"I love this town," says Julie Burghardt, 30, a senior technical writer for Johnson & Johnson's Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Division in Greece who says that most of her local friends have likewise done well in the job market. "This place has a multitude of social and professional opportunities."

Burghardt knows. The avid traveler, aerobics class participant, swimmer and Little Theatre devotee has immersed herself in this community as a member of Digital Rochester, Rochester Area 20 Somethings and Women in Computing.

She's also a founding organizer of City Walk, a group of roughly 100 young professionals who visit three downtown bars or restaurants on the first Thursday of every month. Burghardt says local college students should leave Rochester after graduation — then come back.

"You will appreciate this place so much after you leave and go elsewhere," says Burghardt, who lives in a Webster apartment. "Rochester has something for everyone. Just get out into the community, soak it up and be a tourist in your own town."

As for herself, Burghardt is home to stay. "You couldn't get me to leave Rochester. One day during the summer, I went to Charlotte Beach on my lunch break to grab an ice cream from Abbott's, and I saw a band playing for a large group of senior citizens. They were so happy, and I thought to myself, 'This is the right community for me — the kind that invests in its own people.'