Conversation between rural college access professionals has been and remains core to the Rural College Access and Success Summit’s success. Each day at this year's event will have dedicated networking time.
By Dreama Gentry, Executive Director of Partners for Education at Berea College
How do you provide after-school tutoring to students who live more than an hour away from school by bus? How do you convince recruiters from top colleges to travel hundreds of miles to meet with your graduating class of 43? Or 14 or even four? What are
the best practices for supporting rural students as they transition through college?
For many years, the staff at Partners for Education at Berea College wrestled with these and other questions familiar to anyone who supports the educational aspirations of students in rural America. Over time, we developed some inventive solutions that
could be adapted by others, and we encountered challenges for which we hoped others had found creative answers. But, we lacked a place to come together and share our knowledge with each other. There simply wasn’t a national event focused on the college
access needs of rural students.
Now an annual event, the summit offers college access practitioners from rural communities the chance to come together and share solutions proven to work in rural areas.
Once it was clear the 2021 summit would need to be online, we and our co-sponsor, Campus Compact for New Hampshire, decided to leverage the great strength of virtual events: the ability to bring together as many people as possible. To maximize the number
of people able to attend the summit, organizations pay a single $250 fee that covers registration for everyone on their team. Anyone who lacks organizational support can apply for free registration.
In scheduling this year’s event, we’ve worked hard to keep the best features of in-person events, while recognizing that the pace of online events needs to be different. For example, all-day events don’t work when you have attendees on both coasts, so
our sessions will run from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (EST) each day preceded by 30-minute networking sessions beginning at 12:30 p.m.
In those two and a half hours, we have incorporated exciting keynotes, engaging breakouts, and, on Thursday afternoon, a special deep-dive session on topics ranging from key issues in education policy to how to leverage service years to support rural
education.
One of the keynotes features authors Silas House and Neela Vaswani, who will discuss their widely acclaimed young adult novel, “Same Sun Here.” The book follows the pen pal friendship of two 11-year-olds: one living in rural Kentucky and the other in
urban New York City after emigrating from India. In a series of pen pal letters, they tell each other about their family’s struggles with environmental devastation, discrimination, and education. In the process, they illuminate differences in race,
region, religion, gender, and much more.
Later in the week, change agent Aminata Cairo will lead the audience on a journey of exploration by taking an honest look at what it takes to create equitable and inclusive communities. She will explore why embracing diversity and inclusion can seem like
matter-of-fact endeavors to some and like insurmountable challenges to others. The exploration will move towards a better understanding of what is truly required of us to create environments where all stories are valid and all people can thrive.
At our first Summit, we convened a panel to explore the question, “what is rural?” This graphic highlights the variety of rural experiences.
Although the list of breakout sessions is too numerous to mention, a broad set of topics will be covered. The following examples speak to the diversity of topics:
Tamara Sandberg from Save the Children will explore food insecurity in rural communities. She makes the case that college access programs and their partners, including libraries, can help ensure that children have the nourishing food they need to
succeed and thrive.
Dr. Darris R. Means, associate professor in the College of Education at the University of Georgia, will share results based on research done with Briana Hayes, a student at the University of Georgia. They interviewed 80 rural Black middle and high
school students, and school staff and community members in rural geographical locales about the skills, abilities, and social networks that support postsecondary education access for rural Black youth and systemic barriers that hinder their access.
A complete schedule for events will be available on April 5 on our website. The summit will be held April 26-30, 2021. Organizations can register here and individuals can apply for a registration scholarship here.
We hope that all stakeholders in rural education will join us to share their experiences and to build the partnerships needed to support educational success for all rural students.
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