2021 Rural Fellows Final Presentation

Russell Shaffer Author

08/24/2021 Added

6 Plays

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Highlight reel of all the 2021 Rural Fellows, the projects they worked on, and the impact it had on them and on rural Nebraska.

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[00:00:04.436](soft music)
[00:00:19.755](soft piano music)
[00:00:27.010]During my time here in Arapahoe,
[00:00:28.460]Haley and I had the opportunity to work on several projects
[00:00:30.910]for the community.
[00:00:32.290]One of my favorite events I got to put on this summer
[00:00:35.090]was small business Saturday.
[00:00:36.620]I had about 20 businesses participate
[00:00:38.587]and they each offered a specific deal or price for that day.
[00:00:41.960]One of the main projects we've been working on
[00:00:43.610]is downtown revitalization,
[00:00:45.480]which we held an open house charrette event for in June.
[00:00:48.450]At this event, both Kennedy and I were onsite and in person.
[00:00:52.380]I have learned how to be more of an inclusive leader.
[00:00:54.830]And I have gotten to use these skills
[00:00:56.400]when communicating with business owners or community members
[00:00:59.570]of Arapahoe.
[00:01:00.403]Arapahoe also gave me an opportunity to work
[00:01:02.670]on my professional skills across the board,
[00:01:04.970]which was so enriching because I've gained experience
[00:01:07.350]and several professional skills
[00:01:08.750]from technical writing to building relationships.
[00:01:12.220]So we created two projects in tourism
[00:01:15.920]with an app and a survey.
[00:01:17.610]And with those two projects,
[00:01:19.070]we were able to see the rates and growth
[00:01:21.250]of the tourism coming in and out of Dawes County.
[00:01:23.800]One of the great opportunities I've gotten
[00:01:25.760]working with one of my community leaders, Terry Haynes,
[00:01:28.290]is I've gotten to participate in a lot of trainings
[00:01:32.780]that help people to deal with somebody
[00:01:35.660]who may be going through a mental health crisis.
[00:01:38.330]And that's something that I will need to be able to do
[00:01:41.480]in my future as a psychologist.
[00:01:44.010]So this was a very valuable experience for me
[00:01:46.480]vocationally and personally.
[00:01:48.490]If we can create inclusion
[00:01:50.670]then it opens up the opportunity
[00:01:53.290]for more diverse individuals to feel welcome,
[00:01:56.130]and want to take part in that.
[00:01:57.940]So ultimately this summer,
[00:01:59.540]we've been trying to spread education awareness
[00:02:02.610]to our community through mental health resources
[00:02:05.400]and tourism so that people understand the resources
[00:02:09.820]they have available to them,
[00:02:10.997]and can feel like a greater part of this community.
[00:02:16.270]Hello everyone welcome to Custer County.
[00:02:18.557]This is Asama.
[00:02:19.769]During this summer, I got the opportunity to work as an RPN
[00:02:24.180]at Custer County.
[00:02:25.700]Since my internship was fully remotely,
[00:02:29.210]our project at Custer County
[00:02:30.760]was to create a connection between each single community
[00:02:35.930]in Nebraska in one site.
[00:02:38.500]The project was about creating a color coding map
[00:02:41.470]that will shows the number of contact your zip code
[00:02:47.431]and the layers of different regions.
[00:02:50.520]Indeed, my position was online
[00:02:52.080]but I have learned a lot of new experiences
[00:02:54.930]about how it will help me in the future
[00:02:57.275]as a mechanical engineering student.
[00:03:02.490]We work here in Gothenburg in two main projects.
[00:03:05.140]And the first project was the impact center.
[00:03:07.760]And the impact center is a building
[00:03:09.970]that contains four buildings in the project
[00:03:13.730]and the first one is the learning center
[00:03:16.610]as well as a health and family center, an event center,
[00:03:19.797]and a sports center.
[00:03:21.780]We've built a website for the campaign to raise money
[00:03:26.363]for the impact center.
[00:03:27.627]For the project of the trim master plan
[00:03:30.190]we have been able to present to the city council
[00:03:33.280]a trail master plan with the help
[00:03:35.630]of the input of different citizen,
[00:03:39.120]and for the survey that we provided.
[00:03:43.660]Being here in Gothenburg and connecting with leaders
[00:03:47.650]that have high influence taught me about inclusivity
[00:03:51.577]that connecting with people
[00:03:53.580]and being easy to connect with is a very important
[00:03:57.880]in order to give everyone the sense of belonging
[00:04:00.874]and connection the community.
