Giving Compass' Take:

• Steve Friess explains how virtual counseling can help rural students get to college to get into colleges that are otherwise out of their reach. 

• How can funders helpt to scale up and ensure the success of programs like this? Beyond counseling, what supports do rural high school student need? 

• Learn why colleges aren't recruiting rural students


Cayanne Korder long believed college would be her ticket out of this rural factory town of about 16,000 people. As far back as middle school, she fantasized about leaving the state to attend an elite university. But she also routinely dismissed that idea as impossible because, she said, “I wouldn’t know how to make that happen and my family didn’t have the means to do it.”

When she got to high school, nobody disabused the ace student of that notion.

Red Wing High laid off its full-time college adviser in 2012 amid budget cuts. A foreign language teacher, Lisa Toivonen, has tried to fill in the gap by putting on events to encourage students to consider higher education, but Toivonen’s time and expertise are limited. If Korder wanted to become the first in her family — she’s the middle child of 10 siblings — to attend a four-year school, she would have to figure it out on her own.

Then, on the eve of her junior year, Toivonen connected Korder with College Possible. The 19-year-old St. Paul-based nonprofit has long worked to help low-income students in urban high schools get into college, but three years ago it started a program to pair high-achieving rural students in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Oregon with coaches to guide them virtually through the application process. From her office in St. Paul, Korder’s coach, Addy Steffens, provided ACT prep materials that Korder credits with boosting her test score by about 6 points, to an impressive 33. Steffens reviewed drafts of Korder’s application essays, walked her through the completion of the Common Application and let her vent about academic and personal angst. Through monthly calls and countless texts and emails in between, they also researched schools and financial aid prospects together.

The outcome: Korder heads this fall to Emory University on a full scholarship through the QuestBridge program, which connects talented low-income students with financial aid.

Read the full article about virtual counseling for rural students by Steve Friess at The Hechinger Report.