Ohio University’s Regional Higher Education Workforce Success Initiative, which just opened a new application period, isn’t just improving workforce opportunities in the Appalachian region – it’s also building bridges.
Dr. Jacqueline Yahn, assistant professor of teacher education at Ohio University Eastern and an expert in rural and Appalachian communities, schools and school funding, has developed a regional Rural Teacher Fellowship program through the initiative in collaboration with community partner Building Bridges to Careers (BB2C).
“The schools give so much to our education programs. We want to work with rural teachers… to connect schools, communities, businesses,” Yahn about the fellowship program.
To foster this connection, the Rural Teacher Fellowship engages fellows in a theory of learning called community and career connected learning. The fellowship pairs a mentor who is an experienced rural teacher affiliated with BB2C with a fellow, a rural teacher who is in the early stages of their career.
While most mentors were already willing to give freely of their time to help with professional development, the work of the mentor and fellow in implementing community and career-connected learning in their classrooms is funded through the RHE Workforce Success Initiative. Yahn, a former teacher herself, is adamant about this. “This is above and beyond,” she said of the work they accomplish. “We do think the funding is an important thing to make visible and that teachers should be respected.”
During the year, each fellow develops a project of their choosing that has meaning to the students in the classroom and shows a connection with the community.
“This fellowship is really meant to help teachers understand how important it is for their students to have those positive experiences while in school,” said Yahn.
The projects vary widely.
“One fellow is building a middle school ag program. What she’s done is just astounding to me. One fellow is building programming with a community theater called the Towngate Theater. One of our fellows is doing a STEM pen pal project with her seventh graders,” she said. “These are three very different projects, but all of them are doing amazing things.”
These projects, and the positive experience students have throughout them, are helping to curb outmigration of youth in the service area.
“Rural places are remote, but our possibilities don’t have to be,” said Yahn. “Geographic isolation doesn’t need to be isolation from the opportunity to build social capital through a network. This is really about rural kids and giving them pride.”
“One fellow is building a middle school ag program. What she’s done is just astounding to me. One fellow is building programming with a community theater called the Towngate Theater. One of our fellows is doing a STEM pen pal project with her seventh graders,” Dr. Jacqueline Yahn said. “These are three very different projects, but all of them are doing amazing things.”
But just as important as retaining the talent of the youth in the region is making sure we bolster it, no matter where the child lands, Yahn said.
“A kid needs a positive experience here whether they stay here in the long-term or not… when kids feel positive about their home community, they become adults who talk about it and they represent it in a certain way, and sometimes find themselves in positions of power that really help us. Those are the Joe Burrows of the world,” Yahn said.
As an expert who focuses on rural school and community viability, a big topic for Yahn is spatial inequality.
“Both for our teachers and our students, and there’s many things that spatial inequality causes, but one, it’s just lack of access to resources,” she said.
One example of spatial inequality that Yahn says affects rural educators is broadband.
“It’s not because we couldn’t have it, it’s because we have been deemed by corporations as not worth the investment,” said Yahn. “That was painful during COVID. It literally blocked kids from being able to attend school at one point. A lot of times that access just isn’t there.”
Teachers are trying to close the gaps created by poverty in local schools, as well.
“Sometimes getting the funding and resources is a struggle because of visibility,” said Yahn. While attending conferences or events that are not rural focused, she notices a difference in how urban and rural poverty and food insecurity are viewed.
“I’m an Appalachian kid and I am generational, I am super proud of that. But I do like to make visible to people that rural poverty’s pretty hidden,” she said. “They drive through urban areas and they can see it… and that poverty is very real. But the rural poverty in Appalachia, it’s just not visible to people. They don’t necessarily see it, because it’s tucked away down rural roads.”
While there are many challenges in rural communities, benefits such as generational structures can be a draw for those choosing to continue calling Appalachia home, or those deciding to return later in life, said Yahn.
“In fact, a lot of the adults that return in their 30s and 40s, research finds it deals more with their positive experience in the community and the school,” Yahn said. “They’re willing to sacrifice some things economically to come back… particularly if they have a family of their own and they see the possibility a rural community has for their kids.”
“Bringing the community in to the school to see the kids, that’s the piece that’s important, the social capital at the community level that benefits all of us. Those connections and that hope,” said Yahn.
“We’re building this from the ground up. One of the things we do is try to create synergy between Ohio University, our fellows and mentors and Building Bridges to Careers,” she said. “The Workforce Success Grant was critical to us getting off the ground. I encourage anybody in my regional higher ed network to go after these grants.”
The next round of funding for the Regional Higher Education Workforce Success Initiative is accepting applications through March 31.