Some college students have good jobs waiting after they graduate today from Emporia State University. Then there’s Kayla Oney.
In her case, “good” doesn’t begin to describe it.
Starting Monday, Oney will be the full-time director of Emporia Main Street, the city’s downtown development association. She’s held the post on a part-time basis since February after the previous director, Mary Helmer, left to take a state Main Street position.
Understandably, she’s a little nervous. Not only is it a big job, but she follows a popular director known throughout town as “Mary Main Street.” That’s a lot to live up to.
“It’s kind of scary,” Oney acknowledged. “Scary and nervous, though, are not negative things in my mind. I think stress is good — to a certain extent.”
And it’s a stress she’s been well prepared for. She’s worked in this field since high school, when she started an internship with the Wabaunsee County Economic Development office in Alma.
It started like most internships: file that document, type that letter, find that fact. But it soon evolved into a lot more. By the time she left two years later, she had written a successful grant proposal for a county education program — not the usual grunt work at all.
Oney said that part of the credit for her success in the job belonged to her boss and mentor, Linda Craighead.
“She was an awesome mentor as far as teaching me how to not only work with people, but to organize information and organize your thinking,” Oney said. “She really taught me the professional side of things.”
It helped that Oney was already willing to work hard. Her family’s rule was simple: chores get done first. And there were plenty of chores to do, both before and after school.
“Those work ethics, at 17 or 18, had already been inculcated in my thoughts,” Oney said. Balancing that with an internship didn’t hurt her time management skills, either.
When it came time to go to college, Emporia just seemed the right fit. It was affordable, in a bigger community but not a huge one. And it had a public relations program that wasn’t just part of a journalism track.
“Which is good, because I am not a journalist,” she said, smiling.
ESU is known as a teachers’ school and Oney had considered that path. But despite being the daughter of a teacher, Oney didn’t feel she had the knack that makes the good ones.
“There’s a passion there that you have to understand, to be able to do that sort of thing day in and day out,” she said.
Oney instead found her passion in the downtown of Emporia, which had been given a Streetscape remodel just a few years before.
“As a student, I remember coming downtown and saying ‘Wow! This is an eye-catching place!’” Oney said. “It makes you want to get out of your car and walk the street.”
In May 2006, Oney started working for Emporia Main Street. It didn’t take long for her to pick up on Helmer’s enthusiasm or her knowledge of the downtown, from the Granada Theatre to the Poehler Mercantile.
“It really gave me an understanding of Emporia’s past and its core,” Oney said. “It gave me a little window into what there was to explore in Emporia.”
Her window’s getting bigger now. Now that she’s the one behind the desk, there’s a lot she wants to do. Oney’s looking forward to more upper-story development, and to more promotion, and to working with Main Street’s community-initiated development group to see what other options the downtown has.
Main Street will go on, she said. And so will Oney’s love of what she considers the heart of Emporia.
“It’s got so many unique services and products to offer that you can’t get anywhere else,” she said of the downtown. “It’s just neat to see it busy and people walking the streets. Not being able to find a place to park is awesome in my book. Having to walk a little ways never hurt anybody.”