‘Love it and leave’: The choices facing Wyoming’s youth
Wyoming has long contended with a large outmigration of young people. (Illustration by Eda Uzunlar)
In the fall of 2017, then Hot Springs High School senior Stormy Cox wrote of her home state: “In my heart I would love to stay in Wyoming … The majority of my family lives in Wyoming. It’s hard to leave all of them behind and be on my own. If I could stay in Wyoming and still pursue my dreams I would.”
Her sentiments were collected as part of a project that I and Felicity Barringer, Writer In Residence at the Bill Lane Center for the American West, undertook. The goal was to understand young people’s attitudes about a future in their hometowns and in the state. We asked Cox and a couple dozen of her classmates where they envisioned themselves in five years and what it would take for them to stay or, if they do leave, to return to Wyoming.
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Coach Doug Shott gives instructions to Berryville football players during spring practice in May 2017. Shott has resigned as the Bobcats head coach after four seasons.
Charles Chappell / CCImages.PhotoShelter.com
Doug Shotts tenure as head football coach at Berryville High School officially ended Monday, Feb. 22, when the school districts board of education accepted his resignation.
Im heartbroken over it, Shott said. But I have a full belief that things happen for a reason.
Shott, 56, was head coach of the Bobcats for four seasons compiling a record of 8-29.
Doug Shott
His 2018 team went 4-6, the first time Berryville had won four games in a season since 2006.
KNBN NewsCenter1
March 3, 2021
HOT SPRINGS, S.D. Hot Springs High School was recently awarded $30,000 for the Perkins Reserve Grant.
The grant will go towards purchasing new equipment for the school like a new plasma cutter as well as a large scale printer.
The school has purchased a number of new tools in order to give students the best opportunity to learn. By having up to date equipment students at Hot Springs are able to learn and make new things that they wouldn’t be able to with older gear.
“Our kids demand it, the public demands it, work force demands it, and if we are not putting it in front of them…every student has different journey, and if we are not giving them the skills to be successful out in the world right now we are failing them, and that’s our intention – to ramp these up to a point that everybody has an opportunity,” said Principal Troy Lurz.
KNBN NewsCenter1
March 3, 2021
HOT SPRINGS, S.D. Hot Springs High School is in the process of bringing a Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program to the school. Officials say that over half the student body already wants to be a part of the program.
Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, or JROTC, is a military-regulated program designed to offer high school students leadership experience and motivate them to become better American citizens. The idea to bring a JROTC program to Hot Springs High School came from a student who learned how other JROTC programs in the area worked in order to make the program work at his school.