Nick Foureizos reported for the Daily Yonder a few days ago out of far northern California, both inland Mount Shasta (Siskiyou County) and coastal Humboldt County, home of Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata. Here are some key excerpts about what Cal Poly is doing to meet the needs of students coming from rural places, but starting with a vignette featuring a Cal Poly student, Miranda Connelly, who grew up in Siskiyou County:
Just about 21% of Siskiyou County’s adults over 25 have a bachelor’s degree, significantly below California’s 35% average.
Despite two local scholarships available to cover gaps in federal and state aid, a number of her peers were convinced they couldn’t afford college, and chose to pass on even trying.
“For so many years, they had it pounded into their heads that it wasn’t feasible,” Connelly says.
“It’s not a blatant thing. It’s mostly parents just saying they can’t afford to send them to college. It’s an unwritten thing. But it adds barriers.”
Connelly, who now works as an academic mentor to first-generation students, notes that many rural students are the first in their families to go to college. They don’t always know how the system works.
The second part of the story shifts to a focus on Cal Poly Humboldt, which is experiencing a severe housing shortage, in part because of growth in the region that is taking housing that once would have been available to students off the market. The university's provost also talks about the institution's role in the region.
The housing challenges come at a time when the university is working to expand programs as part of its new polytechnic mission, including offering software programming courses that had just a 14% acceptance rate at other California institutions.
“We’re saying, ‘Let’s go ahead and offer these programs that people want, that they couldn’t get into elsewhere,” [Provost Jenn] Capps says.
It’s also investing in a fire resiliency center and launching a $10 million health hub for training radiology nurses and other medical professionals.
Though it can’t do everything, Capps is clear that it’s not an option for the university to sit idly on the sidelines in a remote community like this.
“The campus has to be the centerpiece in creating access,” she says.
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