Program spawned three sister initiatives for graduates, teachers, veterans
Ascend West Virginia launched in 2021, the 50th anniversary of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” which the state’s tourism department had already been using in its “Almost Heaven” promotional campaign, according to NPR. The program was designed to leverage the state’s natural assets — mountains, whitewater rivers and forests — to attract remote workers who could work from anywhere.
Danny Twilley, an assistant vice president of economic and community development at West Virginia University who helped create the program, told NPR that the state recognized its outdoor recreation potential. “What we recognized is that West Virginia has some of the highest density and highest caliber of outdoor recreation in the entire country,” Twilley said. “We’ve seen what that’s done in other parts of the country. So we’re like, how do we replicate that?”
The program’s initial $25 million budget came from the private Wing 2 Wing Foundation, created by former Intuit CEO Brad D. Smith and his wife, Alys Smith, according to NPR. The foundation covered the full cost, meaning no taxpayer dollars funded the incentives.
Participants include people from a range of backgrounds. Ashley Eklin moved from the Chicago area to Inwood, a town of 3,400 in the state’s eastern panhandle, after receiving a multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2022. “That was my pivotal moment,” Eklin told NPR. “I decided to take a huge leap of faith and just chase some dreams.” She bought a house sight unseen and moved three years ago, later joined by her fiancé from Illinois. Eklin now commutes three times a week into the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, driving two hours each way, but said she has no plans to leave. “At the end of the day, you’re going home to a sanctuary,” she said.
Abby Snyder and her husband, Colin Scott, were digital nomads living in Portugal before deciding to relocate to Lewisburg, a town of fewer than 4,000 people in southern West Virginia known for its arts scene and architecture. Snyder, who grew up in Appalachia, told NPR the couple decided to return to the U.S. thinking, “We need to be part of this fight for our democracy and fight for environmentalism and art and people.” She said they have found the community welcoming despite political differences.
Chipper Thurber, who edits promotional videos for megachurches, moved with his wife and young son from Pennsylvania to Fairmont, about 20 miles southwest of Morgantown. He told NPR he initially thought the program was “too good to be true” and was drawn primarily by the outdoor recreation benefits.
The program originally aimed to welcome 1,000 remote workers, according to NPR. Officials now plan to bring on the next thousand. Its success has spawned three related initiatives: First Ascent, aimed at keeping West Virginia college graduates from leaving the state; Teachers Ascend, which recruits classroom teachers; and Ascend Heroes, which targets military veterans.
Brad D. Smith, a native West Virginian who built a career over three decades in 10 states and four industries before returning to serve as president of Marshall University, told NPR the program was motivated by his own experience of having to leave the state for economic opportunity. “When I graduated, I didn’t have a choice. I had to leave,” Smith said. He wanted to ensure other West Virginians had the option to stay.
Evan Starr, a professor at the University of Maryland, told NPR that the cash incentive functions primarily as a marketing tool. “It gets you to say, ‘Hey, I’ve never thought about living in Cumberland, Maryland,’ or ‘I’ve never thought about living in West Virginia,’” Starr said.