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The University of Indianapolis has created an organization to track jobs being created in Indiana and to direct students toward those careers and away from the exit signs.
The Institute for Emerging Careers is the university's response to Indiana's muchdiscussed "brain drain," in which too many graduates from the state's colleges move elsewhere. The new institute wants to turn this brain drain into a "brain gain," to borrow from the headline of a University of Indianapolis press release.
The institute is funded by a $750,000, three-year grant from Lilly Endowment. The institute is in the process of funding the first research projects that will focus on identifying emerging careers.
"What we thought we'd do is to have faculty-student teams partner with business to look at the economy and determine the skill sets needed to keep graduates in Indiana," said Bruce Strom, the Institute for Emerging Careers' executive director.
Ron Dow, the institute's assistant director, said only five other states have lost a higher percentage of college graduates over the past 10 years. Indiana ranks 14th in population, but 43rd in the number of residents holding college degrees.
The University of Indianapolis, though, traditionally has done a good job in helping its graduates find jobs in...