When one thinks of Rural Kansas, their mind may wander to a vision of tight-knit communities, waving wheat fields, dusty dirt roads, and an overabundance of cows. They can likely smell the strong black coffee at the local co-op, hear the small-town pep band performing the school fight song at the Friday night football game, and see the local pastor preaching to the congregation on a Sunday morning.

What some may not realize is some of the “big city” opportunities that exist among this rural backdrop, offering the best of both worlds for the youth of the area and hopefully enticing these youth to plant their roots locally. 

That’s where organizations like Nex-Generation Round-Up for Youth, Inc., or Nex-Gen for short, come into play.

Nex-Gen is a local, career-based, and youth-centric organization based in Lenora, Kansas with a motto that states “From the classroom to a career.” Executive Director Jacque Beckman explains Nex-Gen’s 2013 origins, stating, “The reason we started our organization was to help resolve the youth out-migration in northwest/north central Kansas.” 

Since its inception, Nex-Gen has built a strong base and now continues more robust than ever, serving hundreds of youth in its 28-county range with incredible opportunities such as career development, career fairs, resume writing, interviewing skills, entrepreneurial curriculum, and internships. Nex-Gen’s mission can be thought of as real-world training in a rural setting with the aim of keeping Northwest Kansas youth right here in Northwest Kansas.

Beckman lent more insight into the organization, stating, “Nex-Generation Round Up for Youth’s mission is to educate northwest and north central Kansas students about local career opportunities by providing and supporting programs in career development, entrepreneurship, and internship. Through these efforts, we hope to foster a positive sense of community and encourage youth to remain or return home to prosper. Our core programs enable students to experience real-world jobs and careers, and to network with local/area business professionals where they receive direction and mentoring, right within their own communities.”

Programs are offered for age groups from kindergarten all the way through college. Students participate in hands-on lessons with the end goal of developing skill sets that enable students to apply their skills in real-time. 

“Interns and work study students also have the opportunity to reverse-mentor the business professionals, by showcasing technical and non-technical talents in ways that help streamline processes, build efficiencies, and add value to both the business and its patrons or customers,” explained Beckman. 

Nex-Gen is pushing forward into 2022 with even bigger goals than ever before.

“Currently we are working on growing the internship program by adding more businesses and positions. This year will be the largest year ever, with capacity to have up to 150 students,” stated Beckman. “We are also developing curriculum for a new “Life$kills” program which will be geared towards high school juniors to help prepare them for the real world. Students will be given a role, a paycheck amount, and a monthly budget from which they will have to make spending/savings decisions. We hope to have this ready to launch for the coming school year, 2022-2023.”

Nex-Gen is supported by funding from local a variety of local entities, including the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, Nex-Tech, Nex-Tech Round Up Customers – (those who round up their bills each month in support of the organization), CoBank, Midwest Energy, Sunflower Electric Power Corp., area economic development organizations, and many other businesses and individual donors.

You can learn more about Nex-Gen’s offerings and learn how to get involved as  a participant, individual, school, or even a donor at their website, www.nex-generation.org. To learn more about Nex-Gen’s internship opportunities, visit www.connectnwk.org, a NWKEICI funded program.

Thanks to the hard work of organizations like Nex-Gen, those tight-knit Northwest Kansas communities will continue to be able to fill the bleachers of the Friday night football games, the pews of the local churches, and the coffee pots at the co-op for generations to come.