On Sept. 24, history professor Randal Beeman invited the CEO and president of the Kern Economic Development Corporation, Richard Chapman, to give a lecture to his class regarding economics and importance of keeping college graduates in Kern County.

“What happens so often, is young people get educated in Kern County, and then go somewhere else,” Chapman explained, adding that he is working as a booster for the county to the rest of the world.

Chapman grew up in North Carolina before residing in Seattle. He eventually moved to Kern County, and he listed the many reasons he believed in Kern’s worth.

Chapman described the area as a “high-tech center” but didn’t stop there. In addition to being the No. 1 county in America for oil, Kern is the second strongest agricultural county in the U.S. Ninety-nine percent of all U.S. almonds and walnuts are farmed from Kern, and it creates at least 90 percent of all pistachios, broccoli, strawberries, grapes and tomatoes that we consume as a nation.

Chapman repeatedly stated that Kern is underappreciated for its contributions and rarely recognized for what it has done. The Bureau of Economic Analysis found in September of 2013 that the county had the fastest growing metro GDP in the U.S. from 2001 to 2013, and the fastest growing metro workforce from 2012 to 2013, according to a 2014 update from the same organization.

Chapman ended his discussion by speaking about Kern County in relation to its neighbors Fresno and Los Angeles.

.“Kern is the valley’s largest economy,” Chapman stated. “Fresno might have had a bigger economy a decade ago, but now we have a bigger economy.” He continued, while he pointed to a slide projected onto the white board, and claimed that our county is the energy capital of the country.

Chapman said that he looks to have an impact nationally with his company, partly by working with companies that don’t want to stay in LA. Speaking further about his thoughts on Kern County, Chapman said that he was interested by “the really amazing story that’s not being told.” He concluded by saying that we need to work together as a community to improve our communication channels outside just our county.