I telephoned Megan O'Byrne, now a student in college a few hours from her family's farm near Trenton, Nebraska. Her dad grows wheat, corn, and cane; her mom works as a waitress. Megan became involved as a high school student after Steve Smith of Imperial came to her high school. Megan said their team gave it their best shot but did not make the attendance requirements for the training. After deciding not to misrepresent their record, they were eliminated from applying for a grant, and this caused a great deal of anguish. However, Megan had found the experience useful and called the elimination of her team and five others a "learning experience." She then volunteered for a leadership position for the cluster. "I was a communications hub and organization person. Learning phone tag was hard but nobody checked their email." She found the group logistics to be difficult. "The first one was in July, and it was flaming hot. About 120 people were stuck in a very hot room and they were distracted." She attended other workshops but did not re-join another town team. When I read her final report to Kellogg, I would not have guessed it was written by an 18-year-old girl. She had learned a lot more about group dynamics, compromise, and adaptation than many adults ever will.

The high point for her was the youth orientation of the groups. For the first time adults had to listen to them, and it forced a cross generational interaction that would not have taken place without MIRA. She added that many townspeople realized they had new capabilities that had been hidden before the grant..Like so many others around the country, she found the digital storytelling workshops to be the most rewarding. "I'm digitally oriented, and I thought the instructors were awesome." However, her own farm connection to the Internet was only 1200 baud. Would she come back to a small town after college? "Very few of us do...maybe 3%. I would only if I married a farmer or if I could telecommute from a place with a good connection. However, I'd always be 'Megan, John's daughter,' but who wants to be that age 30? I want to be my own person and not be associated always with who I was but who I am now. People in town won't let you be who you are today."