EVANSTON — On Tuesday, May 6, Evanston hosted a meet and greet with the University of Wyoming (UW) President Ed Seidel at the Roundhouse. The event, which also hosted a few program directors and current students, served as an opportunity to present UW’s economic and entrepreneurial programs to local citizens.

Dan McCoy, the director of UW’s Jay Kemmerer Wyoming Outdoor Recreation, Tourism and Hospitality (WORTH) program, along with three of his students, Nevin Griber, Katie Magana and Colter Nunn, discussed their work with the Southwest Wyoming Off-road Trails (SWOT).

“SWOT … originated in Uinta County,” Nunn said, explaining that the program was initiated in 2020 by Evanston’s Mark Tesoro.

The students’ role in the nonprofit organization is to develop off-road trails and infrastructure to enhance economic and community opportunities and connectivity. Establishing the trails will connect National Forest, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), historic sites and landmarks together.

SWOT currently has 165 miles and 23 county roads enrolled with the state trail system, incorporating such areas as the Pony Express Station, the Piedmont Kilns and the Lincoln Highway.

“We’re doing it in three ways,” McCoy said, “through workforce development, research and statewide initiatives.”

Citing state tourism as a $2.2 billion dollar industry, McCoy explained that it also contributes $2.44 million dollars in tax revenue. It’s the second largest industry and the largest private-employment sector with 33,000 statewide employees.

Uinta County, according to McCoy, hosted 300,000 tourists last year, earning $104 million in tax revenue and employing 10% of the county’s workforce.

Wyoming 4-H Program Coordinator for Uinta County Sam Krieger with the UW Extension Office discussed upcoming summer camps for youth ages 8-18; summer camps and afterschool programming.

A three-day statewide workshop showcase showdown is also coming up in Laramie. Cent$ible Nutrition offers in-person classes as well as online options. Information can be found at wyoextension.org/uintacounty/ or uinta.gov. Participation with the Evanston Farmers Market is beginning in July. 

Krieger also announced the receipt of a $4,000 Harvest Wyoming grant, a vegetable incentive pilot program designed to promote purchasing local produce.

“Another meaningful achievement this year,” Krieger said, “we were able to establish a food pantry at Horizon (High School). This program helps students and their families access food on weekends.”

Several local groups are also continuing support to the Wyoming Hunger Initiative’s “Grow a Little Extra” program, which provides fresh produce to the local food pantry.

“Overall, the Extension in Uinta County remains committed to serving youth, families and community through education, partnerships and innovative programs,” Krieger said, inviting attendees to check out the local office.

Jessica Powell, an Evanston High School (EHS) graduate and current UW student, spoke about her experience at the university.

“Growing up in Wyoming, I had so many opportunities,” Powell said of her decision to attend UW. “I absolutely love it there.”

Powell is a chemistry major and member of the marching band that recently performed during the New Year’s Day Rose Parade.

“It was really a wonderful experience made possible by Wyoming and the community that we have,” she said. “I cannot wait to see more students from Evanston heading up to UW.”

After showing a UW advertisement video about the school’s freedom of intellectual curiosity, Siedel said, “We’ve had speakers from all kinds of sides of different issues. … I hope you all feel that exact sort of sense that you can have your causes there and there’s a way to carry out discourse.”

Seidel, who has served in his capacity as university president for nearly six years, said, “Something I’ve been working on since I came to Wyoming, and that is to make sure the university is aligned with the state need,” for instance, he said, by creating a hospitality and tourism programs.

“If we can align our programs at the university to things that can really help and grow the economy for the state of Wyoming, that’s all great,” Seidel said. “We’re going to grow that program and number of others like it.”

“We’re also focused on a lot of student success,” he continued, highlighting the growth of returning students from their freshmen to sophomore year. When he first arrived at his position, he said, the university was losing 25% of that demographic. “Now we’re almost up to only losing 20% — so, we’re up to 79% retention rate.”

Siedel explained that paid internships were contributing to decreasing losses. He said that the school will try to match students with companies through the office of strategic partnerships. 

“We’ve created an entire course called ‘innovation course’ where any community, municipality, company can come to us and say, ‘We’d love it if we could have some of your engineering students, business students, market design students working together...to help revitalize the economy,’” he said.  “We’re doing a lot of that right now.”

According the Seidel, just last year, with funding assistance from the state legislature, UW became a Carnegie R1 Research University.

“That means that we’re in the top 4.9% of all universities in the country in terms of the amount of external funding that bring in outside of what the state provides for us to support research and economic development,” he said.

Finally, Seidel showcased the university’s spendy but in-house produced Super Bowl ad featuring former UW quarterback and current Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.

“It was seen by tens of millions of people,” he said before UW Director of Marketing and former Evanstonian Chad Baldwin, added, “60.5 million people ... and applications, guess what? They’re up,” he said to a round of applause.

The event closed out with Seidel and Baldwin leading a rendition of the school’s fight song as attendees sang and clapped along to “Ragtime Cowboy Joe.”