Coming Home

Young professionals are heading back to Wichita for a better quality of life.

You know the story: Kid grows up and goes away to college, and can’t wait to make a new life elsewhere. They call it brain drain, and in recent years it’s led to frantic brainstorming sessions all the way from the city council chambers to the statehouse, where they’re trying to come up with new ways to retain young college-educated Kansans.

But a new trend is forming in Wichita, one that may form a link for other natives to return to their hometown and establish their families and new businesses back in Kansas. As you’ll see in this article, where there’s one new happy returnee, more are likely to follow. Call it the twenty-something domino effect.

Nick Hess, Ryan Dugan and Jon Rolph are three precise cases in point. All are homegrown sons who had a chance to put some miles between them and Wichita after they graduated from college. And all three have chosen to come back home and start their families for much the same reasons: sentimentally speaking, their kids can be born in the same hospitals and attend the same schools as they did. As a matter of practicality, they all think Wichita is a great place to live and play.

Drawn by the New Arena
Ryan Dugan graduated from Bishop Carroll in 1996, went to K-State and received a business administration degree. He moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he worked with bankrate.com. This was followed by five years with Burnham Composites in Dallas and Thomasville, Georgia. Dugan moved back to Wichita in July 2006 to join up with Nuvox Communications.

“I knew since I was 8 that I wanted to go to K-State,” Dugan says. As for his desire to live in other parts of the United States and meet different people, he chalks it up to a study abroad program for a semester in northern Italy.

When some personal things in his life changed, he and his wife, Sarah, decided to move back to Wichita. “We have a young son, and decided we didn’t want to travel so far every time we wanted to see our family,” Dugan says. Now he and Sarah, who works at the Skaer Veterinary Clinic, live just five miles from his parents and a little more than an hour from hers, who live in Emporia.

When Dugan came back to Wichita, he noticed a lot had changed since he’d graduated from high school. “It seemed like Wichita was starting to get a lot of the things that I was enjoying in other cities—restaurants, nightlife, and the new arena, for instance.”

Now Dugan says he can’t imagine leaving Wichita. “We took for granted how genuine people are in the Midwest,” he says. “You hear a lot about Southern hospitality. Living right in the middle of it in Georgia, everyone’s extremely polite—but that doesn’t mean they’re friendly. It’s tough to get into that inner circle.”

Dugan says he’s really looking forward to the opening of Wichita’s new arena. “The month before I left Fort Lauderdale, I saw a professional hockey match, the Dave Matthews Band, Jimmy Buffett and Jerry Seinfeld. I think the arena is a great deal for Wichita…it’s something that could draw in large acts like that.”

Big-City Life without the High Cost
Nick Hess thinks young professionals are moving back to Wichita quite regularly because they’ve gained a new perspective.

“It seems like, when you’re going to high school, a lot of friends are wanting to move away, craving different experiences. Now people are realizing things they like about Wichita that they didn’t know about when they were growing up here,” he says. “It’s a whole lot different town than when I was in high school. The city is growing like crazy.”
Hess was away from Wichita for eight years, first to get a degree in construction science management at K-State, then to work in Austin, Texas. “I just couldn’t see myself doing it for the long haul,” he says of his time working for a contractor. “We loved Austin, but the business connections here in Wichita are so much greater. Work brought us back—plus family and friends.”

Wichita’s big-city atmosphere and affordability is the perfect mix for Hess and his wife, Paige. “We like to be in the action and in the middle of it all. We wanted to live in the city, and in Austin we simply couldn’t do it. Wichita’s relatively low cost of living has freed us up for traveling and experiencing other things, and is allowing us to live the way we want to live, just as we’re starting out.”  

Now the Hesses live in the well-established, cozy neighborhood of College Hill and have what he says is everything they could possible want. “I had a great time growing up in Wichita. I can’t see why any family wouldn’t want to live here.”

L.A. Detour
Jon Rolph can proudly tell you the exact moment in 1979 when he was born at Wesley Medical Center. He went to Wichita Collegiate School for fifteen years, from pre-kindergarten through high school, then headed south to Waco, Texas, to study film at Baylor University. Later, he lived in Washington, D.C., for one year as part of a national student leadership forum.

“I loved Washington but decided I wanted to come back and work for Dad so I could learn about business from him,” Rolph says. “Then I planned to head out to Los Angeles to make movies. But by the end of the first year [back in town], I’d decided to make it a full-time deal. I love Wichita, and I’m having a great time here.”

Lucky for Rolph, the woman he’d dated in high school had also decided to return. After working for the Kanakuk Institute in Branson, Missouri, Lauren had chosen Wichita over Dallas. They reunited soon after, and married.

Now Rolph is director of brand management for Carlos O’Kelly’s. “Lauren and I both love Wichita. We’ve even had friends move here since we came back—people from Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas City, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington, D.C. We have strong friendships with them, and thought it would be fun for our kids to grow up together and have shared memories.”

What Wichita amenities convince the Rolphs’ friends to pull up stakes and move to the Sunflower State? “It’s the people I tell them about most, their Midwest values…the way people are friendly to each other and gracious, how they say hello at the market,” he explains. “And that there’s a good balance between having high family values and working hard.”

It’s really an easy sell, he says. “The last couple of months in Washington, D.C., traffic, I thought, I just can’t wait to get back to Wichita.”

Plus, he says, the opportunities to become involved in the community are boundless. “The size of the community makes it easy to get your arms around. As a youth, I volunteered with the Wichita Children’s Home. Since returning, I’ve plugged back in as a board member.” Rolph also serves on the Chamber board and is involved with Leadership Wichita and the Young Professionals group.

“I feel like Wichita is a great place to be young right now because the city is asking for our input and participation, and wants our help to build up the leadership,” he says. “I’m really glad I chose to move back.”