East Lansing is crawling with young, enterprising individuals looking for new opportunities and Lansing is the perfect outlet for their energy.  This is not to say that local adults aren’t already inspired to take on new initiatives and innovate the way Lansing looks from a fresh perspective because many are, and do. However, it is undeniable that recent graduates and undergraduates are eager to do something significant with their newly gained education and aspirations. They want to work, get a job, fill their resume and get involved with something they are passionate about.

Also, many MSU students are new to the Lansing community and the way its infrastructure operates. Therefore, they are more likely to feel comfortable changing it or to spot places it could be tweaked and/or strengthened. Even more than that, many individuals are looking for experience in communication, personal relations, design, or whatever their passion might be. Thousands of young individuals with great creative capacity and an interest in gaining experience exist on and around MSU’s campus and they are an invaluable resource for Lansing. Whether its paid or unpaid work, students are looking to learn, work, and create. Why not put this resource to use to better Lansing?

As a junior at MSU I have been inspired and impressed by the diverse collection of ways the university and its students enrich the Lansing community and vice versa.

Perhaps the most obvious impact MSU has on the Lansing community directly correlates with that fact that Michigan State is a large institution with a student population totaling more than 46,000. It attracts and provides venues for events, speakers, musicians and shows that probably would not venture to the Lansing area otherwise.

The Wharton Center, MSU’s largest venue, brings in Broadway shows other major cities including Chicago, don’t get. These events bring in local residents, out-of-towners, students, faculty and staff and showcase stores and restaurants in Lansing and East Lansing, enhancing its cultural landscape. Beyond that, students offer a whole range of on campus plays, comedy and musical acts that add to Lansing and East Lansing’s entertainment scene.

Additionally, the sporting events at MSU add a spark to the spirit, sense of community, and thriving business culture to the region that’s irreplaceable.

However, it is important to realize that MSU enriches Lansing in a much deeper way than through sports and entertainment. MSU integrates career and civic engagement within the community, facilitating many volunteer opportunities for students within Lansing and abroad. There are many programs at MSU supporting and encouraging positive and enriching interaction between Lansing and East Lansing.

Most students at MSU participate in efforts to engage in the community outside campus and gain field experience through a course, internship, or volunteer work. This fosters possibilities for a symbiotic relationship between local businesses and organizations and students. In return businesses give students access to innovative ideas, mentorship and creativity.

Beyond the professional realms such as government internships, thousands of MSU students have contributed to community building projects in Lansing. For example, last semester I was a student mentor at a local non-profit art studio, REACH. Through that experience I got out of the campus bubble and actually talked to an impacted Lansing children that I would have never experienced without MSU’s effort to increase civic engagement. There are many MSU students who tutor local elementary and high school students, help out in classrooms, engage in workshops and after school activities with local youth, and aid with community initiatives like community gardens and farmer’s markets. Many of these outstanding efforts are featured on outreach.msu.edu.

Despite the dynamic qualities of both East Lansing and Lansing, and the community engagement that students already take part in, there is still a clear disconnect between the two cities. It would be incredibly beneficial for both communities for this gap to grow smaller. The vast amount of collaborative possibilities existing between East Lansing and Lansing has barely been tapped.

The book also goes on to explain how some of the richest most influential people in human history like Andrew Carnegie, JP Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, among others, all happened to have been born in the same decade, the 1830s. This was due to the fact that by the time of the industrial revolution in the 1860s, they were all at the perfect age to take advantage of the opportunities and resources available to them. Like railroads, factories, oil and the increase in American wealth.

While reading Outliers, I began thinking about how this might apply to me. What advantages do I have? Was I an outlier? And then it hit me. I was born in Michigan, and I was born in the 1980s. Allow me to explain. Michigan, and most notably the city of Detroit, is hurting. Hurting badly. The state needs young, courageous and creative people to step in and make a change, and it needs to happen now. Those of us who were born in the 1980s are, today, between the ages of 21 and 30. We are at the perfect age make a difference. We are educated, and we are old enough to have had a taste of real world experience without being too deep into our career. The state of Michigan and the city of Detroit present a lot of challenges, but they also present a lot of opportunities. Those of us who were born in the 1980s are at the perfect age to face those challenges and take advantage of the opportunities available to us. If we had been born any earlier we would be too old to take advantage. On the same token, had we been born any later we would be too young.

