From Preschool to the Courthouse

Many high school and college students often dream of big careers in big cities away from home.

In fact, a 2022 analysis of 630,000 students by Tallo, a networking platform for students to connect with companies and colleges across the country, found that 72% of high school students do not plan to stay in or return to their hometown after graduation.

Despite those students’ big dreams of moving away, research by the U.S. Census Bureau and Harvard University also in 2022

ound that most Americans are putting down roots close to home.

The research shows that 60% of young adults 25-29 live within 10 miles of where they grew up and 80% live within 100 miles. Money and family were listed as the key reasons.

There are five young Ohio Countians who not only put down roots in their hometown, they are all serving the community as public servants.

Bo Bennett, Colton Black, Landon Spurlock, Kelsey Embry and Olivia Hirtzel not only went to high school together. They all began school together as part of the first Beaver Dam Preschool Class in 1999-2000.

They have moved from coloring and playing at recess together to all serving the county in various aspects – two of them in elected offices.

Ohio County Jailer Landon Spurlock and Third District Magistrate Bo Bennett were each elected to office in the November 2022 election.

For Spurlock, even though many people his age did leave Ohio County, that was never really something he entertained, he said.

“The biggest reason I never left is because this is home for all my family,” he said. “We all pretty much live on the same road a couple of miles from one another.”

Spurlock knew he always wanted to be in law enforcement and began serving as a sheriff’s deputy in 2018. Knowing the former Jailer Rip Wright was going to retire in 2022, Spurlock saw that as a chance for him to possibly serve his community in a new way.

“I’ve never thought about leaving,” he said. “This is home. It’s where I’m from.”

Olivia Hirtzel, Colton Black and Kelsey Embry all work at the Ohio County Sheriff’s Office. Hirtzel is the manager of the office, Embry has been a deputy since 2019 and Black has been a deputy/school resource officer since 2016.

For Hirtzel Ohio County is where her family and church are.

“I’ve never had the desire to live anywhere else,” she said. “I have always wanted to work at a job that allowed me to give back to the community.”

Embry, on the other hand, actually did leave Ohio County for a period of time living in Elizabethtown and Daviess County before taking the position at OCSO. Embry said family is the main reason for coming home.

Hirtzel said that many of their classmates have stayed close to home.

That seems to fit with the new norm. According to a survey by the Census Bureau, 20 years ago nearly 50% of young adults 25-35 were opting to move to cities and suburbs within a few hours’ drive from home. Now an overwhelming majority of Americans value having family close by, according to that same survey. Three-quarters of adults surveyed say it is at least somewhat important to them personally to live in a community where family is nearby. It was “very important” to 36% of Five students from BD Baptist’s first preschool class work for county those surveyed.