This week, young professionals from the Erie area visited Harrisburg through a program at the Jefferson Educational Society.

Around 30 young professionals in the Erie region enrolled in the 2025 Jefferson Civic Leadership Academy.

“I deeply love the community,” said Carlos Mora, one of the 2025 cohorts. “And I think this is a way for me to learn more about how the state and the local level work together to implement good policies for the community.”

The program participants have 9 months to study a policy issue and develop a solution. Each year, their course starts with a trip to Harrisburg; where they meet with local lawmakers and break the ice with fellow cohorts

“It's been so hard to find other young professionals that are super interested in this type of thing,” said Theresa Laird, who lives in Erie with her son. "And so while we've only been here in the capitol building for 6 hours today, and we've learned a ton, and that's been awesome— I think the best part has been like forging these relationships.”

The cohort is tackling population decline as their policy issue this year—they say in several presentations this week to learn about the topic from state level experts. 

“It's really a matter of our birth and death rate being out of balance,” said Kyle Kopko, executive director for the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. "We have more older Pennsylvanians and we're having fewer children overall in our families.”

The Center for Rural Pennsylvania says the entire country is facing a population flat line. In Pennsylvania, young people are moving from rural to urban areas. Older professionals in and out off the state are moving to rural areas.

“We're still going to have demand for a wide range of services, particularly in the health care sector. But we may not have as many workers in the future,” Kopko said.

Pennsylvania still has net positive population growth—international immigrants playing a significant part in that trend.

The Erie region has seen overall population decline over the past decades; and students are already brainstorming solutions.

“Whether that be infrastructure, jobs, agriculture or whatever that might look like,” Laird said, “attracting young people to move to the area, or figuring out how to help our young people who are growing up in Erie, stay in the area."

“[I’m] thinking about how to engage the international community, because that seems to be the people who want to relocate here in Pennsylvania,” Mora said.