Brooke [00:00:04]: We’re about to retire a lot of our workforce, and I think this is happening in a lot of mid and small size cities because they’re really great places to raise families. You have really good talent retention, especially with your mid and senior level employees, and they’re about to retire. This is an opportunity for cities like Tulsa because interest in investing in that early career talent pathway is definitely heightened.

 

Amanda [00:00:31]: That’s the voice of Brooke Randels. She helps retain college students in her city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, through her work as program director of Campus Tulsa. Today, she’s joining us with tips on keeping your college students as part of your community’s longer-term workforce. And we also give you all the details of the upcoming Young, Smart, and Local Talent Conference. I’m Amanda Ellis, and you’re listening to Inside America’s Best Cities, a podcast for chamber, economic development, and talent attraction professionals. You can learn more about this podcast at livabilitymedia.com, and with that, let’s jump in. Brooke, thanks so much for joining us today on Inside America’s Best Cities, we’re here to talk about a couple things today the upcoming Young, Smart, and Local Talent Conference in our industry that’s coming up later this year, and also your work at a group called Campus Tulsa. So, to kick us off, Brooke, can you talk a little bit about what Campus Tulsa is? What are your goals? What are you all doing?

 

Brooke [00:01:29]: Yeah, Campus Tulsa, just to put simply, is really the one stop shop for anything when it comes to internships and early career here in Tulsa. And so, you might have been familiar with Campus Philly or Campus Greensboro, Campus Rochester. All of those organizations have had a really large impact on paving the way that we’ve done things here in Tulsa. But ultimately, what we’re doing is connecting students to internship opportunities through different recruitment efforts. We provide a housing benefit for students, as well, so we’re connecting them with our own housing that we’ve worked out here with a local institution to support them through that. And then we really just cultivate a lot of events that showcase the people and the culture of Tulsa to make sure that students and interns understand that Tulsa is not just somewhere where they can have a career, but it’s somewhere that they can really create community and enjoy living.

 

Amanda [00:02:27]: How do you reach those students that you work with, and are there any requirements or criteria for them to get involved or just if they’re interested, come on in.

 

Brooke [00:02:35]: Yeah, we’re pretty strategic. We definitely have an emphasis on diverse populations and just generally, historically underserved populations. And so, we really create very strategic relationships with our community partners and educational institutions here in Tulsa and in the state of Oklahoma. We get really close and involved with student organizations. We hire campus ambassadors. And I would say we take a much more small scale person to person approach in terms of creating relationships and then using those to do presentations for student organizations or sponsoring different events that are happening on campus that are really working with some of our target demographics here in Oklahoma and just sharing experiences with them and then helping them find internships through our website or connecting them with employers or inviting them to come and visit us in Tulsa as well so that they can learn about Tulsa and connect with employers as well. But we do pretty strategic community organization involvement and then universities here in Tulsa and Oklahoma as well.

 

Amanda [00:03:36]: But you’re very focused on reaching students who have already decided to go to school in the region and then kind of keeping there for the long term, right?

 

Brooke [00:03:44]: Yeah, what we want to do is retain Tulsa students. There’s a lot of data that was done previously and really jump-started campus Tulsa at the very beginning, I believe, in end of 2019, 2020, and that was that we couldn’t really track that students who had the opportunity to be upskilled or get education were in any way being retained in the city of Tulsa. And so, what we really wanted to do is kind of change that perspective and really invest in showing students that, look, here’s an internship opportunity, here’s an organization you can get this experience with and then stay on with long term. And so, our mindset and kind of what I constantly tell my team is, if we can make it work for students here in Tulsa and here in this region, then we give every student who’s looking in at us a reason to want to come in too, because it’s working. We’re retaining the talent. We’re creating the culture that we want to have, and that’s really attractive to our students. So right now, in our program, I will say we’re tracking about 20 states present here in Tulsa doing internships, and I would say probably about ten countries. And then I would say, though, when you look at the numbers and the data across our programs, we have a pretty heavy presence of Oklahoma students.

 

Amanda [00:04:53]: So, it sounds like you really want to engage them at the student level, planning that that will eventually lead to full time opportunities that keep them in the areas they grow into young adults. How have you been intentional about ensuring that some of those internships do have a strong possibility of leading to jobs?

