My name is Peter Wesley. I am working as a representative for the urban studies department in this semester’s Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative program. I am a junior and currently pursuing a BS in Urban Planning and Geographic Analysis and Certificate in Sustainability. I have a particular interest in the concept of urban rewilding and the functional role it could play in the future of urban development—I want to bridge the gap between urban and natural environments. Outside the classroom, I enjoy spending my time outdoors. I like camping, hiking, kayaking, biking, exploring—and documenting it all through my photography. In fact, my appreciation for the outdoors drew me to this project. I’ve always loved the natural beauty of the Appalachian region, having spent most of my life hiking throughout Appalachian Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.  

This semester we are engaging in arts-based economic development using asset and placed based approaches. We are building off the work of last year’s urban studies students who investigated Fayette County’s tourism economy. Using the asset map they, and previous cohorts, produced, along with community feedback, we are identifying key assets throughout Connellsville and greater Fayette County. These assets will be highlighted and amplified through distributable stickers, which will be designed in conjunction with local artists and produced at a local print shop. As tourists, and cyclists off the Great Allegheny Passage, pass through Connellsville, the distribution of these stickers for placement on water bottles, bike helmets, and cars functions to broaden the awareness of Connellsville’s valuable landmarks—as the stickers travel throughout and outside the region.

Our project relies heavily on community engagement and feedback. As of now, we have coordinated with the director of the Carnegie Free Library who has provided us with a space to set up a community engagement booth. The booth essentially asks the question, “what community assets—in Connellsville and greater Fayette County—do you want highlighted and turned into stickers?” Participants are encouraged to drop their suggestions into a submission drop box. As the project progresses, we plan on setting up similar engagement booths in both Brownsville and Uniontown. We have also produced a flyer about the project which we plan to distribute to local businesses during our first visit. On the flyer is a QR code that encourages participants to answer the same question as our booth.

While we are basing our initial efforts out of Connellsville, the scope of our project is greater Fayette County. We recognize that there are “invisible barriers” between the towns and cities throughout Appalachia. We want to help bridge this divide—the first step of which is to ground ourselves and deepen our understanding of the region. To achieve this, we plan to explore various towns throughout Fayette County, documenting our investigation through photography and videography. By familiarizing ourselves with local conditions, we might better be able to understand how to encourage equitable regional connectivity.

Beyond establishing ourselves better within the region, we hope to encourage community investment and asset awareness in Connellsville and greater Fayette County (a byproduct of which might be regional interconnectedness). We want to create a tangible product that highlights the assets of Fayette County; stickers that can be appreciated by local residents and that can be carried outside the boundaries of the region.

My current professional goal is to find a career in environmental planning. I want to engage in urban development that is sustainable and environmentally conscious. This project will help me build a lot of the soft skills necessary to be a planner. First off, community engagement is at the forefront of modern planning. The ability to design and upkeep a community engagement booth for data collection, as we are doing with this project, is a valuable skill. In addition, we will be conducting interviews with Fayette County residents and business owners throughout the duration of the project. The ability to interview and communicate ideas, especially on the street, where agility is necessary, is another valuable skill for planners. Thirdly, the ability to organize and analyze data, a skill which will be exercised throughout the project as we gather resident feedback, is another important soft skill. Fourthly, we expect that this project will develop in unforeseen ways, which will require us to be flexible and adaptive. These are, again, valuable skills necessary for planning that can only be exercised in the field. Finally, this project is fundamentally based around fieldwork. Fieldwork (site visits, interviews, documentation, assessment, etc.) is, naturally, only a skill that can be built in the field. The Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative, a fieldwork intensive effort, is an opportunity to engage with such practical skill building.