Northwest Louisiana is home to 81,000 college students within our region. These students are enrolled at 20+ Colleges and Universities within a 100 mile radius. Some of these Universities Include in the MSA Include:

University:	Enrollment:
Louisiana State University Shreveport	3,972
Louisiana State University School of Medicine Shreveport	409
School of Graduate Studies	91
School of Allied Health Professional	191
Louisiana Tech University Ruston	8,061
Louisiana Tech University Barksdale	856
Centenary College Shreveport	993
Northwestern State University Natchitoches	8,973
Grambling State University Grambling	4,898
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Barksdale	140
Southern-Illinois-Carbondale Barksdale	40

Other resources for talent and talent creation include our two year college and universities such as:

University:	Enrollment:
Bossier Parish Community College	4,689
Louisiana Tech College Shreveport	1,044
Northwestern University Nursing Center	1,355
Southern University Shreveport	2,314

Organized development programs that benefit our university/college structure and encourage them to act in concert with common goals are active in our market area. CERT (Consortium for Education Research and Technology) takes a primary role in developing existing and cutting edge programs for different curriculum structures within our or market. These programs are essential to our talent pool development.

A Sampling of these Ground Breaking talent development Programs Include:

• Student Business Incubator at Bossier Parish Community College
• Cisco Networking Academy
• Aviation Maintenance Technology/Aviation Sciences
• Louisiana Scholars College
• CENIT (Center for Entrepreneurship and Information Technology)

Talent Development is important and serious in NW Louisiana. I believe the evidence proves it………