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Graduates Should Consider New Mexico in their Future Plans

USDA Rural Development State Director Terry Brunner

  Commentary:  It is the season for New Mexico college graduations.  Graduates across our state will hear commencement speeches inspiring them to pursue their dreams, find a great job and put their new degrees to good use.  Too often graduates will imagine that achieving their dreams is only possible if they move to Austin, Phoenix or Denver.  To secure a better future for our state, we must change that perception. 

This year’s college graduates were approaching high school when the Great Recession hit.  For the last eight years, they’ve heard a steady diet of stories about New Mexico’s rising rates of poverty, food insecurity, opioid addition, and crime.  It’s no wonder that some graduates might be reluctant to consider pursuing their dreams in our state.

In my role as State Director for Rural Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, last year I spoke to 50 students at New Mexico State University about their future.   I was disheartened by how many planned to leave the state upon graduation.    

We may not be the only state experiencing “brain drain,” but given that we’re consistently on the top of all the wrong lists, losing talent hits us harder than most.   We desperately need to take steps to entice recent graduates to live in New Mexico and take an active role in making it better.

The first step is to change our pitch.  Many talented New Mexico children hear early on that other states have more to offer.  What if we instead encouraged them to stay or return after experiencing the rest of the world?  Imagine the impact to our communities if more high school valedictorians planned to make their lives in New Mexico.  Local communities can achieve this by offering incentives such as affordable housing, student loan repayment and business start-up help. 

The second step is to emphasize graduates’ ability to make a positive impact right here in New Mexico. We know that the Millennium generation is deeply interested in making the world a better place.  But young people don’t have to travel half way around the globe to help bring families clean drinking water, improve schools or end the crushing cycle of poverty.  We have those challenges in our state, and we can’t fix them without the help of Millennials. 

The third step is to give those graduates real, tangible opportunities.  Our workforce is changing as baby boomers retire.  Weaving recent grads into the workforce requires mentoring, developing career pathways to success and giving them meaningful responsibility.  It also means being willing to adapt to their needs and changing the way we’ve been doing business.

For those recent graduates wanting to make an impact on the world: consider that you can change the world by making your own back yard a better place.