[00:04:02.597]At the end of this experience,
[00:04:05.130]we have learned different skills and we have gained
[00:04:09.030]different knowledge.
[00:04:09.990]We have gained technology skills.
[00:04:13.050]Some professionalism from different people
[00:04:15.901]that you interacted with.
[00:04:17.377]And we have been able to learn about leadership
[00:04:21.399]and how it can be able to impact the community.
[00:04:27.361]The idea of a group of strangers
[00:04:28.570]coming from this university helping out.
[00:04:32.557]It was kind of nice to teach the people
[00:04:34.100]that people from urban communities
[00:04:36.330]are not here to change their way of life.
[00:04:40.150]We need to be able to come together into the middle
[00:04:43.200]and meet in the middle and work together for that future
[00:04:46.120]that works for all of us.
[00:04:48.105]This summer, two projects that I worked on
[00:04:50.050]were organizing a farmer's market
[00:04:51.810]and beginning to conduct a tree inventory,
[00:04:54.380]where I measure the number of trees in a community,
[00:04:57.050]the species and details about them.
[00:04:59.150]I preconceived ideas I had of communities
[00:05:01.700]did not match the reality that I came to discover
[00:05:03.670]when I started working with (inaudible)
[00:05:07.039]I think that's an important lesson that everybody
[00:05:08.410]should learn or be reminded of from time to time
[00:05:12.166]that the things you hear and you start to imagine about
[00:05:15.040]someone or somewhere are not reality.
[00:05:18.610]Instead, you know, I don't want to let hearsay guide me.
[00:05:22.390]I want my experiences to be the truth.
[00:05:25.350]Using what I learned,
[00:05:26.390]I will be able to be a more effective inclusive leader
[00:05:29.640]who is better situated to deal with issues
[00:05:31.840]and work with diverse groups of people.
[00:05:36.570]This summer, one of my major accomplishments
[00:05:38.540]was working on a leadership training workshop series.
[00:05:41.830]And so we hosted a bunch of different workshops
[00:05:44.990]where we got to help members of the community
[00:05:47.340]improve upon their leadership skills.
[00:05:49.060]Talking about things like put your strengths,
[00:05:52.240]and inclusive leadership, and building trust as a leader
[00:05:56.450]and managing change and all sorts of different topics.
[00:05:58.960]One of the main accomplishments I've had this summer
[00:06:01.817]was working on my career exploration platform
[00:06:05.860]and developing a term program for students
[00:06:10.190]ranging from middle school to high school.
[00:06:13.580]The big thing that I did this summer was do an overhaul
[00:06:15.950]of the DAD website by updating the information
[00:06:19.770]so it's more accessible to anyone who's looking
[00:06:22.630]to see what Dawson area has to offer.
[00:06:24.900]The other thing that we did this summer was
[00:06:26.833]through our community service at Camp Camika,
[00:06:29.270]which is where we are staying.
[00:06:30.690]I'm wanting to go into workforce development
[00:06:32.920]and host different training programs,
[00:06:35.400]and really just help people become better at their jobs,
[00:06:37.660]and better leaders to hopefully make work
[00:06:39.750]a more enjoyable experience for everybody.
[00:06:41.890]And this summer definitely lent skills that I can take
[00:06:44.840]into my future.
[00:06:46.200]One of the biggest things I learned was that
[00:06:48.070]you really just have to get to know people
[00:06:49.870]because we all have different strengths and weaknesses.
[00:06:52.550]And if you don't know a person,
[00:06:53.910]you don't know what those are.
[00:06:54.840]So you can't build on those to make a good team.
[00:06:57.560]It is not ensuring that that happens within a day
[00:07:00.850]or a week but a process of continuous learning and growing
[00:07:05.110]as an inclusive leader.
[00:07:06.840]And I'm so grateful for having a great team
[00:07:10.410]that has helped me through this journey of growing.
[00:07:16.810]I would say this experience helped me grow a lot
[00:07:19.470]as an exclusive community leader.
[00:07:22.910]Working with Native American,
[00:07:24.600]it was an eye opening experience for me.
[00:07:27.100]I learned a lot about their history, their background,
[00:07:30.950]and their culture.
[00:07:31.783]I got an opportunity to interact with some.
[00:07:34.210]Unfortunately, I found their culture and my culture
[00:07:37.730]having a lot of things in common.
[00:07:40.410]This experience has been a very big growth opportunity
[00:07:44.360]for me.
