Numerous stereotypes of the veteran population miss the diverse backgrounds of veterans as a group, particularly that one quarter of known veterans are living in rural communities across the United States (VA, 2022). Despite the Federal focus on veteran rural health, there needs to be more literature available on veteran success in community…

For students at tribal colleges, online courses provide access to college coursework, particularly for non-traditional students and students who live in rural communities. In addition, online courses provide unique opportunities for Indigenous students to connect with their tribal communities and to participate in cultural revitalization and…

This article describes the narrative of one small rural community college's concurrent enrollment program, seeking to highlight and make sense of the particular dynamics of operating this type of programing in rural spaces. Dual or concurrent enrollment options can offer students increased access to postsecondary options in rural education…

Racially minoritized communities in rural areas experience some of the most challenging conditions related to poverty, educational access, and educational attainment in the nation (Farrigan, 2021; Hillman, 2016). For residents in these communities, community colleges are the most common entry point into postsecondary education (Byun et al., 2017),…

The pursuit of relevancy is a rural community college's chance to evolve, adapt, to obtain long-term sustainability. This chapter discusses ways that institutions can demonstrate their relevancy to support their sustainability.

This chapter provides a portrait of rural community college leaders and identifies leadership priorities and career plans. Findings highlight the differences between rural and urban leaders regarding leadership development, areas of job foci, and career pathways.

This chapter describes the cocurricular activities offered through The Democracy Commitment at Allegany College of Maryland and the impact of these civic experiences on its students.

This chapter introduces effective strategies and practices for working with secondary and postsecondary schools to advance rural Latinas into engineering and other STEM-related fields.

An important consideration in examining faculty issues facing rural community colleges is the number of full-time faculty employed by these institutions and the number of students they serve. Using the measure of annual unduplicated head count enrollment, rural institutions served 36 percent of all community college enrollments in academic year…

Although many of the issues facing community colleges are similar, rural community colleges face additional leadership challenges due to limited resources, geographic isolation, and static economies. This chapter focuses on the impact of location on the interpretation and development of the leadership competencies. The chapter concludes with…

This chapter describes how rural community colleges use continuing education and other noncredit activities to provide key services to their surrounding communities that aid in creating group identity and engagement in the larger community.

Rural communities have fewer financial resources, making the community colleges located in these regions central to economic development. This chapter reviews the importance of recognizing the rural differential via policy changes and offers strategies to close the resource gap between rural and nonrural community colleges.

Presents a community-based model for bringing decision makers in rural communities together to act as a coordinating body to deal with community transitions. Indicates that rural community colleges can bring leaders from education, government, and the private sector to focus on strategies to maximize existing resources through careful leveraging…

This chapter describes results from a national study of community college faculty development programs. Findings highlight how the challenges faced by rural colleges differ from those at urban institutions, which often have dedicated faculty development centers.

Rural community college presidential job advertisements that focus on geography, politics, and culture can improve the likelihood of a good fit between the senior leader and the institution. (Contains 2 figures.)