I don’t mean to suggest that people born in any other decade cannot contribute. You’re never too old, or too young to impact your community. I imagine, however, that most people who were born in the 1980s, especially the early and middle part of the decade have relatively low expenses, and low responsibility because we don’t have families of our own to provide for yet. We are also just now in the early stages of our career. This means we can afford to take a risk on a city and a state that needs us most in the hopes of great economic return. The transformation of this state and city needs to happen, and it needs to happen now. Those of us who were born in the 1980s are, right now, at the perfect age to make a difference and also benefit from it the most.

We are outliers.

Rob McIntosh is a 2007 graduate of Michigan State University who is originally from Livonia. Since graduating he has lived in New York City, working for publications such as GQ and Esquire. Rob is currently working on starting a Detroit based clothing company.

I am so frustrated with the comments on this blog that make blanket negative claims that there are little opportunities here in Michigan.  Many people have this perception of Michigan and even more specifically of Lansing, that is clogged with a generic negativity. I will even admit that before I plugged myself into this whole vibrant and innovative scene, I thought only “losers” who couldn’t find a job in Chicago or elsewhere, stayed here. Now, I know I couldn’t have been further from the truth. Both young and old students, professionals and entrepreneurs here in Lansing work endlessly to create green cities, collaborative co-working spaces and a vibrant nightlife. So, before you even start with “there’s no opportunities nor a fun nightlife in Lansing (or Michigan),” come hang out with me and my friends for a day, we’ll change your mind.

One of the most basic components for a successful entrepreneur is to have a network to share and develop ideas with. At 6 PM, every Friday for the past year, a group of 5-20 active, passionate students have met at a local bar, Harpers, to discuss their business ideas, or student organization initiatives, or their mentors, or their needs for these future plans. The group is called Gumball Club, but don’t ask why, the first rule of Gumball Club is: you do not talk about Gumball Club. The individuals come from across all disciplines, ranging from computer programmers to public policy students with businesses from a social media consulting company to a bartending school and are frequently collaborating on different projects.  The atmosphere of these conversations is casual but zinging with intensity and excitement.

A second component is an extensive mentor network. The internship coordinator at MSU, Paul Jaques, has created a mentorship program for entrepreneurs at MSU. The mentors range from successful software company owners to environmental activists. The mentors provide advice to us young adults to guide us through the confusing business development process and place us in contact with an even greater network of entrepreneurial individuals. Getting plugged into this network is critical for students to realize how many impressive people and ample resources there are in Lansing for them to make all their big plans happen.

Third, idea contests (with money!) are all over the place. One that I’ve worked on is the Next Bright Idea contest, put on by the Lansing Economic Area Partnership. The ten finalists will make a 3 minute idea pitch and based on creativity, authenticity and presentation style, the five judges will select a winner. The winner receives $5,000 dollars and a slew of other resources. Another cool concept, is Eve of Ignition, a student spin-off of the world re-known Ignite. While student pitches do not follow the typical O’Reilly format, they have five minutes to convince the judges that they should win the prize money to develop it! The winner from the event on March 3^rd, will have a chance to present at Ignite Lansing on March 5^th. In Lansing here it can be so easy for active students, who are ready to take a chance, to get funding for their awesome ideas.

Fourth, cheap (but cool!) co-working business space is on its way for students.  Students will now have a formal hub for all their efforts in The Hatch. Students will pay approximately $75/month and receive office space, mailing address, access to printer/fax and conference rooms, as well as a slew of networking events and other resources, like business plan help and financial, legal and technical services.

I understand all of these things don’t spell PERFECTION for everyone. I also understand, many students do not even know about all these great resources. Increasing visibility of all these is necessary for a true and lasting perception change. However, before individuals start making the monotonous claim that there’s little prospect in Michigan, I hope they take the time to become informed on what is really out there for them.  My life is booming with innovative ideas, entrepreneurial resources, incredible mentors and impressive friends in Lansing; yours could be too.

Kelly Steffen is a senior at Michigan State University, majoring in International Relations and Economics. She has recently formed her own company called Spotlight Campus Consulting, LLC, which works to connect economic developers, community organizers, businesses and media groups to Gen Y in the Lansing region.

This is Kelly’s second guest essay on Generation Y Michigan. You can read her first essay here.

Fortunately, a team of researchers at Michigan State University is working to fight this. A Michigan State University project called Community Ties aims to forge new social ties among youth, local entrepreneurs and other professionals through online social networking and community development activities. Community Ties is currently available for students and professionals in Grand Traverse, Marquette, Oscoda and Otsego Counties through the Community Ties website, communityties.us. The project was developed by the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media and is maintained by a grant from the USDA. The project has several main goals: sparking interactions, expanding career awareness, preventing bright flight, igniting inspiration and tying the community together.

