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Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles on the Prince Edward comprehensive plan. To read other pieces in the series, you can click here.

What do college students want? More importantly, how do we get them to stay in Farmville and Prince Edward County long after graduation? Those two questions have been raised for several years in both areas, as both governments look to bring in young professionals and young families, to balance out a currently aging population. But to do that, you first have to find out what the best tools are to keep them here. 

Over the last two years, multiple ideas have been floated, from providing cheaper, more affordable housing to bringing in more restaurants and grocery store options. But nobody had, on a larger scale, actually ventured over to Longwood and asked students their direct opinion. So that’s what the Berkley Group did. 

Back in October 2023, Prince Edward County contracted with the Berkley Group to work on redesigning the comprehensive plan. As we’ve covered in previous stories, there have been some issues in the fact the current version doesn’t address things like solar farms. But the same applies to recruiting younger families. So, over the span of a year, Berkley officials held several workshops and other discussions with Longwood students, to help them determine what suggestions are viable and entirely within reason, and others that aren’t. 

What did the students say? 

Events were spread out over the last 12 months. In the spring of 2024, the subject was part of Longwood’s Student Symposium. In September 2024 and then again in February 2025, more workshops were held. And again, to be clear, these are ideas. None of these suggestions are set in stone. 

First, the students want to see a benefit of some kind. Maybe the county works with Longwood University and finds a way to offer tuition breaks. The idea would be that any student who agrees to live and work in Prince Edward County for a five-year period after graduation could get that break. The students didn’t offer a suggested amount for the break or when it should go into effect, although one might guess they would prefer a ‘the quicker the better’ situation. Another suggestion was for the Town of Farmville or Prince Edward to provide subsidized housing options. This idea would focus on helping the schools. If a Longwood student agrees to teach at a school in Prince Edward for a certain period of time, then they could live in the previously mentioned subsidized housing. 

Beyond those two big picture pieces, Longwood students said they wanted more opportunities to understand just what is available to them after graduation. They want to see local businesses offer mentorship programs while they are in school and then internship programs for after they graduate. The idea is that the mentorships could help them explore different fields and see if a potential job or industry is something they want to do. 

Request some changes to town

Students also want more connection, better communication with the town and county. They suggested setting up a student advisory board to better connect students with the community. The students also recommended tying some Longwood University projects to town or county needs. That way, when the project is complete, the students get experience and the town or county get more visibility through the university marketing. 

Beyond that, they made several suggestions about types of industries to recruit to the area. First, they suggested identifying the materials hospitals like Centra Southside need and attempt to bring in those manufacturers. Second, they suggest using local crops and incentives to attract agricultural manufacturers to the county. 

Other requests fell a bit out of the price range. For example, one of the requests was to create rail links to Farmville, in order to attract residents and tourists. That isn’t something the town or county could do on their own and the state maps out transport funding decades in the future. And this would take decades to find the funding. According to a 2024 Compass International study, the average cost of a rail project stands at $383.36 million per mile. 

One thing already in operation that could help is Longwood’s own SEED Innovation Hub. The facility near downtown Farmville offers equipment, resources and mentorship for community members — ranging from woodworking, 3D printing and electronics to digital media, coworking space and entrepreneurship. In addition to equipment, the center plans to host ongoing workshops and clubs for youth and adults, as well as resources and staff that can help Prince Edward citizens turn a hobby or idea into full-fledged businesses.

Moving forward for Prince Edward 

So we’ve detailed what students wanted and what the five goals of the new comprehensive plan are. What’s next? How does Prince Edward move forward? We’ll look at that part of the plan in the next part of the series.