(Memphis) Thousands of people in Memphis are heading off to college after receiving their diploma.
Unfortunately, many of them will never come back choosing jobs in other cities.
This is causing Memphis to lose a pool of great talent that could improve the community.
Getting homegrown talent and successful people to come back here for jobs to help the city`s economy and future growth is the goal of a local group.
A quarter of the people living in Memphis`s metro area have a college degree.
Douglas Scarboro is working to get college students to come back to Memphis once they graduate to work.
He says for every percentage point of graduates the city gains puts a billion dollars into the local economy, “If we have more educated people in the metropolitan area we have a stronger city and a better population.”
Another part of improving the economy is plugging students going to college in Memphis into the city to let them know they have future opportunities here.
The city is doing that through the Urban Fellows program. It`s an internship programing with the city.
Tyler Adams is one of the 26 people in the program and says the internship is connecting him with Memphis and makes him want to consider it for his future rather than his hometown of New Orleans, “It`s definitely something that I`m considering now even more since I have two years left in college, but I`m definitely considering it more especially if I have a job out of college.”
Scarboro says another big part of getting students to come back or stay is creating a city with a lot to do where they would want to live in.
The office of talent retention and the urban fellows program is completely funded by grants with no money coming from the city`s budget.