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Adaptability in the face of adversity, commitment to community and a knack for helping their fellow West Virginians are all qualities shared by the individuals that make up West Virginia Executive’s Young Guns Class of 2024.

Building a skilled technical workforce is vital for the future of West Virginia. Technology is integrated into most industries in our world today. Whether you’re operating a chemical manufacturing plant, developing thermal enabled drones to aid in wildfire suppression or working as a cybersecurity specialist, technology is at the forefront.

Leaders of West Virginia’s primary, secondary and collegiate level schools are turning to technology and increased security as they consider the possibility of gun violence in schools. According to Education Week, in the last school year, there were 51 school shootings in the U.S. that resulted in injuries or death.

The home of the West Virginia University (WVU) Mountaineers and the growing cities of Fairmont, Clarksburg, Morgantown and Bridgeport, Mountaineer Country offers a sense of spirit and pride for West Virginia.

Fueled by their passion and love for West Virginia, Cooper Simmerman and C.J. Harvey decided to create Mountaineer Media during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Both C.J. and I felt compelled to work on a project that brought people together in a time when the world felt isolated,” says Simmerman.

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.