After graduating from the second and final week of The Center for Rural Development’s 2009 Rogers Scholars summer youth program, the region’s future business leaders and entrepreneurs have challenged to go out and make their home communities in Southern and Eastern Kentucky better places to live.

The final 30 of the 60 rising high school juniors to attend The Center’s flagship youth program—Rogers Scholars—received certificates of completion on July 17 after completing the one-week program.

Scholars were challenged by keynote speaker Hilda Legg at the graduation program to follow their passions in life and strive to make the world a better place.

Legg, a motivational speaker and private business consultant, encouraged Scholars to look deep within their hearts to discover who they truly are, what they are passionate about in life, and finally to accept the choices they will make in the future along life’s journey.

She shared some of the life lessons she has learned in a professional career that has taken her from rural Appalachia to the streets of Washington, D.C. In 2001, Legg was appointed by former President George Bush to administer a $6 billion loan and grant program for the infrastructure needs of rural America as top official of the Rural Utilities Service.

She also served for seven years as the first executive director and CEO of The Center, where she was responsible for the overall management of the state-of-the-art facility as well as program development and outreach before accepting her position in Washington.

Regardless of all of her accomplishments, Legg told the Scholars it is important to be true to themselves, select careers that they love, and “try to do something that makes the world a better place.”

She closed with a famous quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”

Lonnie Lawson, president and CEO of The Center, also provided some words of encouragement to the final graduating class of Rogers Scholars. He challenged them to set goals and strive to reach those goals even if it means the possibility of failure.

“Creativity is all about taking risks, taking chances, and being willing to fail,” Lawson told graduates. “Learn from your failures.”