Preserving talent close to home

The fellowship wants to keep talented blacks in Pittsburgh.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Maria Smith arrived at the University of Pittsburgh wanting nothing more than to return to her family outside New York City upon graduation.
Three years later, she's in no hurry to leave.
"I can see myself here in Pittsburgh for a while. The only hesitation is I don't have family here, but I have a good social network of friends. I could be here," said Smith, 20.
When civic leaders talk about curbing Pennsylvania's brain drain, they might not think about the retention and loss of young black talents like Smith.
But the Coro Community Problem-Solving Fellowship is trying to encourage her and 15 other black college students to make Pittsburgh their permanent home.
The fellowship, now in its fourth year, claims to have retained 80 percent of its 42 graduates in Pittsburgh, said program manager Jeffrey O'Neale.
"It seems like we're always spending our money to attract others to come here. Let's invest in the people we have," said state Rep. Jake Wheatley Jr., who organized the first round of fellowships four years ago.
Organizers say the fellowship was tailored to blacks in Pittsburgh, recognizing a need to infuse black communities with a sense of empowerment. Coro, the leadership training program, also has centers in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Kansas City and New York.
The Pittsburgh program teaches young blacks they can have a great career and play a role in improving the city's black communities.
Returning to their roots
Most of the people in the program grew up in the Pittsburgh region and carry a sense of duty to make their way back.
"Pittsburgh will always be home for me. If I go away, I would eventually try to work my way home," said Ryan Scott, 20, a Monroeville native who's studying economics at West Virginia University.
But as an outsider, Smith says she noticed a lack of pride in black Pittsburgh communities, particularly the Hill District.
During the 1950s, the Hill District was home to the emerging civil rights movement, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson and The Pittsburgh Courier, once one of the nation's most influential black newspapers.
The area has been overcome by drugs and blight.
"When I got to New York, the people there were very excited, very bragging about New York, as were Philadelphia or people from California. And the people that were here ... they all seemed just very sad about being from Pittsburgh," said Smith, a senior majoring in communications, political science and Africana studies.
Smith says she was most intrigued by the challenge of rebuilding black communities.
"When I heard about the fellowship, I understood its purpose was to retain African-American talent here. But I was kind of interested in why it's called the problem-solving fellowship," Smith said.
Organizers say it's that kind of gumption that blacks need.
"There are some really great people here, but they have been beaten down to believe that this region doesn't work. So we, as a region, need to reinvest in those people, and say yeah, 'We like Pittsburgh. We want Pittsburgh,'" Wheatley said.
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