By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University/Image Kyla Keller
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Once I got past “cowboy,” “fireman,” and “NBA star” as possibilities, it was time to think more seriously about career options. Today we will learn about a regional initiative that is helping youth explore and expand vocational pathways, leading to rewarding careers in rural Kansas.
Kyla Keller is the Rural Education and Workforce Alliance coordinator for the Dodge City/Ford County Development Corporation. She grew up in Colorado. She has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and master’s degree in organizational management from Ashford University’s Forbes School of Business and Technology.
In 2014, she came to Dodge City. In 2019, she became coordinator of the Rural Education and Workforce Alliance, which was established that year to address the workforce shortage and workforce issues for the southwest Kansas region.
“The community identified a big skills gap,” Keller said. “After St. Mary of the Plains College closed, there was no four year university in southwest Kansas. We started by focusing on health care needs of the community.”
One initiative was to bring in locally offered degree programs, including the Master of Social Work, and Registered Nurse and bachelors of Science in Nursing from Fort Hays State University and Newman University.
“We asked, ‘what do our businesses need?’” Keller said.
Over time, efforts have expanded to work with all of the universities across the state to bring in degree programs and certifications to meet the workforce needs of all types of businesses in the region. The former St. Mary of the Plains campus building was converted to include a University/Training Center.
“Classrooms are free to any university that wants to use it,” Keller said.
The KU Law Enforcement Training Center is also in the building, along with the Small Business Development Center. K-State Extension will use the facility for a grant-writing workshop in August.
REWA strives to benefit the region. It also has satellite classrooms in the rural communities of Tribune, Scott City, Elkhart, St. John, and Jetmore, population 770 people. Now, that’s rural.
“In 2020, we partnered with local businesses and community colleges to put on two career days,” Keller said.
About 50 kids attended. Those went so well that they have expanded to 15 career days this school year. All regional school districts are invited. Local businesses serve as sponsors.
“We had 1,826 students participate (in career days) during the 2024-2025 school year,” Keller said.
Several career days are focused on specific needs or career pathways. For example, there are career days about manufacturing, emergency responders, health care and social services, business, teaching and construction.
Local businesses can highlight their career opportunities. Students can also tour local companies.
“Often students will say, ‘We didn’t know this was here,’” Keller said. Dodge City Community College also offers five $500 scholarships to participating students.
“Multiple businesses have made contacts and hired students who came to these events,” Keller said.
She adds: “I went to the National Workforce Conference and they really emphasized that we need to start earlier with career awareness, even at fourth grade. (In response), we didn’t go that young but we brought in 112 middle schoolers.”
“One of the biggest barriers is language,” Keller said. She estimates that the local school district has students speaking 78 different languages, including dialects. REWA is acquiring pocket translators that students can utilize.
Keller hopes that these projects can raise awareness of opportunities for young people, including families that came to southwest Kansas to work in the huge beef packing plants.
“Kids will say, ‘I’ll just go work at the plants (like my parents), but there’s so much more,” Keller said.
For more information, go to www.raisingthewest.com.
So, what do you want to be when you grow up? That may be a fun question for a little child, but it becomes serious as he or she gets older.
We commend Kyla Keller and all those involved with the Rural Education and Workforce Alliance who are making a difference by enhancing educational opportunities and workforce skills in western Kansas.
As for me, I’m still working on my NBA skills.
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