Downtown Gaylord

Spark interactions

One goal of the project is to spark interactions between youth and professional role models, business peers with each other, students with each other, budding entrepreneurs with experienced business professionals. Conversations between these groups are facilitated on the Community Ties website as well as in person through forums that were held in each community in the spring of 2009.

Expand career awareness

There are many viable careers in rural communities that are invisible – jobs done behind closed doors and computer screens, that many of us are not aware exist. MSU faculty has been teaching classes at Traverse City West Senior High, Fairview High School, Gaylord High School and Ishpeming High School where students learn basic technology how-to as well as web design skills. Many of the students have learned about telecommuting and have been introduced to people in their community who telecommute to jobs across the country.

Prevent bright flight

Far too often, our best and brightest youth leave our community because they feel that opportunity awaits them elsewhere. If we strengthen Community Ties by placing local opportunities and invisible jobs in the spotlight, youth will realize “there’s no place like home.” The classes and activities held by Community Ties in their target regions has done just this. Many young people have realized that it is possible to leave home to attend college then return and have a prosperous career.

To help expand career awareness and prevent bright flight, Community Ties is sponsoring multiple interns throughout northern Michigan. Essentially, Community Ties plays match.com for careers. Students submitted why they would be a great intern and businesses submitted why they would be a great place to intern. Then Community Ties paired the matches made in heaven. Now there are students getting to paid in their dream careers that they didn’t always realize were available to them in their rural community. One student is with the forest service and another with a photographer which another still pursues their dream of being in the film industry.

Ignite Inspiration

Sometimes adults may feel like they are all alone in their profession or business, but the community is filled with local experts and others telecommuting. Connecting with other professional peers can help ignite inspiration and innovation to everyday problems. Through the Community Ties website, adults have been able to met and connect with others like them in the community. By sharing resources, both physical and intellectual, the entire community wins.

Tie the community together

Going beyond just sparking interactions, the more involved a person is with their community (online and offline) the more they will feel tied to their community. Developing and strengthening these connections helps expand career awareness, prevent bright fight, and ignite inspiration to make the community stronger and more tied than ever than it has ever been in the dream of Community Ties. Hopefully, the program will become state wide and be able to help more than just four counties. It’s not just the rural youth that need to be tied to the community, it’s all of Michigan. The professionals, the trade workers, the entrepreneurs, the students, the youth, the young adults, those ready to retire and those just about to begin their careers. There is a place in Michigan for everyone – now we just need to help them find it.

That’s why the truly motivated of our generation are looking outside the classroom, getting experience either in a workplace, or just throwing themselves into life with gusto, trying things out, making mistakes, and learning by doing. Whether they are getting a good job, starting a business, running a blog, volunteering, or just writing an article, they are working their way outside the classroom.

That is a good thing. Michigan should be welcoming the explorations of students, and giving them a helping hand, or a word of advice. For the most part, I feel that the communities are doing a good job of this. All I can do is speak of my personal experience, which has been stellar in East Lansing. I could not imagine being more welcomed and supported as an enterprising, curious student than I have been in East Lansing. The mere fact that I am writing this column and having it published is evidence of this. You are reading these very words because I am supported wholeheartedly by the community I live and work in. Most importantly, I’m not the only one; much of my generation has a similar viewpoint.

I think this is because we are a capable, ambitious, and eager generation. We are not content to have our papers graded; we want to get published, get our word out, and see tangible results of our efforts. We want to learn by giving the world a push, and seeing which dominoes fall, which doors open.

There is simply more value in the empirical side of education. As most Gen-Y students would tell you, we learn more in a day at work, than we do in a week or longer in a classroom. Whatever the outlet is, you can bet that any truly driven Gen-Yer has something that they do outside of their education, some source of experience, which is where they really gain the skills that will make them successful in their future endeavors.

The question is why are our Universities not encouraging that connection? All of the reaching is being done on the part of the community, or the students themselves. From what I see, the Universities are doing nothing to facilitate cooperation and sharing of students’ time and talent with the surrounding areas. They simply assume that students will find their way, and will fit in their real education in the spare time between their formal educations. This is the speed bump, the factor that complicates the ambitious college student’s life.

It has been predicted that we may have dozens of different positions throughout our working lives. Though we all specialize to one degree or another, the most valuable skill we can have is basic, simple, and yet deceivingly difficult to teach.

