Hunter Ryerson(@huntryerson):My dad grew up in one of the most rural parts of NC. Thanks to the Duke Talent Identification Program, which ran a talent search across the rural South to find and uplift smart American kids, he was thrown an intellectual life preserver. He then double majored in math and CS, and went on to get his finance PhD. That program doesn’t exist anymore. Now, when a top university wants stem talent, they import it en masse from Asia, and fasttrack those immigrants to high paying US jobs. How many brilliant rural kids are out there now (in the “flyover states” @agupta smeared) waiting for a life preserver that never comes? Neglecting American STEM talent was one of our most egregious errors.

2026.08.25 22:07

My dad grew up in one of the most rural parts of NC. Thanks to the Duke Talent Identification Program, which ran a talent search across the rural South to find and uplift smart American kids, he was thrown an intellectual life preserver. He then double majored in math and CS, and went on to get his finance PhD. That program doesn’t exist anymore. Now, when a top university wants stem talent, they import it en masse from Asia, and fasttrack those immigrants to high paying US jobs. How many brilliant rural kids are out there now (in the “flyover states” @agupta smeared) waiting for a life preserver that never comes? Neglecting American STEM talent was one of our most egregious errors.