The Colorado Springs Gazette final

Fowler fosters a college culture

Rural school sends record numbers to college each year

BY JASON GONZALES

Sisters Shaelea and Ryanna Pruett can rattle off plenty of facts about raising cattle.

The Fowler High School graduates know the ideal build for a bull and how to bottle-raise a calf. The sisters could try to make a living on their family ranch tucked between Manzanola and Fowler on Colorado’s southeastern plains about 80 miles from Colorado Springs.

Instead, their father, Dane Pruett Jr., stressed college from an early age. He worked hard labor jobs at a cannery, steel mill, and farms throughout his life, but wanted his daughters to find work that would provide them flexibility and financial stability and wouldn’t tax their bodies.

“He wants a more comfortable life for us,” said Shaelea Pruett, 20, who graduated from Otero College and will attend Colorado State University Pueblo in the fall.

Shaelea Pruett wants to be a large-animal veterinarian, a high-growth field as an older generation retires. Her younger sister, Ryanna Pruett, 18, is studying at Otero College and

plans to be an agricultural sciences teacher, preparing the next generation of farmers and ranchers.

Fewer than half of rural Colorado’s high school graduates go to college, a rate that’s about 5 percentage points below the state average.

The reasons are complex. College can feel far away, geographically and culturally. Colleges sometimes haven’t done enough to make degrees feel relevant to the interests and experiences of rural Coloradans. The cost can deter students unsure if college will improve earnings. And recruiters don’t often stop at rural high schools.

Tiny Fowler, with its lone high school of about 110 students, shows how rural communities can use a partnership among educators, parents, and the broader community to foster the idea that college degrees will contribute to success — whether graduates return to Fowler or move to a bigger city.

Fowler students go to college at higher rates than the state. In 2018, 21 of its 25 graduates went to college. In 2019, the school sent 26 of its 32 graduates. And in 2020, when many students put off postsecondary plans due to the pandemic, the school still sent 14 of its 23 graduates to college. About half the students who went to college qualify for a Pell Grant, or federal money for college students with a financial need.

Agriculture dominates in Fowler, which has about 1,150 residents, with farms and ranches dotting the valley on either side of the Arkansas River. Just up the road, the Crowley County Correctional Facility provides some jobs. In town, residents can work at the bank or the market, not vocations that typically require degrees.

Yet, college has been a way of life in Fowler for generations. Residents aren’t sure when college became a priority, although some point to settlers in the late 1800s, who wanted their children to become teachers or business owners.

The college-going culture has persisted. In 1916, Mathias Hermes created a scholarship trust to help Fowler students cover living expenses at college. More than a century later, it still provides about $100 a month to two scholarship recipients.

“People who live here really encourage our kids,” said Town Manager Kelly Lotrich, who lived in Albuquerque before returning home with her family. “When they say it takes a village — it really does have that feel.”

The community expects the school district to ensure students can connect to more than just their town, said the school district superintendent Alfie Lotrich, Kelly Lotrich’s cousin.

“There’s literally not a lot of opportunity here,” Alfie Lotrich said. “So it almost kind of forces students to look at furthering their education.”

Some students return after college. The education they bring back helps become town leaders, like the Lotriches. They educate the next generation and commute to nearby cities where jobs require more training. Or their education helps them start businesses of their own, like diesel mechanic shops, or use the newest technology to grow food and raise animals.

“It’s expectations,” said Fowler Junior and Senior High School Principal Russell Bates. Those expectations are taught to students throughout their school career.

For Bates, it helps that many teachers at the school were in the same place as his students. Several teachers are Fowler graduates. Teachers and the community expect that students will use high school as a launching pad.

When Ryanna Pruett needed to intern at a school district for a student teaching requirement, she chose Fowler. But teachers asked why she didn’t pick another place and learn about other communities.

“They are very encouraging in pushing us to go explore,” she said.

With limited job opportunities in the area, Bates said, everybody needs a plan. And college can be key.

“I graduated from here in 1987, and those things were non-negotiable then,” Bates said.

Sonja Ardoin, an Appalachian State University professor who studies rural college attendance patterns, said schools must also match expectations with preparation.

“Rural students who are not necessarily finding out about college options until their junior or senior year of high school are sort of playing catch up in terms of gathering college knowledge,” she said.

The Pruett sisters heard learned about college at an early age. Their teachers had them map out a path to their dreams. For instance, Shaelea Pruett dreamed of becoming a surgeon, and teachers helped her learn how to get there.

At the center of many of those conversations are Donna and Mike Aragon who have helped Fowler’s youth chase college dreams for about 20 years. The husband and wife worked in higher education before returning to Fowler to raise their family.

Guidance director Donna Aragon coordinates helps kids plan for post high school. IT director Mike Aragon teaches senior seminar to help prepare them as well.

Together they teach about college costs, help ensure they understand and seek Federal Student Aid, and advise students on managing living expenses.

“We know every kid,” Donna Aragon said. “And we know every kid’s story.”

