What actually keeps young people connected to rural Minnesota after high school? In this episode, CRPD President and CEO Julie Tesch joins Marnie Werner the day after the first stop of the Pathways After High School research roadshow in Fergus Falls.
The research follows roughly 400,000 Minnesota high school graduates for up to 15 years after graduation, using data from the Office of Higher Education, DEED and the Minnesota Department of Education. Julie explains why the findings matter: taking even one career and technical education (CTE) course in high school is strongly associated with staying anchored to a rural community and its workforce, and regional two-year colleges play a similarly important role. She also covers who should attend the presentations (school administrators, college leaders, economic developers, grant writers and anyone making the case for rural Minnesota at the Capitol) and what came out of the Fergus Falls panel discussion on CTE.
Each of the ten stops includes region-specific data and a local panel. The next presentation is October 8 at South Central College in Mankato. Presentations are free and open to the public. Find dates, locations and regional reports at ruralmn.org.