How Far to Go? Community Influences on Youth Educational Aspirations in Rural, Resource-Dependent Places

Abstract

Maineundergraduate research assistants Angelina Buzzelli of the Business School and Liz Capodilupo of Wildlife Ecology, our local steering committees in Maine and Oregon, and the many community partners who helped make this project a success. While they made it a success, the project would not have been possible without the more than two thousand rural youth who shared their feelings and hopes for the future with us: thank you. In addition, the authors thank three anonymous reviewers as well as the editors of this special issue:

Effectively Engaging First-Generation Rural Students in Higher Education: New Opportunities for Sociology

“…For students who do choose to leave their rural community, issues such as social adjustment, relocation, and adjustment to new and diverse environments may compound the inadequate academic preparation of many FGCS (Smith 2017). When outmigrating, rural FGCS must not only adapt to the higher education environment but also deal with the process of leaving their rural communities, conflicting identities related to family and place, and dilemmas between aspirations and opportunities (Bernsen et al 2022; Bouchard and Wike 2022; Eacott and Sonn 2006; Foster and Main 2018; Gabriel 2006; Terman 2020). Many rural students who leave their hometown for college often do not return, resulting in the well-known brain drain and subsequent loss of human resources for rural communities (Carr and Kefalas 2009; Sano et al 2020).…”

“…Rural experiences within undergraduate programs can help to foster attachment to rural communities, introduce students from nonrural backgrounds to the diversity, complexity, and opportunities of living and working in rural communities and allow students from rural backgrounds to envision how their aspirations can be realized in various locales (Mitchell et al 2019). How one experiences a rural community, including a sense of belonging and “rural culture,” influences intentions to stay in that community (Bernsen et al 2022; Bouchard and Wile 2022; Eacott and Sonn 2006; Terman 2020). Experiences could include field trips to rural schools, nonprofit organizations, and locally owned businesses (Mitchell et al 2019).…”