The only word I can use to describe it is fluidity. We need to understand many different aspects of all of the tasks that we may be asked to accomplish. We need to be able to learn how to do a job, do it, and then move on to another. We need to acquire skills on the go, quickly and effectively. We need to understand the big picture, see how we fit in, understand how all the parts around us are moving, and use our experience to judge how we individually contribute best to the situation. We need to learn this, and quickly. We need an education system that accommodates this need.

This fluidity is not something that can be acquired in a classroom, this comes from experience, from participating in numerous roles, being actively involved in projects with others. With all of the technological capability, and all the opportunities for change, and all the initiative of students, why are communities not encouraging students to participate, beckoning to them, welcoming their youthful vigor, fresh point of view and boundless creativity? Instead students are buried in papers and worksheets, halls full of intellectual horsepower replicate the same meaningless work, instead of having real opportunities to stretch their potential, make community connections, and do meaningful work with observable, tangible results.

On the other side, why should the community have to beckon? Why is the university not opening its doors, shoving students out into the community, validating their experiences with credit, recognition, or applause? They selfishly hoard students’ time, creating obstacles to the students trying to become truly “well-rounded”, rather than encouraging and incentivizing students’ broadening experiences.

Solutions, short of a revamp of our entire curriculum and the assumptions our educational system is banked on, are simple. On the student’s side, realize that life does not begin and end in the classroom, and that at the end of the day, that grade really is not all that important. Realize that you can likely learn far more by foraging out into the world, talking to people, taking on work, and dealing with real situations and challenges. On the community side, continue to extend the gracious and patient hospitality that you have been. Encourage and share with students, offer them the gift of the experience you worked so hard to earn, introduce them to others, sew them into the web of this community, show them how much we have to offer, I guarantee the “retention rate” will increase. Be vocal about your inclusion of students into your community, and inspire others to do so as well. Don’t treat them like intrusive tourists in your town, but visiting relatives, who, if they like what they see might just move in themselves. This is the truth behind “talent invigoration”.

Community-student connections will be valuable to Michigan, as we struggle to keep our recent grads around, earning and spending money in our state, if not our local economy. What could be better for this than students who have been building up friends and contacts in the local business scene for the past four years? These are the real principles of “talent retention” or, if you’ve been reading earlier posts “talent invigoration”. We need to give students reasons to stay in Michigan, not just opportunities. Job creation is not enough. We need to enable and inspire our students, give them a proving ground, not just a classroom.

Eric Jorgenson is currently a junior at Michigan State University, double-majoring in Economics and Business, with specializations in Entrepreneurship and Connected Learning. He is an intern at East Lansing’s Technology Innovation Center, and the upcoming student business incubator, The Hatch. He also owns his own company supplying bamboo T-shirts, GoBoo Clothing.

But Michigan is also known for the nation’s highest unemployment rate, frigid winters, the worst franchise in NFL history, and a crime rate that gives Detroit and Flint the distinction of being two of the most dangerous cities in America.

The Michigan State Flag

Which begs the question; is there any reason why young people should pledge allegiance to the Wolverine state?

As a recent college graduate, I anticipated entering the Michigan workforce after graduation. And I did.

Sadly though, it was a 20-hour a week job at Jimmy John’s. Not exactly what you hope for after taking out $25,000 in student loans.

Although the result of my education didn’t end up in a full-time position, the perspective I gained while enrolled at Aquinas College showed me that real education is not always learned in a classroom, but rather through experiences.

As a Saint, I welcomed incoming freshmen as an orientation leader, wrote for the school newspaper, served on the student senate, held several internships, and even lived in Chicago for a semester. Like anyone who experienced similar endeavors, I thought I would be a shoe-in for a job after graduation.

But I soon realized that the same old routine was getting repetitive. The job opportunities that arose were unrelated to my interests (eventually I would get turned down from over 10 employers), and the growing feeling that the real world was passing me by — out there, somewhere else — all aided in my increasing willingness to move on.

Although many of my college friends came to Grand Rapids from Lansing, Muskegon, and suburban Detroit, I was a lifelong Rapidian and was looking for any way out.

After several unsuccessful months of job hunting, I decided to apply to graduate school. I always enjoyed class and would describe myself as an academic. But I knew it wasn’t going to be in Michigan. The degree I wanted to obtain just wasn’t offered. So I looked elsewhere.

My pursuits led me to schools that ranged from California to Illinois. I was accepted to several but ultimately decided on Loyola University Chicago.

