College for Rural Wisconsin continues to expand in its second year

In its second year, the College for Rural Wisconsin (CRW) program just keeps expanding! Three new UW–Madison students joined us, growing the Rural Peer Advisor team to six. More awareness of the program and a bigger team allowed us to more than double the number of rural and small-town schools and rural youth-serving organizations we worked with this year. We’re also expanding further across the state too, visiting north of Hwy 8 and down into the southwest. We’ve been focusing on rural students here on campus too. This spring, CRW partnered with three colleges and schools on campus to host the first-ever Rural Student Networking Events. The College of Engineering, School of Education, and College of Letters and Sciences had events in mid-March to great success! Each took a different approach – from a dinner and presentation to a student-faculty panel to an informal get-together – but all focused on connecting and building community among rural-identifying students and faculty within that school or college. Feedback was positive, with many saying how they wished there was an event like this when they were freshmen. Faculty also hoped for future events, enjoying the chance to show their willingness to support and be a resource for students. We are looking forward to offering these events again, particularly in the fall to reach our incoming rural students. CRW wouldn’t be as successful without our Rural Peer Advisors, the backbone of this program. They are passionate about giving back to their rural communities and the state through their work to amplify rural student voices throughout the college-going process and helping rural youth to see themselves in college, whatever that path looks like for them. A huge shout-out to the whole team and to my two graduating Rural Peer Advisors this year, congrats!