At the beginning of October, I had the opportunity to spend a weekend in Fayette County with Pitt’s Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative (ACRI) cohort. Alongside my urban studies-political science group were teams from the business and sustainability departments, and it was great to spend time collaborating on and refining both our respective projects and overarching goals for the program. We stayed at the Touchstone Center for Crafts, a stunning nonprofit residential arts center in the Laurel Highlands. Going into the weekend, I was excited to begin community work, but especially thrilled to be spending a fall weekend somewhere so gorgeous and peaceful. Touchstone is a true gem, offering community events, retreats, and workshops in a variety of mediums for professionals, art teachers, teenagers, and veterans alike. My team enjoyed exploring the center’s exhibitions, morning walks through the facilities, and a Thursday night campfire that allowed us to build community as we prepared for site visits and interviews the next day.

On Friday morning, we set off for a visit to Penn State Fayette’s Eberly Campus, which is set to close alongside 6 other regional campuses after the 2026-27 academic year. Our team had discussed the impact of this decision in previous meetings, but it wasn’t until visiting the campus that I realized how important of an asset the campus is to the broader community. Not only is Penn State Fayette the only institution in Fayette County offering four-year degree programs, but the buildings and library serve as important third spaces for people of all ages. Housed in the Eberly campus library is the Coal and Coke Heritage Center, which consists of both a museum exhibition and an archive of documents related to coal and coke mining in southwestern Pennsylvania. We received a tour of this space from Abby Tancin, an archivist and librarian who led the recent redesign of the museum. Walking through the exhibits truly felt like stepping back in time to a patch town, allowing me to more fully conceptualize the continuous legacy of coal and coke mining. At the front of everyone’s mind, however, was what would happen to the museum after the impending closure. The archive will find a new home, but the campus’s closure will absolutely have a negative socioeconomic impact on Fayette County. One of the most frustrating things about this problem for us is that there is no one culprit, nor is there a straightforward fix. Pitt can reverse Penn State’s decision to close regional campuses no more easily than it can solve the problem of declining university enrollment nationwide. The machinations of this issue are far above the scope of our team’s segment of this project, but we share the community-wide hope that the space can be repurposed, as a trade school, community center, or something else entirely.

After this thought-provoking morning, we drove to the Connellsville Canteen for lunch and a presentation from the Fayette County Cultural Trust’s wonderful leaders, Dan and Mike. They showed around the Fayette County Entrepreneurship & Education Center, replete with a classroom space, a display of Native American artifacts, and a brand-new black box theater. This, combined with the over six million dollars accrued in Connellsville property sales in the past six months alone, is a testament to the tireless work of community leaders. Lunchtime conversations drove home this point as I learned how so many initiatives are led by a few very dedicated people. The history, pride, and civic involvement on display at the Canteen illuminated just how many assets Fayette County has and increased my group’s resolve to connect them via arts-based asset mapping. We spent the afternoon taking a walking tour of Connellsville, where we ended up talking with Ann and Shirley of the Appalachian Creativity Center for over an hour. The Creativity Center offers extremely popular art classes on everything from stained glass to basket weaving as well as a space for local artists to sell their creations. We created opportunities for community feedback on our project at the Creativity Center, the Connellsville Redevelopment Authority, and the Carnegie Free Library. I then enjoyed a cup of truly exceptional gelato with my team members at Olde World Coffee and Gelato (if you have no other reason to visit Connellsville, come for the cookie butter gelato!) While I had to leave Friday afternoon, the rest of my group attended a Connellsville high school football game and visited the Connellsville Hiker-Biker Campground that evening. 

I had few expectations going into the weekend, so I didn’t encounter any huge surprises. But one thing I hadn’t expected was the number of economic and civic development initiatives that have already been spearheaded by community leaders. On this visit, we were there not as consultants ready to offer recommendations, but as visitors learning about how preexisting community efforts could be expanded with the assistance of Pitt’s vast resources. Examples of this included comprehensive grants applied for and won by the Fayette County Cultural Trust, but also smaller-scale initiatives like the creation of “Fiona Fayette” children’s books in honor of America’s 250th birthday, the granddaughter of Phineas Fayette who was created at the 200th-anniversary mark, and educational initiatives like the “Senator for a Day” program sponsored by State Senator Pat Stefano and the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce’s sponsorship of the National Civics Bee. As the urban studies team considered which assets would best serve to be marketed through our sticker project, hearing more about these ongoing community efforts was immeasurably helpful. It was also impressive, because these initiatives are taken on by a select few community members whose duties far exceed a traditional 9-5 workload. In lunchtime conversation, the FCCT’s Workforce Coordinator, Kathi Hull, shared that when asked what her job description was, she would say “yes,” because her job spans far beyond a single title. This is where Pitt’s work in capacity-building comes in, as it allows these dedicated leaders to increase the scope of their community work. I would be remiss not to mention again how these leaders rely on the Penn State Fayette space for this work—”Senator for a Day” is hosted there—and how the closure will force them to find alternatives. Nevertheless, no one we talked to has given up hope for a path forward, because they cannot afford to; they are too focused on upholding their community. 

What I saw in Fayette County directly connects back to what I’ve learned in Politics of Appalachia, as it stands as a textbook example of a “left-behind place” abandoned by industry, losing population, and struggling economically. I think Pitt’s approach intersects beautifully with the neo-endogenous economic approach I learned about in my course readings, in which locally-driven, bottom-up initiatives–like the FCCT’s—are coupled with resources and top-down approaches—like Pitt’s and the ARC’s. The neo-endogenous approach also uses holistic metrics that go beyond a sole focus on economic criteria. In our initiative work, while the urban studies-political science team’s project relates to economic development in the long term, the primary focus is more primarily on promoting place-based pride through positive representation and thus, my recommendations on what policies could spur economic development would be somewhat outside of the scope of my team’s project. Nonetheless, the sustainability team’s collaboration with Heartland Fabrications to promote the development of technical education initiatives, expanding Fayette County’s younger workforce, stood out as an example of how community partnerships could potentially promote economic growth. The continuation and expansion of already-successful beautification and redevelopment initiatives in Connellsville appears to be a promising path forward. 

After weeks of anticipation, our cohort’s site visit to Fayette County truly did not disappoint. It was a pleasure learning from those we met with, spending time outdoors in beautiful autumnal southwestern Pennsylvania weather, and eating some really delicious food, all of which made me incredibly excited for the remainder of my participation in this project’s decade-long execution.