New Class Graduates Community Foundation Internship Program

Shelley Hanson

TRIADELPHIA -- Another round of local college students learned what the Ohio Valley has to offer in terms of job opportunities and life in general thanks to the Community Leader Internship Program.

Organized by the Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley, the seven-week program has graduated about 100 students since its inception 11 years ago.

The students were paired up with different companies and agencies for a paid internship this summer. They also went on a variety of field trips organized by the foundation as well.

Deb Stanton, program officer for the CFOV, said since the program began about 33% of its participants have decided to make the Ohio Valley their permanent home following college. She noted there are quite a few participants still pursuing higher education degrees who have not settled down yet.

The newest batch of participants were celebrated and recognized Friday during a luncheon at The Highlands Events Center.

This year's participants included Kiera O'Brien, Ethan Leach, Jonathan Duvall, Andrew Komoroski, Brooke Anderson, Kaelyn Oliver, Kelsey Crawford, Briann Templeton, Alexa Oliver, Annaliese Ayres, Andrew Komorowski, Sydney Crawford, Giulio Gentile, Alexa Oliver and Grace Hamilton.

Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott was the featured speaker for the event. He talked about how and why he returned to Wheeling in 2009 after working for a law firm in Washington, D.C. He realized he wanted more out of life than an 80-hour work week to become a partner in his firm. He also realized that Washington wasn't really his hometown because he never got involved with the community there.

He decided to give it all up and move back to Wheeling without a definite plan in place.

Since then he has started his own law practice and other businesses. He purchased one of downtown Wheeling's most prominent historic buildings, the six-story Professional Building, ran for office to become the city's mayor and started a family of his own.

Not everyone's path may keep or bring them back home to the Ohio Valley, but Elliott said it is something he hopes the students will consider on their own journey.

"When I was a high school senior, success for me was defined as leaving not only by some of my teachers at Linsly, but by my parents, who said you don't have a family business and you don't want to work in a steel mill, you should get out of town and pursue your dreams," he said.

"And that's what I did. ... Seven years into this journey I was feeling pretty miserable."

Elliott said he did not want to become like one of the senior partners in the D.C. firm where he was working. Most worked too many hours, looked 10 years older than they actually were and had been divorced one or more times, he said.

"Most of them were miserable, broken people and I asked myself, is this what I want to do with my life?

"I had this very haunting thought. What if I died tomorrow and someone was assigned to write my obituary? What would it say that was actually memorable?"

Elliott, who was 38 years old at this time, described this realization as a mid-life crisis.

"On paper, I had everything you'd think you would want, but I was not happy at all. And so I did what some consider crazy; I quit the job and moved home," he said.

His journey to "Glenn Elliott 2.0" then began. He started to get more involved in the community, joining a historic preservation group that eventually led to him purchasing and renovating the Professional Building on Market Street.

"That connected me to something in Wheeling that was larger than myself," he said. "For the first time in my life I felt like I was part of something. ...

"That led to me getting into politics. There's no way I would have run for office had I not created that connection where I felt some sense of obligation to take what was given to me by our ancestors' generation and carry it forward."

Elliott encouraged the students to follow their hearts and pursue their own dreams, not one that someone else has for them.

"It may take some time to figure out what you're passionate about. I certainly didn't know at your age," he noted.

One of the CLIP participants, Annaliese Ayres, said she enjoyed the program. She interned at the Ohio State University Extension Office in St. Clairsville. She learned about invasive plant and insect species. She graduated from Ohio University Eastern with a Specialized Studies degree in Environmental Recreation.

"I'm a homebody and I like staying around the area, but if an opportunity shows itself somewhere else I'd be happy to go and take it and come back and see my family," Ayres said.

"It was really fun working for this program. I think it's good for the young people's futures and good for the valley."

Another CLIP participant, Brooke Anderson of Wheeling, is a senior at West Liberty University where she is majoring in public relations. She interned at the Easter Seals Rehabilitation where she worked with their marketing director Betsy Bethel-McFarland.

"I didn't know if I wanted to stay local, but boy has it changed my entire life and my outlook on the valley," she said of CLIP. "I'm just so happy to be here and to be surrounded by the opportunities. "I learned about so many opportunities that I didn't know existed. This is really special to me and I'm really thankful to be given this opportunity.

"I want to live in the Ohio Valley for the rest of my life now."