Although educational issues aided in my decision to depart from Michigan, anecdotal evidence suggests that twentysomethings are leaving for other reasons. Most notably, unemployment.

Responding to the shifts in attitude among young people, the state of Michigan started producing “Pure Michigan” commercials with the help of native sons Tim Allen and Jeff Daniels. The commercials are intended to boast what is “magical, unspoiled, timeless and true about the state.” The results have, surprisingly, shown an increase in tourism and a heightened interest, among young people, to stay in Michigan.

Reciprocity, it seems, is the tool which many politicians, business owners, and community organizers are marketing to young people in order to get them to stay. But, again, do we actually owe anything to the state in which we reside?

Perhaps an appropriate example would be to examine the choices made by the aforementioned spokespersons.

Tim Allen pursued his dreams of being an actor and comedian by leaving Michigan, as did Jeff Daniels. Granted they have since returned and done much good for the state. But it stands to reason that those who have talent and aspirations of a career that isn’t attainable in Michigan should look elsewhere.

Of course leaving for a short period of time isn’t a bad thing. The real problem, for Michigan, lies in its inability to draw is constituents back. Policy makers need to hold court over how to entice these people to invest in their home state; one way they can do that is through the promotion of non profits.

As stated in the first paragraph, one of the most distinguishable traits Michigan has is its generosity.

According to the Council of Michigan Foundations, Michigan has 2,521 nonprofit foundations with assets totaling $23.6 billion. While total giving is around $1.4 billion. Ranking Michigan 6th and 8th nationally in total assets and giving, respectively.

Impressive, for a state that, in 2007, had a per capital real GDP that was 14 percent below the national average.

But nonprofit organizations can’t be the only solution.

Historically, Michigan has been recognized as a manufacturing state. With furniture, automobiles, and manufacturing being its bread and butter. But the collapse of GM and Ford, along with the rest of the rust belt, has only advanced the disappearance of jobs.

It is my contention that, culturally, Michigan – especially the Midwest – is at least a year behind the rest of the country. Somewhere over the past 20 years, Michiganders grew complacent with their lifestyles, while other states chose to adapt.

Perhaps it’s generational.

But perhaps it isn’t.

The entrepreneurial spirit that Dan Redford advocates for in his article The Great Job Myth is exactly what Michigan is lacking. We need to reinvigorate the Michigan economy by applying different, not the same, principles than the older generation.

Examples of such principles have popped up over the past several months.

Wind energy, GM’s electric vehicle, and Grand Rapid’s Medical Mile are only a few of the investments where Michiganders are seeing positive, economic, results.

But, like other states, problems like rising tuition fees, increasing costs of living, and affordable health care also need to be addressed. These are the issues our legislators need to fix in order to retain not only young people, but the aging population as well.

When and if that happens, I’ll be back.

Michigan, you can count on me.

Stephen Kokx is a 2009 graduate of Aquinas College, where he studied Accounting and Sustainable Business. He is currently enrolled at Loyola University Chicago and will graduate with a M.A. in Social Justice and Community Development in 2011. Stephen regularly updates his blog and contributes freelance work to various Internet-based news magazines. Follow Stephen on Twitter.

For most people, it’s very hard to deal with the fact that, for maybe the first time in their lives, they just have no clue as to what the next step is going to be.

So, what do most students do during this time: look for a job. I mean, that’s what we’re supposed to do after we’re done with college, right? Get a job?

This is the tragic misperception that most students in our state have to deal with. They assume that all their years of education have now prepared them to work for somebody. And if they can’t find somebody to hire them, they more than likely will jump into a grad program without knowing why. Now that’s a scary thought: students going back to school just because they have no other option.

These are the major reasons why most of them are leaving the state. Students have been trained to think that they have to find some place with a “We’re hiring” sign in the window and they’re going other places where they think they can find it. Because of the over 15 percent unemployment rate, students just aren’t looking in Michigan.

Can you imagine what would happen if we encouraged students to use the years that they would’ve spent job hopping harnessing their creative potential, developing ideas, and starting their own businesses?

I’m not saying that looking for a job, or getting a job, are bad things. That goes for grad programs, too. In fact, the best strategy for finding the best opportunity after college is by multiplying your options.  But the obsession with finding a job that has crept into Michigan’s culture has limited our ability to reach our creative potential as a state. Students coming out of college are discouraged from developing their own ideas, from being creative, from thinking outside the box, and from becoming something that this state really, really needs: an entrepreneur.

