HAMILTON, Ohio - An Ohio charity is trying to get more workers to stay in town, and they say it’s working because of a $10,000 incentive. 

Ken DeMoya is from Florida, but he says he’s not leaving Hamilton, Ohio. 

“It’s opportunity, that’s what I see,” said DeMoya as he looked across the city from a rooftop view.

He saw an opportunity for $10,000 and got it. It’s scholarship money, but he’s not in college anymore. 

“I work as a senior sales operations manager,” said DeMoya. 

After he graduated with a degree in business, he was recruited from Florida to work remotely in Hamilton. He’s been in Hamilton since 2017 because of those funds. 

“Coming into the program, I had a pretty large sizable amount of student loan debt, and I was thinking this is a really great opportunity to stay, pay down debt and also meet community leaders,” said DeMoya. 

That’s exactly what TAP, the Talent Attraction Program, is meant to do. It gives recent college graduates scholarship money after they graduate to come work locally. 

It’s an incentive through the Hamilton Community Foundation to bring in more workers to the area. 

So far the group says they’ve helped dozens of workers come to Hamilton, but for DeMoya, the last five years became more than just an incentive. 

“Not a lot of people know this but actually, when I moved up here shortly after receiving the scholarship, I met a lovely lady, who then became my fiancé, and we got married, and we’ve been married for two years, and so I’m starting to lay down roots and see what Hamilton has to offer, so it’s really hard to say we’re just gonna pick up and move,” said DeMoya. 

If you or someone you know would like to try for some of that scholarship money, you have to have graduated in the last seven years, and you also have to live and work in town as long as you are getting payments, should you become a scholarship recipient.

For more information about the scholarship, follow this link.