 

Brooke [00:05:08]: It really takes a push on the employer side for that to happen. And so, we worked really closely with a lot of our local corporations here to say, what does it look like to build out early career talent pathways? And we’ve had a really great response. Something that is interesting about Tulsa is that we’re about to retire a lot of our workforce, and I think this is happening in a lot of mid and small sized cities because they’re really great places to raise families. You have really good talent retention, especially with your mid and senior level employees, and they’re about to retire. This is an opportunity for cities like Tulsa because interest in investing in that early career talent pathway is definitely heightened. And so, we’re hearing really great feedback from our local corporations, which has not traditionally been how it works in Tulsa or in a lot of cities. It’s a great experience. It’s almost kind of like their community investment piece, but then they set it down and go throughout the year and do their recruitment again. But I think we’re seeing a huge shift with companies thinking about how do we use this to address the large retirement that we’re about to come on? And then I think, too, that it takes a few really strong industry leaders. Like, we’ll see one strong industry leader say, hey, we’re really going to invest in this, and then we tend to see a few others who might be their competitors follow. And I think that having those local organizations who stand up and say, we’re going to commit to this and to building out our business and that is really important. And I think finding the right times to have those conversations with corporate partners is really important. As organizations who do this type of.

 

Amanda [00:06:49]: Brooke, how is campus Tulsa funded? Like, do you fall under your local chamber or a local organization, or how does that work?

 

Brooke [00:06:56]: Yeah, we work really closely with the chamber and definitely have a great relationship there, although primarily we’re funded through the George Kaiser Family Foundation, their overall mission is ending the cycle of poverty. And we know that investing in workforce development, investing in students, being connected to opportunity is a later in life attempt at that effort, but definitely is like a full circle approach to ending poverty in particularly childhood poverty in Tulsa. And then I will say that we actually do have local corporations who can sponsor things.

 

Amanda [00:07:30]: Gotcha, shifting gears a little bit, so we mentioned at the top, we’re also here to talk about an upcoming industry conference. So, tell us, Brooke, about Young, Smart and Local, which is coming up in November, I think, in New Orleans. But tell us a little bit about what that is, why our listeners in the space might want to get engaged.

 

Brooke [00:07:47]: Yeah. I mean, Young, Smart and Local is really just a place for people who are in this work to come and hear from other programs, other cities, about what they’re doing to retain and attract talent, and especially early career talent, and especially this generation. That seems to be a mystery to a lot of people, which would be Gen Z. If you have any interest in doing the work where you’re looking to provide some strong and secure talent pathways for your city or your overall ecosystem and retaining and attracting talent, then I think this is definitely the place for you, because you get to hear so many different people’s challenges. Some of those most of those when I walk into them, I think, oh yeah, I have this problem too. And you get to hear people it was creative work rounds and no one workaround or problem solving is going to fix for every city. But it definitely is a great place to make some great connections and collaborate and work with people. On supporting talent. We’re thinking about workforce development as not just investing in our own companies and economic development as cities, but how do we invest in our workforce as well.

 

Amanda [00:08:50]: I know they have some other programming oriented to just people thinking about talent attraction and retention in general, not only necessarily early career and even from a human resources standpoint. So does that pretty much cover it as far as programming?

 

Brooke [00:09:04]: Hits it a lot of early career talent pathways, but I would say more than that. Thinking about post pandemic and how do we invest in downtowns and maintain our downtowns even though a lot of people aren’t working in them anymore. What do we do about social capital and how do we explore aligning industry to upskilling programs or higher education? There’s a lot in there that pertains to early career talent. Absolutely. But it’s very applicable to multiple generations of people who are in the workforce.

 

Amanda [00:09:35]: Yeah, I love what you all are doing with this because I do feel like it was sort of a missing piece. And I guess the talent attraction idea of that being a career that people are focusing on is newer. So even though a lot of our professional associations in the space like ACCE, IEDC, et cetera, have created things around talent attraction as part of their conferences, I love that this is really focused on that. Very cool. November 13 through the 15th, right? Youngsmartandlocal.com? Yes. Awesome. So, you talked a bit just now … you threw out some stuff about Gen Z. What do you feel like is the most misunderstood Gen Z characteristic since that’s the group you get to work with?

