and talented individuals to other places, commonly referred to as “brain drain.” The Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative serves to strengthen Appalachia in two ways: first, empowering Appalachian universities to conduct research on behalf of the Appalachian Regional Commission produces a wealth of information upon which the Appalachian Regional Commission can draw to inform future policy decisions; second, and perhaps more importantly, encouraging students at Appalachian universities to take a greater interest in the communities where they live and learn strengthens the connections between universities and their surroundings. 

The Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative requires the work conducted by its researchers to be community-engaged, so participant institutions are tasked with establishing a partnership with a local community organization in the course of the project. The role of the community partner is to guide the research being done in such a way that the community being researched actually stands to benefit from the results. Rather than harvesting data from a community and leaving, community-engaged methodologies demand that researchers center local needs in their work, and produce results that are both beneficial and sought-after by the community. I feel that this form of public-oriented research can be more rewarding to contribute to and have a greater effect on the real world than the typically arcane, autocratic iterations of scholarship where the researcher is an indisputable authority and the discussion is cloaked in disciplinary terminology.

The University of Pittsburgh joined the Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative in 2021, year one of a ten-year commitment to conducting community-engaged research. Pitt’s community of interest is Fayette County, Pennsylvania, occupying the south-east border of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny County. Compared to other counties in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, Fayette County has been doing notably worse than its neighbors. Consistently economically at-risk and more rural than surrounding counties, Fayette faces a number of challenges that prohibit it from experiencing the same stability that is seen elsewhere in the greater Pittsburgh area. Despite the so-called “Pittsburgh Renaissance” that has seen the Appalachian metropolis begin to recover from the collapse of American heavy manufacturing, directly neighboring Fayette County seems to have been left behind in the recovery. Because Fayette County is an outlier in its surroundings, it is an ideal subject for the University of Pittsburgh’s community-engaged research. In the co-creation of this research, Pitt has established a partnership with the Fayette County Cultural Trust, an organization based in Connellsville, the second largest urban area in Fayette County. The Fayette County Cultural Trust generally serves to advocate for the growth of Fayette County by forging connections between community stakeholders, pursuing grants for local projects, and supporting local events. Initially, Pitt’s goal for the Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative was the production of an asset map, a tool that collects and charts the strengths of Fayette County, ranging from public libraries to state parks to art installations. This third cohort of students represents a broadening of the scope of the project: beyond creating an asset map to responding to the need of community members for entrepreneurial education, establishing lasting methodologies for gathering local input, and encouraging programs that support local pride. 

I learned about this project after joining a seminar class offered through the Urban Studies department called “Appalachian Region in Question.” This class piqued my interest for a number of reasons, chief among them being that I hail from a part of the country with an analogous history to Appalachia. Erie, Pennsylvania is located in the northwestern corner of the state, and is the definitive Rust Belt city, still caught in the throes of a precipitous decline after a few major manufacturing firms abandoned it at the close of the 20th century. Like Appalachia, Erie is “left behind,” only brought up in conversation for the purpose of commenting on its depression. The best “fun facts” I can offer about my hometown are that it is home to the poorest ZIP code in America, and that it was the site of a cartoonishly evil bank heist scheme involving cane-guns and bomb-collars as documented in the Netflix mini-series “Evil Genius.” My childhood in Erie is the origin of my interests in urban planning, economics, and sociology. Questions like “Why does a company move its production without concern for how it will affect a community?” and “How is civic pride and local identity tied to industry?” have floated around in my mind for as long as I can remember, though perhaps never so eloquently phrased. 

I firmly believe that Erie, Fayette County, and places like them deserve the most attention from planners, economists and politicians. In my career, I want to focus on left-behind regions of America and help to plan their future. The Rust Belt around the Great Lakes in particular will become increasingly important on the national stage as climate change makes access to fresh water a greater priority. The cities in this area were largely built before the advent of the personal automobile, and consequently have all the ingredients for a more sustainable urban future already baked into the built environment. I want to help the cities of the Rust Belt make the most of their current situation and prepare for a future where they will be discussed as something more than an embarrassment in the national context. The Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative helps me toward this goal by enabling me to conduct research that gets me out of the classroom and in collaboration with actual community members. A better understanding of the conditions and prospects of Fayette County and the ways that research can provide tangible benefits for a community will frame all of my future work in grounded, solution-oriented terms.

I have a few years of experience with Geographic Information Systems to contribute to this project, some history with public speaking and interviewing as well as a passion for writing. I hope to build upon these skills during the project, and perhaps to acquire some new skills in networking.