Featured Articles

It’s not often talked about. Many don’t want to hear of it. Some are unaware it exists where they live. However you feel about it, human trafficking and child exploitation are realities in this day and age that exist in the very neighborhoods of West Virginia.

Name any crime show and you will see they all play out the same way. There’s a beginning, middle and an end. There’s a back story, an investigation and at the end of the hour, the criminal is caught and arrested. Justice is served. Roll the credits.

Chemical manufacturing is a tedious and technical process creating a challenge for the state’s manufacturers when communicating to the future workforce about potential careers. One manufacturer, Belle Chemical Company, has developed a robust educational outreach program to reach students from elementary through the university level across the state.

The Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) Institute for Academic Medicine’s goal is to ensure its physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other clinical caregivers are prepared to care for the people in the community today and for decades to come.

Here in the Mountain State, at the end of the school day, more children than ever are stepping off the school bus and into chaos or poverty at home that impacts their learning. In fact, in a hypothetical classroom of 30 West Virginia children, five would have been born exposed to drugs, seven would live in poverty and 18 would be insured by Medicaid.

For some time, and for many, the connotation of terms like educational attainment, workforce and economic development in West Virginia has been negative. Demographic trends have not been favorable. Data and rankings placing West Virginia near the bottom have been cited far too many times to be recounted here.

Ecosystem building has emerged as a leading strategy for economic development and community revitalization. With the launch of the West Virginia Entrepreneurship Ecosystem (WVEE), the state is at the forefront of this growing movement. What began in 2018 as a coalition of the willing has developed into a flourishing ecosystem of stakeholders.

Michele Blatt never considered a career outside of education. A teacher, she says, is just who she is. “Teaching is the only profession I considered,” Blatt says. “I enjoy teaching children at church every Sunday. I am the happiest when I am around children.” It’s her own children, Jonathan and Emma, who have always been the reasons she does what she does each day.

The measure of a student’s success at a school, higher education institution or program depends on a lot of variables, including who you ask. It could be measured by a passing grade, quality performance or simply completion. West Virginia Executive is highlighting several student success stories in state programs aimed at getting individuals paired with a career.