Photo Provided OU Rural Teacher Fellows, students from the Eastern Campus Rural Teacher Corps, and community partners from Building Bridges to Careers, Ohio University, and Rural Schools Collaborative celebrate a new school year in St. Clairsville.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — On Sept. 3, Rural Schools Collaborative Executive Director Taylor McCabe-Juhnke joined Ohio University Patton College School of Education and Building Bridges to Careers for their back-to-school Rural Teacher Corps Kickoff event on Ohio University’s Eastern campus in St. Clairsville, Ohio.

These two organizations have a long history of supporting rural education throughout the state, and are continuing their collaboration as they anchor Rural Schools Collaborative’s new Ohio Regional Hub.

The Rural Teacher Corps at OU Eastern is a budding program that provides support to a cohort of eight pre-service teachers who are committed to teaching in rural places. Throughout the school year, these students will receive rural-specific training and development, exploring how to bring place and community assets into their future classrooms.

Through local field trips exploring natural resources and history, crafting their personal rural teaching “mottos,” and storytelling workshops, these students will have opportunities to connect both in person and remotely throughout the year.

This program was first conceived in 2023, when Ohio University was awarded one of five Catalyst Initiative Grants from Rural Schools Collaborative. Aimed at addressing rural teacher shortages, these $25,000 planning grants helped rural-serving institutions design and launch a locally-responsive Rural Teacher Corps.

After connecting with other Rural Teacher Corps programs in RSC’s network, OU’s effort to intentionally recruit, prepare, and support rural educators further developed their Rural Teacher Fellowship pilot program to extend into undergrad. The Rural Teacher Fellowship matches rural educators with experienced mentors and provides professional development in implementing innovative community and career-based teaching practices, all done in partnership with local non-profit Building Bridges to Careers.

With new, multi-year support from The Sugarbush Foundation and additional capacity-building from Rural Schools Collaborative’s Community of Learners Project, we are excited to see how the OU’s Rural Teacher Corps and Fellows programs continue to grow!

Special thanks went to Jacqueline Yahn from Ohio University Eastern and Kristi Leonard-Webber from Building Bridges to Careers for hosting RSC at this kickoff event. For more information, visit Ohio Regional Hub announcement.