[00:07:45.193]I went into this experience with an open eye.
[00:07:48.720]And without any doubt I can say,
[00:07:51.410]I was able to learn from this particular group.
[00:07:54.470]Throughout this experience,
[00:07:55.730]I have learned more than I would have imagined myself
[00:07:58.390]learning at the start of it.
[00:07:59.993]And I'm very grateful to have been part
[00:08:02.330]of this amazing team.
[00:08:04.560]Thank you.
[00:08:07.140]Most of my projects were about reviewing and updating
[00:08:11.510]promotional materials that they produce over time.
[00:08:15.910]I also identified what are the best practices
[00:08:19.630]for question design.
[00:08:21.810]What is the best way to analyze the data
[00:08:24.950]that they obtained with those surveys all across the state.
[00:08:29.070]And I also identified what are the best softwares online
[00:08:34.210]that we can use to make the process of analyzing the data
[00:08:39.400]more effective.
[00:08:40.640]If someone in the community are thinking,
[00:08:43.430]oh, maybe I should start a business.
[00:08:45.270]Maybe this is the little spark that is missing for them
[00:08:49.690]to go ahead and get started with.
[00:08:52.610]I had some challenges and I worked from home.
[00:08:55.290]So I definitely learned resilience and discipline.
[00:09:00.220]I learned how to organize big projects, how to keep focused.
[00:09:05.550]I definitely learned some leadership skills
[00:09:08.660]by observing Jordan and her team.
[00:09:12.030]Welcome to Valley County.
[00:09:13.960]I thought the unmatched community hospitality,
[00:09:16.410]the bustling downtown, the wide open spaces.
[00:09:19.100]And of course the great people
[00:09:20.720]is why everyone else should too.
[00:09:23.040]Valley County has given me the best lifetime adventure.
[00:09:27.410]This summer, we took on most of our projects together
[00:09:29.950]as a collaborative unit.
[00:09:31.840]Each week, we had a strategic planning session
[00:09:34.740]where we decided how to tackle the week's responsibilities,
[00:09:38.540]and set ourselves up for success in each of our projects.
[00:09:42.730]We focused on projects that involve childcare,
[00:09:45.550]a new water trail, business development, tourism,
[00:09:49.480]and aluminate database,
[00:09:51.170]and so much more through these meetings.
[00:09:53.730]This experience has helped us to understand
[00:09:55.400]the importance of partnerships
[00:09:56.800]and utilizing your available resources.
[00:09:59.080]As we leave and go on,
[00:10:00.580]I'm so excited to be able to come back
[00:10:01.983]and see the changes and innovations
[00:10:03.930]that'll be happening here.
[00:10:05.470]As we've heard it multiple times this summer,
[00:10:07.550]Ord is on the cusp of so much potential and exciting change.
[00:10:11.480]Look out Nebraska because here Ord comes.
[00:10:15.280]Welcome to Pierce County.
[00:10:16.767]During this summer,
[00:10:18.170]I focused on the digital reconnected community project.
[00:10:22.050]I expected it to be to end before the end of summer,
[00:10:26.830]but I haven't realized yet how big it was.
[00:10:30.370]I had chance to get different business owners.
[00:10:33.150]I've talked to them and do some videos for them
[00:10:36.540]and post them on the YouTube channel.
[00:10:39.690]Pierce County's economic development.
[00:10:42.982]This summer helped me to discover that I can go
[00:10:45.231]to the grad school to learn rural development community.
[00:10:51.523]I had two primary projects this summer.
[00:10:53.780]One was a tourism campaign for Willow Creek
[00:10:56.190]State Recreation area.
[00:10:57.950]And one was enhancing the social media presence of PCIT.
[00:11:01.840]I will use what I've learned from this experience
[00:11:03.980]as I return to my hometown and get involved
[00:11:06.160]in our local volunteer organizations,
[00:11:09.020]and especially become more involved
[00:11:10.480]in kind of our local government.
[00:11:14.310]During the summer, I worked in two projects.
[00:11:16.760]One was to create an entrepreneurship program
[00:11:19.580]for youth in 12 to ninth grade.
[00:11:22.470]And the other was to create a concept what is your passion.
[00:11:25.862]And all these I brought skills to me
[00:11:28.600]because I learned new things that I can add to my skillset.
[00:11:35.110]Welcome to Ravenna.
[00:11:36.830]Hi name is Olivia Otte and I'm serving as a student fellow
[00:11:40.270]in Ravenna, Nebraska.
