Notre Dame joins initiative to increase rural student enrollment in top U.S. colleges
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The University of Notre Dame has joined the Small Town and Rural Students, or STARS, College Network, an initiative to increase rural students’ admission into some of the country’s top schools. The program provides high school kids with accessible information for enrollment into these highly selective institutions.
An additional 16 universities, including Notre Dame, joined the network this year, bringing the number of participating institutions to 32.
“Notre Dame is honored to partner with STARS in its mission to increase access to exceptional higher education for students from small-town and rural communities,” Vice president for Undergraduate Enrollment Micki Kidder said. “Students from rural communities flourish at Notre Dame, contributing their unique talents and perspectives, enriching our vibrant campus community and benefiting from a Notre Dame education.”
STARS simultaneously addresses a variety of obstacles that contribute to this disparity, the university said in a news release. Because of distance and cost, college admissions offices may bypass small towns and rural communities. Students in those areas are less likely to encounter college-related ads or attend events on campuses.
Notre Dame said it intends to thoughtfully engage and invest in students from small towns and rural areas across the country.
The Notre Dame Enrollment Division plans to visit high schools in remote area and develop partnerships with community organizations in several locations, extend the invite for its Midwest Visit Day to kids in rural communities, encourage rural student participation in its summer pre-college programs and create an advisory board to strengthen its relationship with rural school counselors.
Launched in 2023, the STARS College Network is supported by a $20 million gift from Trott Family Philanthropies, and its members welcomed more than 288,000 students last year.
Trott Family Philanthropies said it will build on its initial gift with an additional investment of more than $150 million over 10 years in programs that prepare, recruit and support rural students.
In its inaugural year, STARS outreach connected with 1.6 million people, including students, families, educators, administrators, foundations, legislators, companies and other organizations.
Although students in small towns and rural communities graduate high school at roughly the same rate as students in metro areas, they are only half as likely to graduate from a selective college or university, the release said.
“As a driven and motivated individual from a rural community, Notre Dame has allowed me to finally pursue countless career opportunities that are often inaccessible within rural areas,” Madison Cunning ham, a political science major from Otis, Colorado, said. “Notre Dame has given me the confidence and resources I need to hopefully serve as an attorney for marginalized individuals in the future. I have truly been fulfilled in ways I never imagined possible.”
STARS founding members include Brown University, Case Western Reserve University, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Yale University. STARS is led by the University of Chicago and Vanderbilt, and headquartered at the University of Chicago.
Other incoming participating colleges include Dartmouth, Duke University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Spelman College, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley and University of Texas at Austin.