1. COLLEGE POSITIVE VOLUNTEERISM HELPING K-12 YOUTH TAKE STEPS TOWARD POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved

2. Overview  Identifying Rural Areas  Understanding Rural Students  Rural College Access Challenges  Rural College Access Tips  Rural College Access Activities © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved

3. RURAL CPV RESOURCES © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved

4. Identifying Rural Areas Markers of a rural community include:  Distance to an urban center or metro area  Geographic spread with a low population density  Small community size Andy Smarick, Ed Excellence © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved

5. Understanding Rural Students “What if I told you there were millions of American boys and girls living in communities where half of students are low-income, just one in five adults has earned a bachelor’s degree, and only 27 percent of high school graduates go on to college? What if I told you these students are more likely than their peers in any other geographic area to live in poverty? Most of you would probably gather that I’m talking about our inner cities. No. These statistics describe rural America.” - Andy Smarick, “America’s rural schools and communities”“America’s rural schools and communities” © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved

6. Understanding Rural Students © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved  1 in 3 American schools are rural  1 in 4 American students attend school in a rural community  4 our of every 10 rural students are low-income Source  Though rural students graduate high school at a higher rate than their big-city peers, they are far less likely to attend college or enroll in post- college graduate or professional programs. Source

7. Rural College Access Barriers  Lack of understanding about the importance or value of higher education in the Midwest (Most parents and grandparents of today’s students grew up in a time when agriculture and industry provided many jobs for laborers without postsecondary education.)  Fear of the unknown, or areas outside of the hometown  Lack of local, low-cost commuter schools © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved

8. Rural College Access Barriers © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved  Rural communities can tend to be hesitant to open their arms to people who are outsiders (College Access Foundation)(College Access Foundation)  “Distance between school and the home makes parent involvement difficult…Work schedules are a large barrier to engagement and attendance at events such as parent-teacher conferences, report card pcikups, and volunteer activities,” (Ed Excellence)(Ed Excellence)  There is often a lack of public and private transportation in rural areas

9. Rural College Access Tips © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved  Physically meet students and their families where they are most likely to be. Athletic events are particularly well attended in rural communities. (Source)(Source)  Provide transportation to events and field trips  Offer events both far away and nearby to include all students

10. Rural College Access Tips © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved  Provide incentives for attendance and participation  Hold events that include parents and family  Become involved in the community and school to discover what local resources are available  Encourage students to search for and apply for scholarships from local organizations, such as the Elks, Rotary, Lions, Eagles, etc.

11. Rural College Access Tips  Use mail, e-mail and social media and phone calls to reach students  Look at U.S. Census data to better understand the community you’re in  Promote county transportation and ride sharing boards to local families  Act as a resource, not an expert, to avoid appearing as a threatening outsider © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved

12. Rural College Access Activities © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved  Show students that large universities in big cities are not their only postsecondary education options.  On the Michigan College Access Portal (www.michigancap.org) a student can conduct a College Search. One of the filter criteria is “Size & Environment”. Use this to show students schools of varied sizes.www.michigancap.org

13. Rural College Access Activities © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved  See what resources MSU Extension has to offer in your county. MSU has programming in every county in the state of Michigan. in your county  Take group trips to tour colleges near and far  If college tours are cost prohibitive, bring college to the students in creative ways.  Virtual college tours are a great resource. For a generic tour of a fictitious example university, see KnowHow2Go’s homepage in the bottom left corner. KnowHow2Go’s homepage  To view specific colleges, check out ecampustours.com.ecampustours.com

14. Special Thanks To:  Sam Morykwas, Resource Development AmeriCorps*VISTA member 2013-14 who surveyed Mentoring to Access Corps members and other service-learning professionals about their experiences working in rural communities. Survey participants included:  Elizabeth Wallace  Nicholas Holton  Danielle Zipay  Eric Jenkins  Megan Parish © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved

15. Thank you! For more information, visit: http://micampuscompact.org/cpvmain.aspx © 2011, Michigan Campus Compact. All rights reserved