Recently, our class completed a 3-day site visit to Fayette County, visiting multiple locations in Uniontown and Connellsville. Memorable sites included the GAP Trail, the Penn State Fayette Coal and Coke Heritage Center, and the early workings of a black box theatre in Connellsville. The GAP Trail was the strongest community asset we saw on our trip, as shown by the businesses we passed. Connellsville is uniquely situated as a town in Western PA that runs directly along this infamous bike trail, which is estimated to get thousands of riders a month. Connellsville has turned this natural advantage into a boost for local businesses, including numerous coffee shops, bike shops, and restaurants within arm’s reach of the trail for travelers. In comparison to Uniontown, which unfortunately does not have a landmark like the GAP Trail, there were very few, if any, local coffee shops open in the afternoon for us to go to. The Fayette County Trust has utilized the GAP Trail and its potential as an economic outlet to create more potential avenues to flourish. One thing in particular the FCT was passionate about was the arts, where we were able to go inside a still-renovated massive black-box theater, something very rare for the area of Western PA, including Pittsburgh. There, Michael and Dan from the FCT explained their intention to create a local space for theater and comedy, with the potential to bring in schools from across the area, even Pitt, to perform. I see the potential of enriching art in a local community as creating not just a better environment, but also pride and ownership. At the end of the day, the team found these community assets because of its commitment to travel and seek them out through thoughtful listening. With this in mind, the best progress toward finding more assets is to speak more with the community and immerse ourselves in their lives to better understand potential avenues we, as outsiders, may never think of or know about. Additionally, seeking a diverse range of community voices is crucial to ensure our understanding isn’t limited to our site visits, which we primarily viewed through the FCT lens.

When we visited Penn State Fayette’s campus and heard stories from the designer of the Coal and Coke Heritage Center about the museum’s grim future, I was most shocked. Because I have friends who went to that school and live a short distance from campus, I have heard the community upheaval over the closure of the massive school. One thing I haven’t heard discussed as much is the Coal and Coke Heritage Center question. When speaking with the designer of the museum and being told of her experience, or lack thereof, dealing with higher-up administration giving her vague answers, ignoring her, and not giving her a seat at the table in discussions of what to do with its future was hard to hear. During the conversation, she mentioned the administration’s plan was to shove these artifacts/family heirlooms in a storage box. One of the hardest things when working with underrepresented and small-knit communities is convincing people outside the community to care about its worth. For me, hearing these things from a “community” of scholars showed me the urgent need for ACRI and other outreach groups to continue and sustain a conversation about this region’s culture and worth.

One of the hardest things when working with underrepresented and small-knit communities is convincing people outside the community to care about its worth.

One thing I saw on full display, drawn from the readings on the benefits of service learning, was the idea that the practice can bridge the gap between students and the community they are researching. I have already bridged this gap, being from the region, but one thing that always worried me was classmates from outside the region and their biases and perspectives on an area they had never visited. I would be amiss not to acknowledge that I was terrified to hear negative anecdotes about the area I was from and to hear these regurgitated stereotypes coming to the fore when walking through campus. I was also worried about my classmates’ dedication to a region listed solely on a grade/research project. During the trip, however, I saw firsthand my classmates’ appreciation of the region through the curiosity they expressed when exploring certain areas. The class came in open-minded, rather than prejudiced, and I saw a fruitful reward: we became more motivated to care about the work we were doing. After visiting actual sites, I believe it not only motivated the class to care about the region but also gave us greater insight into the limitations local businesses have faced in rural communities compared to what the University of Pittsburgh has. For instance, when we would search for local coffee shops or stores in downtown Uniontown, the class saw how virtually nothing was open in the area in the late afternoon, something unusual for campus life but very normal for the community. First-hand field service lets you see small things like coffee shop closures and understand the challenges of a community that may not show up in statistics.

After visiting the community purely to learn and apply economic development in the area where I grew up, I feel I recognized aspects I would not have without the visit. I believe the rural community can best reignite economic opportunity by focusing on its abundant natural resources, as Connelsville has. While the GAP trail is limited to Connelsville, I believe natural development in other areas of the community could create more transactional opportunities, which would, in turn, promote business. That said, I think what’s crucial when looking at these small businesses is to consider their locations and community assets when analyzing local business. Especially when seeing how, for something like the GAP Trail, which in my head could never spur a great economic surge, it showed an area of Connelsville with a multitude of businesses that unfortunately not many rural towns have.