Site icon West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Us & Them: Stay Or Go — Part 2: The Goers

Published
Trey Kay, Christina Stella
A graphic, purple and yellow, with text that reads, Us & Them: Stay or Go? Part 2: The Goers. The WVPB logo is also visible.

Your browser doesn't support audio playback.

West Virginia continues to lose young people. In the past five years, the state’s population has dropped by nearly 1.5% — the largest decline in the nation. Only two of the state’s 55 counties saw population growth, and demographic projections from West Virginia University anticipate further population loss in the years ahead.

In the second of two Us & Them episodes exploring young West Virginians considering their future, host Trey Kay talks with those looking beyond the state’s borders — along with some who remain deeply conflicted about leaving.

In some cases, Kay talks with people who don’t see a way to follow their chosen career path in West Virginia. Others are looking for greater social, cultural or political diversity. And some love the state deeply but question whether the infrastructure, opportunities and communities they will need are available to them.

Their choices raise a larger question: What would it take for West Virginia to convince its young people they are needed here?

Support this Reporting

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation’s Narrative Change Grant.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Spotify, the NPR app and wherever you get your podcasts.

A young woman, blond and in a white dress shirt, sits in a recording studio. She has headphones on and speaks into a microphone while looking toward the camera.
Lilly Barickman, 25, is interviewed at West Virginia Public Broadcasting in Charleston, West Virginia. A Wheeling native and Marshall University graduate, Barickman is senior manager of communications and engagement for the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce. With family roots in the state stretching back generations, she says she wants to build her own career as part of West Virginia’s continuing story.

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting

“I did the math somewhat recently and on my dad’s side I believe I’m about an eighth-generation West Virginian, so it goes way back. … I am building a career here. I’d love to be a part of that legacy — the legacy that is West Virginia. You look at so many families that have that generational history right here in the state.”

— Lilly Barickman

Us & Them host Trey Kay, left, and his niece, Elizabeth Kay, are pictured in Newburgh, New York, in 2024, when Elizabeth was playing volleyball for the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Kay later graduated from the academy and now works as a third mate aboard oil tankers while serving as an ensign in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Elizabeth Kay, is pictured aboard an oil tanker after a work shift. Kay works aboard commercial vessels as she travels to international ports. A native West Virginian who now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, she says her work and travel have deepened her emotional connection to Appalachia and the state she still considers home.

Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Kay

“No one has ever asked me to, to come back or stay when I was leaving. … They were, everyone was kinda like, ‘Yeah, go see the world.’ And I’ve, I haven’t… That’s a really interesting way you put it ’cause I have never thought of it that way. But yeah, we’re, we’re kinda—we’re ran up through the pipeline, we’re spit out, and everyone’s like, ‘Go, go have a great life somewhere else.’ … If somebody asked me to come back and asked me to, like, have a life here and they thought that I would be an asset to the community, I would, I would consider it.”

— Elizabeth Kay

Steve Roberts, president of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, says West Virginia’s long-term economic future depends on investments designed not merely to address today’s problems, but to create opportunities for the next generation. In Us & Them’s Stay or Go reporting, Roberts says that population loss is forcing state leaders to confront questions about population demographics, economic growth and what kind of West Virginia they want to build for the future.

Photo courtesy of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce

“Investments are really all about the future. They’re not so much about the present. I think in West Virginia, leaders were reacting to either the past or the current, but were not really — some leaders — thinking about the future. Because we lived in, in the period of the 1950s and ’60s and into the ’70s, West Virginia had a bifurcated economy. We had the haves and the have-nots, and the haves were doing very well.

I think the reason you and I are having this conversation today is because the haves are now concerned about what kind of state we have. One of the reasons we can perhaps get some things done in West Virginia that we couldn’t get done previously is because the people who basically are in charge are looking around and saying, ‘Oh my gosh, what happened? People are leaving. We’re not seeing the growth we wanna see. What can we do to turn that around? What can we do to change that?’”

— Steve Roberts

Sarah Armstrong Tucker, West Virginia’s chancellor of higher education and the state’s community and technical college system, says young people increasingly approach higher education with a clear eye toward cost, career prospects and how quickly a degree or credential can lead to a job. Tucker says West Virginia needs to do a better job showing young people the opportunities available to them — and asking what would make them want to build their lives here.

Photo courtesy of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission

“I mean, I think it would be wonderful if all of the adults in the state of West Virginia had those conversations with students. I mean, I really think that that is a missing, a missing piece. I think we have a lot of kids who are connected to their phones and their devices, and I think a lot of those kitchen table conversations that used to happen don’t necessarily happen anymore. I think that, as I mentioned before, I think that as adults, we sort of have a duty to say to them, you know, ‘Here are all of your opportunities, and tell me what are your, what are your sticking points? What makes you not want to stay? What are, you know, what are the things that you’re looking at that you think sound better someplace else?’ And then see if we can do something about changing West Virginia to make it be a place that maybe more of them want to stay.”

— Sarah Armstrong Tucker

Chase Moss, 18, is a West Virginia University political science student from Gilmer County. He left West Virginia at 16 to attend George Mason University in Northern Virginia before returning to study at WVU. Moss says he loves West Virginia and can imagine staying, but questions whether the state’s economy, infrastructure, health care, educational system and political climate will allow him to build the future he wants.

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting

“If you’re looking at it from a very, very rational, logical point of view, there’s very few reasons to stay in West Virginia, and I think that that’s horrible. Last time I spoke to you over the phone, I described it as like a bad relationship where it’s like you don’t wanna leave because you love it, but you probably should leave.

I could see myself staying here. I could see myself going. I don’t think outside the Appalachians, but somewhere like western Maryland, southwestern Virginia, kind of southwestern Pennsylvania, the broader area. I could see myself going somewhere like that.”

— Chase Moss

Catherine Ellis, a Boone County native and recent graduate of West Virginia State University, plans to leave West Virginia for New Mexico, where she has lined up work as an event manager. Ellis, the first person in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree, says career opportunities are a major reason for leaving, but politics and a desire to experience different communities and cultures also shaped her decision.

Photo courtesy of Catherine Ellis

“Although it would be very difficult to leave my family, I feel like I’ve always been raised to want to follow and do whatever I wanted to do, and I think there’s not a lot of opportunities for what I want to do here in West Virginia. I want to experience different cultures. I want to live in different places. There’s not a lot of variety in West Virginia to experience that, and I also want more job opportunities. I really wanna work in project management. I like to be a part of something bigger.”

— Catherine Ellis

Exit mobile version