This Commentary was featured on VTDigger in a post on 02.05.2020.

Editor’s note: This commentary is by Monique Priestley of Bradford, who is a graduate of NVU-Lyndon. She telecommutes for her job as director of digital for CampusCE Corporation in Seattle, Washington, and serves as executive director for The Space On Main.

Our state college system is an invaluable resource that should be protected to the best of our abilities. The pleas to keep students in Vermont after high school graduation is equally matched by the pleas for parents and students to recognize that we have a serious workforce talent gap in our state. These pleas can be addressed directly by Vermont schools such as Northern Vermont University (NVU) that offer online, two-year, four-year, graduate, and professional development programs.

I graduated from Oxbow High School in Bradford in 2004. I started my college years off at University of Vermont, pursuing degrees in computer science and Russian. Within the first year, I completed all of the web design courses that were available and realized that I would need to transfer to another school in order to further develop my design skills. Luckily, I was able to stay in-state and pursue an associate of arts in graphic design and a bachelor of science in digital media at NVU. I was even able to continue to explore Russian and had the opportunity to travel abroad to Russia in 2007 with NVU.

I transferred to NVU with both college and real-world web development experience, meaning that I was ahead of other students in several of my classes. Luckily, my supervising professor was supportive, flexible, and willing to work with me. He encouraged me to explore, to work on portfolio development, asked me to assist other students, and was lenient when my non-school life demanded more of my attention. (At this time, I was living in a remote, utility-less cabin in the woods of Corinth, working several jobs, and commuting to and from school.) He could have been annoyed with the extra energy it took to guide me, but instead, he treated me like an adult, expected me to manage my priorities, and was always there when I needed to talk through new technologies that I wanted to learn. All of my NVU professors shared these qualities.

The professors at NVU deliver an incredible learning environment, but they offer so much more than that. They look for opportunities for real-world experience by connecting students to local businesses for project-based learning. They look ahead at coming trends and adapt their lessons. Above all else, they treat the classroom like a professional setting that encourages high work standards, collaboration, and personal development. This is an area where I believe our state colleges excel. By the time I left NVU, I had a robust resume which included project lead experience in a studio environment, I had a multi-disciplinary portfolio, I had presented my portfolio to an audience of professionals, and I had transferable soft skills such as the ability to take criticism of my work.

After graduating summa cum laude from NVU in 2008, I left Vermont to attend University of Washington’s master of communication in digital media program in Seattle. In 2011, I returned to Vermont with a master’s degree and a full-time remote job for a Seattle-based software company. In 2014, I had the fortune to teach an advanced design course at NVU. Teaching gave me the unique opportunity to think through what was most helpful as a student and allowed me to build the class based on my own experience. I structured the course around professional portfolio development and was able to incorporate interviews with colleagues from Seattle and throughout Vermont who were experts in each of our weekly topics.

Had it not been for the positive experience that NVU provided me at a critical time in my life, I would not be the person I am today. I would not be the Vermonter I am today. Since returning to Vermont, I have invested countless hours in community development. To date, I have served upwards of 25 local, regional, and state organizations with a focus on community and economic development. I founded The Space On Main, a nonprofit coworking, conference, and community gathering place on Main Street in Bradford which opened in 2018. I am deeply committed to the success of Vermont, particularly when it comes to our small, rural towns. We all have real opportunities that improve the lives of current and future Vermonters. We have a real opportunity to share what it means to invest in where one lives. This starts with schools like NVU.

On May 30, 2019, I had the honor of being recognized as one of Vital Communities’s Heroes & Leaders at their 25th Anniversary celebration. I am not a lover of “the spotlight”, small talk, soirées, or swapping out my jeans, so I was skeptical of how the night would go. Luckily, like usual, my skeptical self was pleasantly surprised. It was a night of familiar faces, new friends, inspiring stories, and a flawless introduction by Sarah Copeland-Hanzas that left me with a greater level of respect, both for Sarah – and myself. I cannot thank Vital Communities, Rob Schultz, or Sarah enough for their support and am very much looking forward to serving this amazing organization. I asked Sarah if she could send me a copy of her speech and have included it below. <3

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When Hills 5&10 closed its doors on Main Street in Bradford a few years ago, many of our Main Street shop owners feared it signaled the ultimate demise of our little downtown. But as the phrase goes, every cloud has its silver lining. Our silver lining came in the form of Monique Priestley.

In the years following the closure, I saw Monique in my café almost daily. She would juggle her day job along with meetings with local leaders. She was determined to transform the empty storefront into a 21^st century business venture. She persisted in solving the puzzle like a kid with a Rubik’s Cube.

To help you understand Monique, I want to share with you a story, adapted by Erikka Mohssen-Beyk, from a lost poem by an Iranian author Mohammed-Taki Bahar. I’ve added a few pieces to be sure the story truly captures Monique Priestley.

There was a water spring coming out of a stony mountain slope, and this little stream had the dream to become a river and reach the sea to become one with the big ocean.

The spring started to flow down the stony mountain slope, happily jumping over little rocks and having fun. All of a sudden she got stopped by a big rock which was in her way.

Very politely, she asked the rock to give way. The rock said, “Who do you think you are to tell me to give way to you? I did not even jump when the big flood came and washed everything away and now you little stream want me to get out of your way? ”

The spring did not get discouraged by his harsh words and started to dig her way around the rock, it took time and it was hard work, but finally, she was able to carve her way around the big rock and continue her journey.

She had many obstacles on her way, but she was always thinking of a solution and got better and better, along the way she learned a lot. If there was not a straight way she tried around, above, or even to go underneath. When winter came, she settled in, as ice, and in the spring found her power had created another way forward. Sometimes it seemed as if she couldn’t flow anymore and had to stop to get more power again. Over many seasons, with many twists and turns, she finally reached the sea.

