Several years ago, I wrote on this blog about a challenge that was already weighing heavily on Long Island’s future: How do we keep our talented young people here to build their careers, start businesses, and raise families?
That question has not gone away. If anything, it has become even more important.
On Thursday, October 15, HIA-LI will put the spotlight on that next generation at our 2026 Rising Leadership Awards, from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m. at Stonebridge Country Club in Smithtown. The morning will celebrate 22 emerging leaders from across Long Island, present ten $1,000 scholarships to children of HIA-LI members continuing their post-high school education right here on Long Island, and bring together young professionals to talk candidly about careers, leadership, and building a future in our region.
That future comes with real challenges.
Housing remains one of the biggest. More than half of Long Island renters are considered housing-cost burdened, and recent median single-family home prices have reached approximately $760,000 in Suffolk County and $911,000 in Nassau County. For someone beginning a career, starting a family, or launching a business, those numbers matter.
But keeping young talent on Long Island is about more than the price of a house. We also need the kinds of communities younger generations increasingly want: places where people can live, work, connect, dine, shop, and enjoy their community without having to get into a car for everything.
We are seeing that evolution in places such as Patchogue, Farmingdale, Bay Shore, and Station Yards in Ronkonkoma. Transit-oriented and mixed-use development is creating more housing choices while strengthening downtowns and connecting residents with transportation, restaurants, retail, entertainment, and employment. Station Yards alone is being developed around the Ronkonkoma Long Island Rail Road station as a 53-acre mixed-use community that will ultimately include 1,450 residences along with office and retail space.
That same idea of connection is at the heart of HYPE, HIA-LI’s Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs Committee. HYPE gives Long Island’s future leaders a voice and, just as importantly, opportunities to learn from one another, build relationships, and grow professionally.
A special thank-you goes to HYPE committee co-chairs Ben Kitzen, Vice President of Employee Benefits at USI Insurance Services, and Jonathan Amatulli, Manager, Ticket Sales & Service at the Long Island Nets, whose leadership helps keep that mission moving forward.
We will hear directly from young professionals at the October 15 event during a panel moderated by Rich Humann, President and CEO of H2M architects + engineers. The panelists are Thalia Olaya, Governor Hochul’s Suffolk County Regional Representative; Scott Janke, Director, Government & Community Affairs – Long Island at NYU Langone Health; and, Kevin Cassidy, Owner of KC Pizza & Wings, with three Suffolk County locations. Different careers, different experiences, but all part of the story of what it means to build a professional life on Long Island.
And then we will recognize the Rising Leadership Award honorees themselves: 22 outstanding young people who are already demonstrating that Long Island’s next generation is not simply waiting for its turn.
They are leading now.
Our responsibility as a business community is to make sure they have every reason, and every opportunity, to keep doing it right here on Long Island.
To register for the event, go to www.hia-li.org or call (631) 543-5355.
