There they go, walking across that stage to receive their diplomas. And then there they really go, ditching this city faster than you can blink. A big source of stress for Rochester has been the mass exodus of newly graduated college students. As for the ones who stay, it's all too common to graduate and stagnate while hunting for career opportunities. As a sense of promise fades into disillusionment, depression, and the craving of something more, young people tend to feel down about the ROC, and dream of fleeing home.

On Thursday, February 25, a bit after noon, the Central Library on South Avenue held one of its Thursday Thinkers lectures, this one entitled "Retain the Brains." It was presented by Maria Thomas Fisher, a municipal assistant for the City of Rochester who is also the president of Rochester Young Professionals, and development coordinator of Rochester Children's Scholarship Fund.

The brief talk introduced an audience of about 30 to the reasons behind the mass exodus (better jobs elsewhere, escaping Rochester's weather, and the hunt for a more metropolitan, exciting city), as well as the reasons why people love it here (a good variety of cultural activities for a city this size, affordable housing, low traffic, and beautiful natural resources were among the key points).

The Rochester Young Professionals is a grassroots group seeking to attract, engage, and retain talented, educated, and ambitious individuals, with the goal of connecting them with their community. By regularly holding a variety of activities, socials, and networking events, the group educates young professionals about the awesome aspects of our city, highlights local businesses and organizations by choosing them for their event sites and vendors, and connect the members of the group with volunteer work at various non-profits, often placing young professionals on the boards of those organizations. To date, the RYP has arranged more than 80 "board matches."

RYP has an emphasis on outreach, seeking to discern what young professionals want and need from the city, what the city needs from them, and attempting to figure out how to reconcile those needs with the fresh, shiny abilities young professionals offer. The group's solution is a tangible one: that the starting point is making people feel engaged in their community, and capable of affecting positive change within it - that getting what they want from the city is within their reach after all. As Fisher put it, "We keep them so busy they don't have time to think about leaving."

Networking socials are crucial and smart, because passion and initiative spread like wildfire, especially among a group bereft of the adamant cynicism some people in Rochester seem to carry. RYP also sends members a weekly newsletter with job opportunities, and has wrangled for its members various benefits that include discounted tickets and memberships to arts and cultural events and institutions.

But what of the unpreventable reasons for leaving, the wanderlust and the weather? One member of the audience raised the point that there will always be an inevitable, irrepressible, and natural urge for fledgling adults to extend those itchy wings and get outta Dodge, particularly among those who have never lived elsewhere. Some people will yo-yo (I myself left for six months after graduating), before realizing that it's less expensive to live in Rochester, and your entertainment dime goes further here than in, say, NYC. His advice is that we do what we can to attract those wanderers from other cities: become their destination. And the weather? Sorry, we just have to make that most of it. Take your Vitamin D and strap on those snowshoes.