I had the chance to scan Monique’s resume to prepare for this event. In order to understand Monique you just need to remember these numbers; three, five and 26. This woman currently holds down three jobs. Now, I have two jobs and that’s about enough to blow my mind some weeks. She’s rocking three jobs. On top of her three jobs we’re going to lay on the number five. She has so many public service and volunteer board positions she has to divide that part of her resume into five different sections. The skeptics among you are saying, “Sure, if I listed every board I’ve ever served on I could get to a place where I need to organize them into categories.” That’s reasonable. But here’s the clincher. Twenty-six. That’s the number of committees, boards and elected positions that are listed on her resume as things she’s presently involved in. Twenty-six! I challenge you to find anyone else in this room who’s rocking community involvement to that extent.

Persistence and avid community involvement are among Monique’s attributes. But I want you all to know that she has WAY more than endless energy and dogged determination. She is the real deal when you look to identify heroes and leaders in our community. She has that awesome combination of hard work ethic, willingness to talk to everyone, humility in the face of resistance, calm in the face of challenges and immunity to the undermining poison of skepticism.

While she might come off as shy, and I know she does not relish the opportunity to make speeches in public, she’s never let that stand in the way of joining a board, volunteering for a project or convening a community of people to solve a common problem.

Monique is more than the silver lining of some mythical cloud, in fact, she is the water. Monique can wear through any barrier you put in her way.

As Founder & President of The Space On Main, I gave testimony on-site today in support of coworking, makerspaces, broadband, and entrepreneurship at a Vermont Senate Committee On Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs hearing on Rural Economic Development & Innovation. My testimony and full hearing video are below (Matt Dunne starts off the hearing at 1:00:00).

My name is Monique Priestley. I grew up directly across the river in Piermont, NH and then moved to Bradford during high school. I attended UVM and Northern VT University (Lyndon) for my undergraduate degrees and left for 15 months to get a Master of Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington in Seattle. While in grad school, I worked for a Seattle software company that I continue to work full-time for, remotely, 9 years later. I continue to commute back and forth every few months to catch up with coworkers and to get a dose of an urban environment.
I serve on a number of local, municipal, and state boards including everything from our local health care center, to planning commission, to Chamber of Commerce, to the Vermont Council on Rural Development. This space was a retirement goal of mine, but at 30, our town was losing key businesses and every local meeting was filled with a palpable mixture of depression and desperation – wondering how to attract businesses, professionals, and young people.

You have heard and are going to continue hearing of the need for better access to broadband, a need to push technical education, and a need for better access to affordable and workforce housing. These are critical problems that need to be solved. We think an equally important problem is a lost sense of connection and community. A lack of communication and collaboration. A lost sense of civic responsibility. And a lack of sharing skills and resources. And we believe that coworking and makerspaces can address these problems head on.

Coworking and makerspaces facilitate efficient, affordable, and convenient sharing of resources. The remote worker, the contractor, the freelancer, the entrepreneur, the solopreneur, the working parent with a side-hustle, the traveling consultant. These individuals are not required to have an office space. In rural Vermont, it does not make sense to drop hundreds of dollars a month to drive to a location where they are most likely still going to be working in isolation. But $100/month to work in a shared, professional space where they can meet clients, have access to fast Internet, and have facilitated access to a network of people who can grow their businesses, their skills, the social circle, and their awareness of others in their community? That is game changing. In our handout, you will see that people joined The Space On Main for access to faster Internet access, but more importantly, they joined just to be around other people. They want to be engaged. They want to grow with, learn from, and share with others.

The Space On Main has been open for less than 4 months and already, our members have blown us away. They will tell you that this space saved their lives, their relationships, or their businesses. One member reported invoicing for more earnings in his first month than he has ever invoiced in his career. That same member shared that something as simple as access to a table and whiteboard made his product more professional. And that access to video equipment could enable him to evolve his real-time global reach to automated global reach that would allow him to help more people, make more money, hire staff, and require him to partner with other members to make up for his weaker areas such as marketing. Every single one of our members and many members of the broader community wants to start, evolve, or scale a business, but they need support and a network to do so. And that is what we provide, but it is going to be a struggle to purchase required equipment, make overhead, offer programming, and try to build in salary for a paid employee to manage things.

There are a few keys areas where we believe the state can make huge impact:

1. A more expansive broadband network, which in turn would lower costs. When we priced out fiber a year ago, it was going to be $2200/month, then $1100/month, and is currently $375/month for 50/50 (half of what it should be). After the lease, it is our greatest monthly expense.

2. A remote worker program that markets and matches people with available spaces. Even if you manage to convince a remote worker to come to Vermont and throw a few thousand dollars at them, you are not giving them a community to engage with. They are going to be isolated, in a new environment, with no real investment or connection to Vermont. They are going to feel the disconnection from the professional network they had in the city. Instead, buy them a year at a coworking space. Give that coworking space money to survive and to invest in programming that will allow them to offer professional development and networking opportunities to that worker.

3. Financially support or incentivize business and entrepreurial programming. We recently attended a facilitator training for a business accelerator training at LaunchVT. Ideally, The Space On Main would offer this 9 week program 3 times throughout the year. Each cohort can accommodate up to 16 people. From each, if 4 businesses result and even one stays and hires 10 people, that is 30 new jobs a year. We already have a full waiting list for the first cohort. Once that’s in place, We will expand similar programming to local tech center students. And from there, we will offer in-depth training in coding, accounting, business development, scaling, and more.

And as an additional note after receiving the proposed legislation list, absolutely expand the Downtown program. Receiving state tax credits was a make-or-break moment for this renovation project.

(Matt Dunne starts speaking approximately 1:00:00 in.)

Photo credit for featured image: Matt Dunne