We are creating local partnerships with several regional development non-profit agencies, cultural organizations, and businesses lead by alumni or friends of Grinnell College. These currently include the Iowa Valley Resource and Conservation Development organization (a five-county non-profit supported partly by the USDA), PowI-80, a county-wide development organization, the Grinnell Regional Medical Center, the Iowa Policy Project in Iowa City, and such alumni-led business firms as GCommerce and Coopera Consulting in Des Moines. Wilson can provide internships for these organizations (we have two interns, one unpaid, with Iowa Valley RC& D this summer) and work with the alumni to develop opportunities for both alumni and students to engage in regional development here. Our focus could extend outward to the "Golden Circle" of Iowa (Des Moines, Ames, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City) that has the majority of the Creative Class in Iowa (see Richard Florida, The Flight of the Creative Class, 2005). I have enlisted many o f the alumni from the Golden Circle to speak in my classes. In reciprocity I have helped to recruit students for them, both for internships/externships and for employment after graduation. We hope that the Golden Circle Project will stimulate student entrepreneurs to generate innovate businesses and other organizations in this region to contribute to the cultural and economic growth of central Iowa. An additional goal of the program is to facilitate any synergies among organizations that can increase the well-being of the region, its population, economy, and environment. Any contribution to the development of Grinnell and the Golden Circle helps to make the college a more desirable destination for our faculty, students, and staff.