A Case Study From Northern New Mexico

• In Event: Race and Rurality in Research, Policy, and Practice

Abstract

Over the past two decades, there has been increased interest on the part of colleges and universities in building relationships with rural communities and supporting college access via targeted programming. However, Students of Color have not historically been well served by these college access programs, especially those programs that help students apply to more selective and out-of-state colleges. Just as we cannot assume that what has worked in some urban and suburban communities will work in rural spaces, we cannot assume that all rural students and their communities can be best served in the same ways. In their role on the panel, Bott-Lyons and Levin will share lessons learned from one college access program that they helped found and still advise: Rural Opportunities for College Access (ROCA) New Mexico. In particular, they will highlight two promising practices: affirming and nurturing individual student identity and investing in rural social infrastructure. In turn, they will demonstrate that college access should be an intentional process of identity exploration and affirmation that honors both race and rurality in all of their complexity.

Authors

• Tobe Bott-Lyons, Northern New Mexico College

• Hanna Negishi Levin, Davis New Mexico Scholarship