 

Brooke [00:10:12]: I think that there is this idea that Gen Z is very resistant or doesn’t want to do what they’re told. And I think I’ve actually found it kind of beautiful because I think that they’re just more curious about the why they don’t want to do things just because it’s always been done that way, or they don’t want to follow orders just because a certain person is telling them they really want to get in there and understand why. I think it really does open them to be change makers in a lot of ways and in a lot of industries, because they’re willing to ask some hard questions. That honestly, in our internship programs this year, we’ve seen some interns come up with some really cool solutions to some really hard problems. And I think it’s that same quality that frustrates a lot of us is what’s really their strength in allowing them to ask some of these questions and dig deeper and think about the why behind what they’re doing.

 

Amanda [00:11:08]: I feel like I’ve worked with so many interns in my career that were so far ahead of where I was at that time. It’s impressive.

 

Brooke [00:11:15]: Yes, very much so.

 

Amanda [00:11:17]: So, thinking about some advice from your perspective for our listeners. Where might someone want to start when it comes to working toward starting an initiative or a program or something to retain more students in their community, particularly if they don’t have staff or a program devoted to this? What’s some advice you would share?

 

Brooke [00:11:36]: Yeah, this is such a hard question to answer because my advice is dependent on other people. And I would take the time to say connect with other groups who are doing this, even if you don’t have the staff reaching out to other organizations just to understand the conversations they’re having with their local corporations. And I think that being able to really articulate to them how important this work is and understanding that is super important. And I think if someone is looking to do this work is looking for a resource. Campus Rochester has a really great internship in a box document and micro internship in a box document that really outlines the impact that an intern or investing in a student to do some work for you in a smaller format like a micro internship, just how impactful that can be for local corporations and companies. And I think starting there and starting to lean into some of those conversations and allow those local corporations to really do that work and build that pathway is a really great place to start, especially if you don’t have a team. Really putting the need and the way that it can bolster your community and your economic and workforce development within your city. I think that that’s a really great place to start.

 

Amanda [00:12:48]: It’s something really anyone can engage in. Right. Because I think for so many of us, early career wise, wherever you build your network really can guide things for years after that and those early mentors.

 

Brooke [00:13:00]: Absolutely. And I see the potential. Even high schools are trying to bridge these connections with corporations and ask the same questions that we’re talking about right now. That’s really unprecedented. And I am excited to see where this work will come, where you have all these entities who have the same goals, and we want to work together and make these things happen. Finding those aligned partners is the only way to do this work. When you don’t have a team, and even if you have a team, it’s still the best way to do that work too.

 

Amanda [00:13:28]: Those other campus groups that you mentioned in other cities, are you all affiliated with each other, or you’re just named similarly in different communities?

 

Brooke [00:13:36]: Named similarly mostly in different communities. And this is something that I’ve learned really and thankful to all of the predecessors of Campus Philly who taught me this, but I do believe that Young, Smart, and Local started as a way to share the way that campus organizations are really retaining and attracting talent. And it’s just grown tremendously to talk about so much more. But we definitely rely on each other all the time and all of these know, we’re keeping an eye on each other, we’re connecting with each other and we’re talking about how do we all do this and do this the right way. And this conference is a really great connector for all of us. But I’ve been able to pick up the phone and call multiple people that I’ve mentioned throughout the last year to talk through what does this look like, how are you guys solving for this? And it also helps us understand what’s different about our markets as know the job market in Philly and Tulsa. Very so like, how do we use each other’s ideas to address our own problems but still recognize that we have large differences in our education systems in each state that I’m talking about, in the industries that make up the jobs that we have, the projection of the jobs in our cities and so on and so forth. But it’s definitely a great network that has been very supportive of campus Tulsa.

 

Amanda [00:14:52]: What are your thoughts from where you sit thinking about the future and you all largely working with college students or less people going down a traditional college or university path. What are your thoughts on how that might shift in the coming years or if it even will?

