Licking County native David White chose to stay local for his college education; he attended Ohio State Newark and graduated in 2012 with a BS in Business Administration. Today, he continues supporting local through his work as director of workforce and talent solutions at One Columbus, an economic development organization focused on strengthening the national and international competitiveness of the 11-county Columbus Region — an area that, earlier this year, landed the state’s largest manufacturing investment with Intel.
“I can honestly say I believe the regional BSBA program has helped shape my career — both in content and quality of learning, and also the flexibility to be able to work a full-time job while attending school full time,” said White.
“With small class sizes, you got to know your professors who were very engaged with students, and I had the ability to make great friendships with other students. It’s also a much lower cost, both from a living perspective in Newark and surrounding communities, but also tuition was affordable enough that I was able to graduate with no debt.”
The One Columbus mission is to lead a comprehensive regional growth strategy that develops and attracts the world’s most competitive companies; grow a highly adaptive workforce; prepare communities for the future; and inspire corporate, academic and public innovation throughout central Ohio. A great example of the organization’s work is the recent announcement from Intel to invest more than $20 billion in the construction of two new leading-edge chip factories in Licking County, creating 3,000 new jobs.
“Ohio State Newark, COTC and C-TEC are well positioned to be amazing assets for Intel, providing quality training and education to meet their needs for a highly skilled workforce,” said White. “Also, there are many existing companies as well as others in the process of opening or considering relocating or expanding their businesses in or near Licking County that can continue to tap into this talent pipeline.”
In his role as director, David serves as a talent and workforce advisor working with companies seeking to expand existing operations or introduce new operations in the Columbus Region. He also consults with existing regional companies about their talent needs, facilitating connections and dialogue among various private, public, state and nonprofit resources.
“There’s a great opportunity for Licking County and central Ohio to be transformed from a scale standpoint and be at the forefront of a resurgence of manufacturing in the United States. Employers have amazing career opportunities — jobs that require high-tech skills that didn’t exist even a few years ago.
"The Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology at Ohio State Newark is going to be a great feeder program, and I can only imagine it will continue to scale to provide highly skilled talent to companies while providing the great experience you get at Ohio State Newark.”