Mike Aragon leads students in a game of life in which students must manage income, expenses, and life scenarios. The Pruett sisters said the game taught them a lot about life and money.

Former students include ranch managers, diesel mechanics, a Colorado State University Fort Collins admissions counselor, a video game designer, teachers, and accountants.

The Fowler school requires students to submit weekly job and scholarship. And at high school graduation they highlight the thousands of dollars students were awarded to go to college.

The school also has a program where students can earn college credit while in high school.

Those classes open students’ minds to college opportunities. Sophomore Anahy Prieto, 16, said the agriculture classes have allowed her to go to competitions at college campuses and earn credit toward professional certificates. She wants to go to CSU Fort Collins to be a veterinarian.

“I feel like my heart belongs there,” Prieto said.

The attitude Fowler has toward college is hard to replicate, said Cecilia Orphan, a University of Denver expert on rural colleges.

But it’s on both colleges and school districts to ensure not just students but entire communities know how college can benefit their lives in rural settings, she said. Colleges that don’t do a good job graduating students might earn a bad reputation within a community or turn families off to college. Schools that collaborate with rural communities help create more successful outcomes, she said.

“These communities know how to use resources in ways that make sense for their local economy that can improve the college-going culture, and create a more educated community,” she said.

Rocky Ford School District Superintendent Kermit Snyder said his community has mixed feelings about college. Some parents worry about their kids leaving the community, which sits about 20 miles east of Fowler, he said. It’s a common concern in rural areas, where college could contribute to lower population, rather than bolstering community.

For some families, Snyder said, “it’s just not a priority.”

He said he’d like to see more students explore various college opportunities. In the last several years, the district added a part-time employee who connects students to colleges and scholarships. More students now see college as an option, but most years college-bound students has remained about the same as the state average (50.5%).

Colleges and universities haven’t consistently recruited students in the district, Snyder said. Only recently did schools like CSU Fort Collins and the University of Colorado Denver start increasing their footprint in the surrounding areas.

Snyder wishes more schools understood their rural backgrounds and made them feel welcome.

“They don’t get a personal touch from a college saying we want you to come here,” Snyder said. “And I think in many ways, when they do head to that four-year institution, they don’t get that personal touch.”

Colorado’s community college system has historically served the majority of the state’s eastern plains, but proximity to a college or university can be scattered. That can present huge hurdles for rural student. Most students generally go to college within 50 miles of home, according to Ardoin.

Schools over the years have created satellite campuses to try to address those needs.

Additionally, lawmakers have increasingly allowed the state’s community colleges to offer students four-year degree programs such as nursing to help fill gaps.

Joe Garcia, Colorado Community College System chancellor, said a college education can help towns sustain and grow their economies. The state’s changing economy also impacts rural Colorado, he said. More jobs require a college degree, especially a fouryear degree.

“You cannot sustain those communities with only agricultural workers,” said Garcia, who grew up in rural New Mexico. “You need people who understand tech, who understand programming, who understand internet security, who can start up businesses.”

But leaders at Otero College, about 30 minutes from Fowler, said it can be difficult to sustain programs. With few job opportunities, the school has to be mindful that it shouldn’t train too many workers for any given industry.

That’s why the state community college system is creating a network called the Rural College Consortium that will ensure every community college can access each others’ programs. The network is meant to address the sustainability of programs that have a broader appeal across the state.

For example, the consortium allows students to take remote classes only offered at Colorado Northwestern Community College in Rangely. Schools also share other resources, such as tutoring and mental health resources.

In recent years, four-year universities have also tried to do more to attract rural students.

CSU Fort Collins and CU Boulder created regional partnerships so students in remote areas have access to some degree programs.

Blake Naughton, CSU vice president for extension and engagement, said leaders at the university have tried to create programs relevant to a new generation of rural communities. That can vary depending on region, where the economy might depend on agriculture or recreation and tourism or oil and gas development.

The university has also invested in more satellite campuses, such as in Rocky Ford, that give students connections to degrees, as well as noncredit courses. The school also opened a campus in Orchard Mesa on the Western Slope.

Also on the Western Slope, Colorado Mesa University goes door-to-door to recruit. Colorado Mountain College, which serves mountain communities, added programs like avalanche science to meet the needs of communities it serves.

Leaders at CSU Pueblo, about 40 minutes west of Fowler, said they’ve beefed up recruitment by sending more admissions counselors to rural communities. The school plans to make college free for families making less than $50,000 a year.

Chrissy Holliday, CSU Pueblo vice president of enrollment management, said the school has always tried to recruit rural students. The hope is that increased support will create a better life in southeastern Colorado.

“They deserve this access to education,” she said.

Shaelea Pruett is seizing on that access, heading to Pueblo in the fall for a pre-veterinary medicine track that could take her to Fort Collins or beyond — and also pave a way back home to Fowler, just as her father wanted for both his daughters.

“He just wants us to be set,” Shaelea Pruett said. “He wants us to have those better opportunities.”

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2022-05-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

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The Gazette, Colorado Springs