There has been a lot of big talk from our officials in state and local government about fostering entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial communities for our economy. But what that has translated to is far from it, as further time, money and effort are being put into initiatives like the 21^st century job fund that supposedly foster growth in Michigan’s “niche markets.” These strategies continue to reinforce those cultural myths that there are certain “positions” that need to be “filled” by talented college graduates in order for our state to succeed.  It prematurely pegs students to careers that likely don’t fully optimize their value as professionals.

Students have been discouraged from taking risks, which is why most of them settle for a job that they might not be satisfied with right out of college. No wonder the average person switches jobs somewhere around 6 or 7 times.

Can you imagine what would happen if we encouraged students to use the years that they would’ve spent job hopping harnessing their creative potential, developing ideas, and starting their own businesses? To be sure, a lot of trial and error would occur. Many failures happen when going through ideas. Success takes time. But eventually, something sticks. They’ll find their own niche in the economy, and they’ll hire their own employees. Now that’s how you really create jobs, not to mention a competitive 21^st century economy rooted in new, innovative businesses.

How do we do this? How do we create a culture that encourages this type of crazy, risk taking, creative behavior? Well, it starts in our communities, in our neighborhoods, in our homes. As a community, we have to start talking, and start sharing ideas. Students should be taking field trips to places like the Technology Innovation Center on Grand River, where 13 start-ups are beginning their entrepreneurial journey. University officials need to be implementing campaigns to foster awareness of greater Lansing’s resources for new businesses and entrepreneurs among college students. Economic developers must start actively including students in conversations about how to grow the region. Everybody, including students, should be reading newspapers and periodicals like Lansing Capital Gains because it highlights entrepreneurial individuals and success stories instead of the typical media outlets that scare students with their horrifying job loss stories. In our daily rhetoric, we cannot be saying things like “we are preparing our students for real jobs to keep our community and our state competitive.” We need to be saying “we’re preparing them to be creative and successful. We’re preparing them to create and find their own opportunities.” Students have always been able to find their own opportunities. It’s time to start helping them broaden their horizons and open their minds to the wonderful possibilities that lie outside of an office cubicle…and (potentially) right here in Michigan.

Dan Redford is a senior at Michigan State University, double-majoring in International Relations and Chinese. He has recently co-founded his own company called Spotlight Campus Consulting, LLC, which works to connect economic developers, community organizers, businesses and media groups to Gen Y in the Lansing region.

The "Michigan by Choice" group on Facebook

The Generation Y Michigan series on Michigan Radio and the overly optimistic pro-Michigan sentiments it’s inspiring are starting to annoy me.

Oversimplified arguments for pledging allegiance to Michigan willfully ignore infrastructure-dependent jobs, the near impossibility of raising capital for start-ups, and the time it will take most people to turn a profit.

In fact, the very notion of “profit” seems anathema to these folks. Instead, they imply that highly-educated, underemployed Mitteneers should take the path of most resistance, forgoing things like meaningful paid work and health insurance indefinitely.

Forbes.com recently named Michigan as one of “the perennial losers, the sad sacks of our economy,” home to one of the four Worst Cities for Jobs. In light of that fact, Michigan By Choice’s rallying cry, “Not enough ___? Start your own ___!” might work for people who make tangible products, but it’s irrelevant for those of us whose livelihoods depend on existing infrastructure.

It’s easy to start a band or even a nonprofit, but would you tell my good friend K* — a poet, scholar and educator with two master’s degrees and a doctorate — “Hey, why not just start your own university so you can teach?”

What would Lauren Silverman, Gen Y Michigan’s reporter, do if, like my friend J* — a U of M grad with a bachelor’s in biophysics, masters in genetics, numerous volunteer experiences and Spanish fluency – found that the only local jobs in her field were washing test tubes? Oh wait, she’d probably move to Washington, D.C.

And what about people who try to start something but can’t find the capital to get it off the ground? People like D: After a series of lay-offs and jobs outside the food industry, decided to start a dinner club, and a restaurant, in Grand Rapids. D finally moved to Los Angeles because neither project attracted sufficient investment to even set up shop, much less turn a profit. In L.A., he found two jobs within a few weeks, at restaurants that value his culinary artistry. He also met Robert Downey, Jr.

In order to become a scalable and sustainable employer, start-ups need capital and infrastructure. These are things Grand Rapids — the only part of Michigan I can really speak to — does not currently offer. The city is a great place to start new projects, just not to get paid for them.

