‘As far as I know it’s not done anywhere else’: Civic and entrepreneurship fellowship programs offered in Hazard

HAZARD, Ky. (WYMT) - The City of Hazard is on its fifth year of the civic fellowship, which is a paid summer internship program that high school and college students can apply to be a part of.

A program that city commissioner Luke Glaser said is the most comprehensive city internship in the state of Kentucky.

”What we do it’s not done in Louisville. It’s not done in Lexington. As far as I know it’s not done anywhere else,” said Glaser.

He said he believes it is a way to invest in students at a young age and encourages them to move back in the future.

”My goal in creating the civic fellowship was to convince some of our best and brightest students while they’re in high school and college. That this is a place worth coming back to, worth fighting for and worth creating change in,” he said.

The students get to be hands-on in the City of Hazard by working on their own civic project.

“In addition to a project they’re going to go to pretty much every meeting that occurs in the city,” he said. “The last thing they’re going to do is a common reading experience where we read an academic book generally about Appalachia or about rural areas and we’re going to kind of discuss it and get them thinking about their role and the context of the many problems that we deal with on a daily basis.”

This year, an entrepreneurship fellowship was also introduced. Downtown coordinator Bailey Richards said downtown Hazard has seen an increase in small businesses.

“The second fellowship that we’ve created, and this is the first year for is really aimed at students or student aged people. That are interested in becoming entrepreneurs or creating small businesses,” said Richards.

The goal is to teach future entrepreneurs their value right here in Eastern Kentucky.

”Ultimately we want Hazard to be a place that people want to live. Want to work, want to have their businesses and their families. You need a really strong government and non-profit side of that, but you also have to have places for people to shop. You also have to have places for people to buy coffee,” she added.

Both City of Hazard fellowships are paid and open to any high school or college-aged student. Applications are currently open.

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