 

Brooke [00:15:06]: I think we’re going to see a lot of changes, if I’m being really honest. I had worked in higher ed before, then I did some workforce development type work in the K-12 system. And now coming back towards the higher ed side in this role and thinking about college students, I think we’re about to see huge shifts. I think that we’re going to see a lot of institutions branding more of a workforce program like the cheaper the faster, the quicker to the role. I think the huge increase in tech roles. Know, Tulsa is not the only city seeing this, but in every city and the need for these skills that can’t be automated, the desire and need for quick skilling like quick programs that get people the adequate skills to work in these roles that need to be filled right now, they’re going to grow tremendously. And I think we’ll still have a good variety of roles that really depend on that four-year degree and so on and so forth. But I can only imagine that we’ll start to see two year institutions really grow their programs and what they offer and get aligned with the workforce in their cities and think about, what does it look like to quickly get our talent, the skills they need to fill the jobs that we know are going to be here for a long time and need to be filled now. And I think that we will see a lot of institutions work on that problem and we will still have college going students and we’ll still have certain professions and certain industries who don’t want to break up with the four-year degree and some industries that should probably not break up with the training that happens in that time as well. But I do think that we’re going to see major shifts here soon, and I think it’ll open a lot of opportunity for a lot of people who haven’t had the opportunity in the past. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. It’ll just take a lot of patience and a lot of work from a lot of people. But hopefully what it does is it really elevates a lot of communities into high paying roles and high need roles, and we see transformation happen in a lot of our broader ecosystems and cities.

 

Amanda [00:17:10]: Yeah, it’s interesting, too. I think a lot of us reflect back. Like, if you did go down the traditional college path and you’re kind of like, how much did that train me or prep me for what I’m doing? I mean, it can open doors in other ways, help you meet the right people, help you get the right internships. But yeah, you make a great point about training you for fields, like some fields. I think it does that. So, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens.

 

Brooke [00:17:33]: I’m excited to watch it unfold. There will be a lot to learn during this time, and students will probably surprise us, as they always do time and time again, and I’m excited to see how that looks.

 

Amanda [00:17:44]: Well, you have a very cool job.

 

Brooke [00:17:47]: Yeah, I think so too. I get to learn a lot and be involved with a lot of different people in my own community and learn about what my community needs for a program like this to actually serve the students that exist here already. And so, I think I’ve done well in terms of finding a role that really allows me to have some fun and learn and grow as well.

 

Amanda [00:18:08]: Yeah. And really support people and feel like you’re doing something positive so that’s yeah, yeah. We always close out Brooke with a fun question, and the fun question is, so you, of course, are based in Tulsa if that’s not obvious to everyone by now. What is a bucket list item? Like, one thing if someone were visiting that you would say they have to do.

 

Brooke [00:18:27]: So, Tulsa is a place to eat. Like, I’ve been here for ten years now, and I have this massive list of everywhere that serves good food in Tulsa, and it’s very diverse. I try to include food from lots of different places and lots of different cultures, and you should eat your way through that list. You probably couldn’t do it in one trip, but you definitely have to dive into the food scene in Tulsa. It is talked about, but my list is better than the things that you’ll just find on Google. This is like mom-and-pop diners and little places that nobody knows about but I know about.

 

Amanda [00:19:05]: So, you’re willing to share the list?

 

Brooke [00:19:07]: Willing to share the list with whoever wants it. I can tell you exactly where to eat for every craving in Tulsa.

 

Amanda [00:19:14]: All right. Good deal. Well, thank you so much, Brooke, for covering everything from the future of the workforce Young, Smart, and Local, and all the things. Really appreciate you taking some time.

 

Brooke [00:19:24]: Yeah. Thank you so much.

 

Amanda [00:19:31]: Thanks for listening to the Livability podcast, where we take you inside America’s best cities. At Livability, we highlight the unsung awesomeness of small and midsize cities across the country. We also partner with communities to reach their target companies and potential residents through digital content and print magazine programs. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, rate and review this show. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you can also learn more about us livabilitymedia.com. Have an idea for an upcoming episode? Email me at [email protected]. Until next time, from Livability, I’m Amanda Ellis, sharing the stories of America’s most promising places.