Ann Arbor is actually the only Michigan city to make CNN’s 100 Best Places to Live and Launch a new business, and there were 41 other places ahead of the college town.

Michigan idealists have also neglected to mention the consequences that an influx of new products or firms could have on local economies.

Take arts production, the entrepreneurial industry of choice. An increase in supply without a corresponding increase in demand is just going to make prices for artwork go down. Not good for local artists who are already struggling in the current market.

Without the introduction of other variables (mainstream critical engagement, increased competition, anything that will create the perception of scarcity), the general and slightly apathetic public is unlikely to respond to increased supply with renewed demand for what are often perceived as luxury items.

A potential consequence of “Just start your own!” for the nonprofit sector is service duplication, a major nonprofit no-no that reduces everyone’s chance for funding. I don’t need to reinvent the wheel and start a new arts nonprofit. I need the ones that already exist to start hiring or offer paid opportunities for collaboration.

There’s also a certain irony in the fact that Generation Y and Michigan by Choice are brought to you by people employed in their chosen fields at vibrant, innovative firms that had preexisting infrastructures and/or start-up capital.

I would never, ever try to minimize the millions of hours George Wietor has put into the Division Avenue Arts Collective, www.g-rad.org, and countless other local projects. But the fact remains that none of these homegrown efforts are paying his bills. Kevin Buist, another sensational guy, has benefited professionally from the injection of DeVos funding into the local arts sector, most recently through ArtPrize.

Had Buist and Wietor not been able to plug into the functional part of Grand Rapids’ cultural infrastructure, would they have had to move too? And how successful would Lauren Silverman be if she had to write, fund, and produce Generation Y without the support of Michigan Radio?

And yet they all seem to advocate the path of most resistance as intrinsically virtuous, a veritable badge of honor. To me, this misses the point. Shouldn’t the goal be to leverage the talents we’ve cultivated into the greatest impact for the largest number of people anyway? If so, then people should go to locations with high need, where they can most quickly and efficiently start filling the gaps.

Another irony here is the fact that all this talk of homegrown entrepreneurialism undermines arguments for why young college grads from other states should stay here. Why should Michigan transplants feel any particular commitment to improving Michigan over their own home states? And if they don’t return home, why should they consider Michigan over another state, where they believe they can have greater positive impact?

This is especially true when you consider the time it will inevitably take to turn the city and the state, around.

A recent report by the Pew Charitable Trust reveals that a mono-industry economy combined with state government’s inability to take swift, decisive action has jeopardized Michigan and other states’, competitiveness. Systemic failures like this didn’t happen overnight, and they won’t be resolved quickly either.

People with the education and experience to found successful new enterprises are most likely saddled with student loans, credit card debt, and car payments. In West Michigan, many couples in their 20s are already married, some with children. They just don’t have the luxury of risking time and resources into start-ups that may take years to pay off.

*Both J and K are employed, but they are in fields tangential to their academic backgrounds and, by their own admission, making less than they would in other areas.

Ruth Terry is a freelance writer living in the East Hills neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is a regular contributor to Rapid Growth Media and The Rapidian, and she also serves as development director and grant writer for an international nonprofit organization. Ruth enjoys cheese, dark chocolate, hot pink, and Star Trek the Next Generation.

So I have a solution: let’s build a wall around every campus in Michigan. It will certainly keep our bright students here and away from those evil places like Chicago and D.C. Sure, it might prevent those smart and talented young adults from Ohio and the East/West coast from getting in.

Catch my sarcasm? The very essence of the word retention irks me. It sounds like we need to physically hold students here, possibly even against their will if need be. It might be semantics, but there has to be a better concept for infusing the talents of our young adults into Michigan. To change things, we have to change the way we approach the strategy, which starts with changing the terms we use. So how about instead of saying talent retention, we say something like talent invigoration, talent activation, or talent infusion? None of these suggest physical acts of restraining young adults. Instead they are phrases that mean empowering talent to fully maximize their knowledge to improve Michigan’s economy.

The very essence of the word “retention” irks me. It might be semantics, but there has to be a better concept for infusing the talents of our young adults into Michigan.

In my mind, there are three components to talent invigoration, or whatever you want to call it (just not talent retention!): showing students who want to stay here that there are a lot of great opportunities for them, attracting other young adults to the region, and keeping those who want to leave connected to the region in order to provide value.

