Had a nice chance this weekend to catch up with Sam Brandon. He's the son of a friend, Garces grad now a sophomore at University of Colorado at Boulder and home for spring break. For most kids away at school that means lunch at Luigis, seeing old friends and lunch somewhere else. Sam is a charmer, at ease with everyone (this photo with unnamed coed - holding the standard issue red plastic cup - captures his personality)and he's found his home at Colorado. He is no longer "at Boulder" but he is now "of Boulder." And thanks to his parents and the gift of tuition, he will forever be "of Boulder" for the rest of his life. Which reminds me: this is the week when high school seniors all over Bakersfield learn if they got into the school of their choice. All those letters (envelope size if they are rejected, nice and large and fat if they get it) start arriving. The really selective schools (UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC) are always last to come in. It's a tense time for child and parent, and I hope to share some of the good news here as it develops.
But acceptance by hard-copy is so old-school. Most of the kids I know have already heard from their schools via email. Cal and UCLA acceptances are already out.
ReplyDeleteYou're correct about that though some schools still do it via postal. Some of the privates (like USC) will dribble their acceptance out, as in you hear early if they really want you and later on for others
ReplyDeleteI read your list of brain-drainers and I'm confused about Betsey Fisch listed as a "local" who never returned. Didn't her father have the position you currently hold at the newspaper about 15 years ago? Hard to consider them locals when Bakersfield was just another stop on the father's career path. Why would the daughter return with her "brain" when her family no longer lived here?
ReplyDeleteYou are right about her dad. But Betsy Fisch grew up here, her formative years were here and she returned here while her dad was still working in Btown. Ask her where she grew up and she will tell you Bakersfield. I consider those pretty strong roots. You may be different but I don't know a lot of kids who went away to school and then followed their parents around the map.
ReplyDeleteYou strengthen my point -- that when dad was working here, she still returned for visits. When the parents are gone, footloose kids have less reason to return for holidays or whatever and find a career if they're lucky and settle in and stay. I know a great young man whose mom is an elementary teacher and dad is a pastor and who is returning to Bakersfield to work as a petroleum engineer ($90K salary) after going to school on the coast. When I look at the list of names on your list, I see recognizable last names of people written about in the Californian and who are known in business. There are others, outside the "bold-faced" "A-List" names who do return.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the input and please note this is not an all inclusive list, and I would add that certainly not every kid mentioned is an "A List" name. You would do well not to get hung up on the names but rather focus on the original point which was: at least to most people our community suffers from a lack of opportunity for educated kids to return and make a decent living. The lack of diversity in skilled jobs feeding a variety of professions is widely seen as the single greatest obstacle to Bakersfield becoming an attractive place for young people to return. You of course can cite exceptions, as there always are, but those are exceptions. And of course one of those huge exceptions is the oil industry, which provides lots of opportunity for young engineering grads. I too know of a bright USC grad who returned here to earn a six figure salary right out of college. Not that's an opportunity!
ReplyDeleteEven in my limited exposure to the "A-List" in Bakersfield personally, I recognize many the list's names -- Dezember, Hill, Cohn, Brock, Tackett, McCarthy, Bidart etc. The Californian has focused in some stories on kids who have come back, including a number of young attorneys -- Thelan, Mears, etc. -- who found that the opportunities here were excellent and even more appealing than in bigger cities where they were small cogs. You have the example of the USC grad; I have the petroleum engineer. Maybe you could start a list of "brain-returners" rather than the negatively flipped "brain-drainers." There are probably at least as many of them as you have on your "drain" list, which is relatively short. I wonder, of the 200,000 people who've been added to the city since I moved her 30 years ago, how many are "returning natives" anyhow. Some strangers, yourself included, must have arrived for its opportunities. Does your hometown mourn and keen over the loss of its native son?
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate your thoughtful answers.