JD Vance once told his college roommate that he thought Trump could be "America's Hitler".

[atlkvb]

I will respectfully disagree. The people of WV and Appalachia in general have been historicaly left behind, forgotten, abd taken advantage of. They have never been shown a better way and many grow up feeling like they are less than and can't succeed.

I worked at WVU for almost 20 years and what I can tell you is that the WV kids came in with the lowest belief in themselves though most of them were better/smarter than our out of state students.

I now work at a small, elite, conservative, very expensive University. I love my students here as well though they are completely different. Here, my students are also very bright, well prepared, and EXPECT to succeed in school and at life. The hardest part of my job here is to help these kids know how they can monetize their education. At WVU the hardest part of my job was getting the students to understand that they deserve to be in college and that they CAN monetize what they are learning and be successful in life.

It is a very different challenge and mindset. I love WV and I love WVU and I dream about a day that I can return to WVU in a position that could help the U climb out of the hole that the Gee-Reed administration have dug for us. They, similar to many of the other admin at WVU, buy into the "WVU can never be a good University because it suffers from an unfortunate relationship with the state of WV" (this is a literal quote from a now retired administrator on my job interview at WVU).

Again, I understand your point but I will VERY respectfully disagree. If you want to lift people up you need to do more than just point out shortcomings. Maybe I am oversensitive because of my feelings towards WV and Appalachia, but...

I understand what you're saying, but I came to WVU from New York State and I think the education I got there was top rate. I know this for a fact because one of my first jobs after College was as a cub reporter in Wichita Falls Texas and I was competing with recent grads from UT (Austin) and Columbia school of broadcasting @ Missouri. I can tell you I was much better prepared than they were coming from supposedly "better" schools!

I did run into a little of what you mentioned in your post about the West Virginia "inferiority" complex coming from a bigger State and city in Buffalo, NY but I think a lot of that comes from WV natives believing all the false outside perceptions fed to them about West Virginians being nothing but a bunch of "backwoods hayseeds". WVU has nothing to be ashamed of. We compete with some of the best schools in the nation in agriculture, engineering, forensic sciences, & Law. I was a J-School Grad, and I wouldn't trade the preparation I received from outstanding Professors like Frank Kearns, Robert Ours and Paul Cremer with anyone! I'm damn proud of my WVU education, it has served me well in my professional career both as a broadcast Journalist, and now as a Senior sales associate in automotive retailing.

 

[MountaineerWV]

Have you ever lived in the southern part of the state? It was a way of life.

Bingo. People can say whatever they want and pretend that others that LIVE in the southern part of the state are wrong, but we aren’t. The things these kids see, hear, and experience are not like most of the others in the eastern or northern panhandle. I’m not saying there isn’t problems there, but growing up in rural southwestern WV had its difficulties.