So how do we keep students that want to stay here? I have a couple of friends who would like to stay in Michigan but could not find a suitable job. A lot of them also didn’t even bother to look real hard for a job here.  So one, we need to change this perception. We need to show students there are a lot of innovative jobs in Michigan, which they should have to intensely scavenge for. When students think of innovative, cool job opportunities, we should make sure students at least think to look around them. Two, we need to show students that this is a happening place. They won’t be stuck hanging out at the same ‘ol bars and restaurants if they stay here. There is a lot of nightlife they haven’t yet experienced. Three, we need to show students that they can start their own entrepreneurial venture here if they can’t find a job that fits their needs. This includes offering business services and venture capital and grants for young adults.

The second component of talent infusion is attracting outside talent to the region. So how do we do this? We need to create a national message that says, “Hey! Michigan is cool. It’s not the dying automobile center that national newspapers likes to portray it as. We’re soooo past that.” This is intricately linked to component one. If young adults are making things happen in Michigan and there are good lifestyle and professional opportunities, that gives a darn good message to those looking to stop being a small fish in Chicago’s big pond.

The third component is one so easily forgotten. There seems to be a negative reaction by many policy makers, economic developers, etc. of those students that choose to leave the region. Sure, the state won’t get their income tax. But if we find a way for those students to stay connected to the region, most likely in the future they will provide a much greater value to the region than what their measly income tax would provide. For example, in September, my company Spotlight Campus (operating at the time as Spotlight Michigan) hosted an idea contest with Young, Smart and Global Lansing called the “Eve of Ignition.” What people might not know is that my main partner in crime at Spotlight, Dan Redford, was in China this summer, while I was in DC. Our other two colleagues, Chelsea Burnett and Matt Barkell, were in East Lansing. The four of us collaborated, planned, and executed vital elements for the contest while we were spread out all summer. As you can see, Dan and I had produced a great asset for the region, while we weren’t physically here, simply because we wanted to see something good happen in the region.

So how do we create this connection? We have to get students emotionally connected to the region early in their college career. Then if they need to branch out after graduation, they are connected enough to the region that they don’t peace out for good, only to communicate with the region through visits back for an MSU versus U-M tailgate. We need to create a dialogue with these students about what they are learning from places all over the world and how we can apply them to Michigan. We absolutely cannot afford to continue to lose ties with these students and take them as a lost cause. With an open dialogue, there are good chances that they’ll be back to apply their new global perspective and advanced skills to Michigan.

So maybe it’s semantics, but retention is not the right word here unless we’re talking about a physical action taken to keep students here. Instead, we should be finding ways to infuse students into this economy and to get them excited to actively participate in it. The question shouldn’t be just “why are young adults leaving the state?” — but instead, “why are they not tuned in and excited about what is happening in the state?”

I see this trait in my friends as they’re deciding what to do after they graduate from college. Everyone talks about how important their work is going to be. No one talks about their pension plans. I wouldn’t hesitate to take a pay-cut to work a more meaningful job, and I think most of my friends would do the same. We just want to make enough money to live simply and comfortably. Everything after that is nice, but it’s less important than doing work we care about.

The distinctive quality of importance is that it’s so intangible and relative. We don’t know exactly where to look to find it. There’s no map that lays it all out for us.

When we buy into that narrative of chasing success, we’re telling ourselves that we have to go other places to do work that matters. Worse, it tells us that we as individuals lack significance.

Understandably, many of us set our sights on exotic locations like D.C., or Silicon Valley, or Chicago. It’s practically an American tradition by now: bright-eyed Midwesterner goes off to the big city to chase his or her dreams. If you go into it with the right attitude and understanding, then it can be really rewarding.

There is, however, a problem with the way some people think about it. When we buy into that narrative of chasing success, we’re telling ourselves that we have to go other places to do work that matters. Worse, it tells us that we as individuals lack significance. We can only become important if we go to the places where important things are happening. Once we get there, we’ll meet big people and they’ll show us the ropes, and one day, if we’re lucky, we’ll become big people too. We can’t create any importance from scratch. We have to go elsewhere to claim a share of some pre-existing importance.

I beg to differ. We can make our own importance. We don’t have to ask permission. We don’t have to wait.

That’s what the “talent retention” enthusiasts don’t get. We don’t want to be retained. We don’t want to be tricked into staying in Michigan or distracted by a cool downtown area just to work some job we’re not really into. They’re trying to make Michigan cities into cheap replicas of other “important” places. Sure, there has to be a certain level of support, but we want to build things. We want to be founders. We don’t want our hands held, and we don’t want you to make plans for us.

We just want to do meaningful work. We want to be remembered for doing big things and making the world better. That’s what we really want.