From the Kenai Peninsula to Pippa Passes, Two Rural Young Leaders Paving the Way

On this episode, we talk with Jonathan Blair and Sam Schimmel about the work they’re doing to strengthen their rural communities in Appalachia and Alaska. Blair and Schimmel are two of three co-creators of an ongoing documentary media and public engagement initiative – American Creed: Citizen Power —  that explores American idealism and activism from a range of young adult perspectives. American Creed: Citizen Power is the forthcoming follow-up to the 2018 Citizen Film PBS production American Creed.

To hear more from these extraordinary young adults, be sure to RSVP for Rural Assembly’s upcoming “Connecting Our Heartlands” event Jan. 19 to join the conversation with these young leaders and a panel of civic luminaries: David M. Kennedy (Stanford University Lane Center for the American West), Eric Liu (Citizen University) and Danielle Allen (Harvard University Safra Center for Ethics).

About our guests

• Sam Schimmel is a first-year law student at Georgetown University. Schimmel plans to use what he learns in law school to help his people negotiate a healthier, more sustainable economy that aligns with his community’s values and the need to protect the environment.  At Connecting Our Heartlands, Schimmel will show his photo essay and discuss his Kenaitze Tribe’s movement to restore Indigenous rights to subsistence fishing and economic development in alignment with community values. (Click here to view his Daily Yonder photo essay "Salmon Tales: Subsistence on the Kenai Peninsula")
• Jonathan Blair lives, works, and studies at Alice Lloyd College, in Eastern Kentucky. He coordinates a work-study crew of about 60 people, mostly first-generation college students from rural Appalachia. Together with two of his crew members—Jacob Frazier and Carlos Villanueva—they document their connection to blue-collar work in and around the Appalachian coal industry, and they reflect on their hopes for the region.  (Click here to view his Daily Yonder viewfinder article "Phantom of the Black Diamond")