While universities are sometimes seen as agents of brain drain, officials in Otter Tail think they can turn higher education into a catalyst for a new, long-term gain.
College in Rural America
Posted inCollege in Rural America
The rural workforce is changing. Colleges are scrambling to keep up.
Lack of affordable housing makes it almost impossible to recruit out-of-towners to rural communities like Ravalli County, and the in-town workforce is drying up. Montana and other states hope more flexible, skills-based education systems can meet specific and sometimes surprising education needs.
Posted inCollege in Rural America
In this shrinking Mississippi Delta county, getting a college degree means leaving home behind
Inside Issaquena County, Miss., where just 42 adult residents have at least a bachelor’s degree.
Posted inCollege in Rural America
The two Tetons: A growing divide in the ‘Billionaire Wilderness’
Across rural America, both income inequality and a lack of affordable housing are on the rise. Remote communities like the Tetons are facing not just an economic challenge, but also an educational one, as changing workforce needs meet a critical skills and training gap.
Posted inCollege in Rural America
A first-generation senior finds her college path, with help from an adviser who had walked it before
Everything changed for Ashlee Villarreal when she met Evelyn Irigoyen-Aguirre, who is part of the Kansas State Advising Corps.
Posted inCollege in Rural America
A rural town, a fleeing flagship, and a faltering faith in higher ed
The growing rift between the public and their universities is especially felt in places like Montgomery, W. Va., where people feel they’re not valued.
Posted inCollege in Rural America
The view from America’s new political dividing line: the college degree
Two decades ago the politics of Watauga County, N.C., home to Appalachian State University, were aligned with its rural neighbors. That’s shifted drastically.
Posted inCollege in Rural America
Rafael expected he would go to a university — the system never did
Educators put him on a non-university path. His public charter school never questioned it. And it was only a few months before graduation that he learned just how far behind he was.
Posted inCollege in Rural America
Despite pandemic promises of internet for all, many rural students remain disconnected
There are hidden barriers, like hotspots that don’t work as advertised, and not so hidden ones, like faulty government maps.
Posted inCollege in Rural America
Will Elon Musk’s rocket bring prosperity or inequality to one of America’s poorest regions?
His spaceport would be a major investment anywhere, but it’s an especially dramatic one in South Texas, a remote, mostly Hispanic region, an area without other high-tech industries or top-tier universities.