Today, UNL is one of the nation’s leading teaching institutions, and a research leader with a wide array of grant-funded projects aimed at broadening knowledge in the sciences and humanities. With an enrollment of approximately 24,600 students, undergraduates learn from faculty who create new knowledge, who are leading scientists and scholars, and who care about students’ success. UNL’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources also offers Extension Education that reaches out to communities across the state of Nebraska.

UNL houses various rural-focused programs: the University of Nebraska Rural Initiative, which identifies opportunities in rural Nebraska and catalyzes experimentation, innovation and collaboration in partnership with rural citizens to enhance the economy of rural areas; Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI), an interdisciplinary center offering programming and research in the area of economic and community development and sustainable agriculture; the National Center for Research on Rural Education, which strives to improve rural students’ acquisition of reading and science knowledge and establish an infrastructure for conducting and disseminating cutting-edge research related to rural education; and the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program, an innovative academic program that facilitates entrepreneurship potential through student courses.

As a branch of UNL, the University of Nebraska – Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture (NCTA), located in Curtis, is a unique two year college that is dedicated entirely to instruction in agriculture. Five years ago NCTA’s administration and faculty determined that it could make a substantial impact on the rural communities that serve the agriculture industry if its students were prepared and encouraged to return home as partner/employees rather than hired hands.

NCTA’s attributes include being located in a small rural community that encounters many of the rural issues prevalent throughout the nation, rural students from sixteen states, and a faculty that live rural issues each day through their families and the students they teach. NCTA students, upon completion of their formal education, will return to the rural culture they love as partner/employees with the skills to one day own an agriculture or business enterprise.  They will also become future community leaders who will establish families that will keep rural schools open and main streets viable.

Among the UNO programs related to the  Rural Future Institute are the Nebraska Municipal Clerks Institute and Academy which provides training for municipal clerks throughout Nebraska; The Nebraska Business Development Center that provides support for small businesses across the state;  StatPack that is a secure, dedicated, HIPPA compliant web-based network system that will support telecommunications between clinical laboratories in Nebraska; and the Nebraska Biomechanics Core Facility (NBCF) that involves research in patients in rural areas including those with peripheral arterial disease.

Additionally Center for Public Affairs  serves as the state data center for the State of Nebraska and tracks demographic changes in both rural and urban areas including births and migration; UNO’s Graduate and Undergraduate Library Science Education programs celebrate more than 200 students from outside the Omaha Metro area from rural areas all over Nebraska and from rural areas in four of Nebraska’s neighboring states; and the School of Public Administration serves as the training center for rural city administrators and city managers as well and other governmental and nonprofit agencies throughout Nebraska.

Faculty at the College of Business and Technology have conducted numerous applied research projects related to rural development.  The Center for Rural Research and Development empowers rural residents to seek avenues of rural development by building entrepreneurial and professional capacity, and by encouraging creative thinking about the economic growth of our region. The center espouses the “grow-your-own” philosophy of economic development, known as economic gardening, using customized primary research methodologies such as surveys, focus groups, and electronic polling facilitation services.

The College of Education’s Office for Service-Learning connects faculty members, interested in forming collaborative partnerships with community agencies or programs. An extensive database of agency/program needs and contact information is housed in the Office.  The Service Learning office partners with the Kearney Area Community Foundation, to serve as contact for the Rural Corps of South Central Nebraska: An AmeriCorps Program.

UNMC’s commitment to serving the entire state is unquestioned. With its Rural Health Education Network (RHEN), UNMC expands students’ opportunities for education and training throughout Nebraska. UNMC’s Family Medicine Rural Training Track is the largest rural training program in the nation. The Rural Training Track prepares medical students, especially those with rural backgrounds, for rural practice and increases the likelihood that they will choose rural areas in their careers. UNMC’s expertise in rural health has been recognized nationally, as U.S. News & World Report ranked UNMC’s rural-health program 15^th in 2012.

The UNMC College of Nursing has campuses across the state in Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney, Scottsbluff and Norfolk, and many more students are served via the college’s distance learning efforts. The Eppley Cancer Center partners with hospitals in seven Nebraska communities to bring clinical trials to patients in those communities, allowing them to receive the latest cutting-edge treatments while remaining close to home. The Munroe-Meyer Institute provides pediatric behavioral health clinics for children who need mental health services at several locations across the state.

WASHINGTON DC — Nearly one in four American children attend rural schools and enrollment is growing at a faster rate in rural school districts than in all other places combined, according to Why Rural Matters2011–12, a biennial report by the Rural School and Community Trust. In addition, rural schools show increasing rates of poverty, diversity, and students with special needs. These widespread trends are most evident in the South, Southwest, and parts of Appalachia.

“As the evidence mounts that rural education is becoming a bigger and even more complex part of our national educational landscape, it is becoming impossible to ignore in the quest to improve achievement and narrow achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged groups. The day of closing our eyes and hoping rural education will just go away are ending,” said Jerry Johnson, a co-author of Why Rural Matters 2011–12.

More than 9.6 million students are enrolled in rural school districts in the United States — over 20 percent of all public school students in the United States. An additional 1.8 million students are enrolled in rural schools in districts not classified as rural by the federal government. Together, these 11.4 million students who attend rural schools comprise more than 23 percent of all public school students, according to the Rural School and Community Trust, a respected national nonprofit organization.

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Click here to make reservations for the Rural Futures Conference
Dates: May 8-May 10
Access Code/IATA: RRFUC
Cutoff Date: April 25, 2012