Rural Fellowship Program's 10th Anniversary - November 14, 2022 - Jordan Rasmussen, Extension Educator - Rural Prosperity
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- [0:01] Summer 2023 will mark the Rural Fellowship program’s 10th anniversary.
- [0:05] The seven-week program, housed in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s
- [0:09] Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, places college students in Nebraska towns
- [0:13] to help create and execute community-improvement projects.
- [0:17] For both students and communities, the application window opened Oct. 1.
- [0:21] Community applications are due December 30.
- [0:25] Applications can be found at ruralprosperityne.unl.edu.
- [0:31] “The Rural Fellowship Program is different from a traditional internship,”
- [0:34] said Helen Fagan, program coordinator.
- [0:37] “In an internship, students generally work for a company to gain career experience.
- [0:42] With the fellowship, students live in and work for a community,
- [0:46] bringing their own talents and education to help improve that community.”
- [0:51] During the application process, community leaders outline projects
- [0:55] they’d like to work on the following summer.
- [0:57] Fagan and her team then interview student applicants and place them
- [1:00] in towns where their education and experiences can be used to help complete those projects.
- [1:05] In the past, students have designed hike-and-bike trails, organized “Small Business Saturday” events,
- [1:09] hosted youth entrepreneurship seminars and created public health initiatives.
- [1:16] “We didn’t have the ability, from a team member and time perspective,
- [1:19] to devote to this,” said Kyle Kellum, CEO of Cherry County Hospital in Valentine,
- [1:24] where a major project for 2022 Fellows was researching the need for
- [1:29] and possibility of creating community-funded daycare.
- [1:33] “This was something that we had to tackle as an organization,
- [1:35] and having the Rural Fellowship program here has been a tremendous asset for our organization.”
- [1:41] While having students living and working in the towns is a boon to rural Nebraska
- [1:45] communities, the students also benefit from the experience.
- [1:49] And not just through their paycheck.
- [1:51] “The communities bring in some of the brightest, most vibrant and most ambitious
- [1:55] young minds to their communities, ready to be proactive in developing plans
- [1:59] to create resources and solve challenges,” said Darrell King, experiential learning and
- [2:04] community engagement coordinator for the program.
- [2:06] “As for the participants, they get a chance to apply their knowledge to real-world issues
- [2:11] and work with community leaders while still learning via their courses.
- [2:15] Working with these community leaders provides mentoring opportunities,
- [2:19] leadership skills and experiential learning.”
- [2:22] Faith Junck, an environmental science major from Carroll who served in Chadron this summer,
- [2:27] said: “Serving as a Rural Fellow in Dawes, Sheridan and Sioux counties for the summer
- [2:31] proved to be one of the greatest experiences of my college career so far.
- [2:35] Rural communities may be small, but they are mighty.
- [2:39] They hold our state together and are the driving force behind
- [2:42] ‘the good life’ that can only be experienced in Nebraska.”
- [2:46] To learn more about the Rural Fellowship program or to complete
- [2:49] your community application, go to ruralprosperityne.unl.edu.
- [2:55] For Nebraska Extension, this is Jordan Rasmussen.