[00:11:42.250]My name is Maria Harthoorn
[00:11:43.560]and this summer I've been stationed in Ravenna
[00:11:46.000]as a student fellow.
[00:11:47.380]And from this experiential learning
[00:11:48.960]that I've come to gotten in the classroom.
[00:11:50.670]I can go back to Lincoln and for my final year
[00:11:53.620]and really know what Nebraska needs
[00:11:55.480]and how I can best serve our state.
[00:11:58.500]Throughout my time in Ravenna,
[00:11:59.940]I was able to work with the Ravenna area vision fund.
[00:12:03.590]And right now their big project is working on a hike
[00:12:06.210]and bike trail.
[00:12:07.560]So I've gotten to help them with their grant applications
[00:12:11.110]and gone to different meetings with them.
[00:12:13.690]Rural communities don't happen by accident here,
[00:12:17.230]you have to put in the work and you have to be willing
[00:12:19.500]to keep progressing towards a better future.
[00:12:21.880]I've seen these people interested
[00:12:23.630]in broadening their scope to serve customers in a new way,
[00:12:26.630]which is really encouraging.
[00:12:30.200]Hi, I'm Lydia Behnk. I'm one of the rural fellows here.
[00:12:32.160]Hi I am Megan Dorantes. I'm the second rural fellow here.
[00:12:34.680]And this summer we've had the privilege
[00:12:36.010]to serve our community in a number of meaningful ways.
[00:12:38.440]I personally have been able to work on developing
[00:12:40.400]the websites for the Schuyler community development,
[00:12:42.750]as well as the Schuyler chamber.
[00:12:44.330]And in doing so, we've been able to really build
[00:12:46.100]our online presences for our businesses
[00:12:47.990]and really get them out there,
[00:12:49.200]and let the people know what all Schuyler has to offer.
[00:12:52.420]Some of the projects I've been working on
[00:12:54.270]one of them was for the Chamber of Schuyler
[00:12:56.480]is working on developing a master list
[00:12:58.500]of all their businesses in Schuyler.
[00:12:59.763]Want to know who owns them, contact information.
[00:13:02.380]Are they on social media.
[00:13:03.710]All that information to help one market Schuyler apply
[00:13:06.270]for grants and also to help the chamber understand
[00:13:08.790]what needs to be worked on and what's currently working.
[00:13:10.990]So these relationships that I've built in Schuyler
[00:13:12.620]are ones that I hope to carry with me
[00:13:14.050]throughout the rest of my life.
[00:13:15.000]And I could not be more grateful for my time
[00:13:16.700]in this community or my work
[00:13:17.930]with the rural prosperity Nebraska.
[00:13:19.580]My purpose being here was something that I truly valued
[00:13:22.570]and that as a leader it is my responsibility to make sure
[00:13:25.730]that their workers understand that I value them.
[00:13:28.400]I want them here and that I respect them here.
[00:13:31.820]We need to work and engage with local residents
[00:13:34.730]has been a valuable learning experience
[00:13:37.070]over the past several weeks.
[00:13:39.370]It has been our privilege to interview
[00:13:41.250]different knowledgeable supportive residents
[00:13:43.730]who have given us a great deal of information
[00:13:46.080]about these towns history from its founding to the present.
[00:13:49.820]The project we worked on through our internship
[00:13:52.110]was creating videos about the history of the town.
[00:13:55.090]This involved meeting people, making phone calls,
[00:13:57.420]recording interviews, writing scripts,
[00:13:59.150]and putting everything together into videos.
[00:14:01.290]I had a sense of belonging and warmth
[00:14:03.470]from the moment I moved to Superior.
[00:14:05.880]It comforted me that I could anytime rely on the community
[00:14:10.050]for kindness and support.
[00:14:12.020]I've never had an experience quite like this before.
[00:14:14.570]I have met so many wonderful people.
[00:14:16.400]It has been so cool to see what goes into working
[00:14:18.710]in a small town.
[00:14:22.160]We have been working on a program.
[00:14:25.870]I can call it program that is called web first depressions.
[00:14:29.490]We have developed a questionnaire and the questionnaire
[00:14:33.220]is going to be used by extension leaders,
[00:14:37.960]extension agents who are going to assess different rural
[00:14:44.250]Nebraska towns.
[00:14:45.083]'Cause we're looking at this from the perspective
[00:14:47.520]of outsider who has no knowledge of the town.
[00:14:51.070]So we want to maximize tourism,
[00:14:53.723]we want to maximize future residents experiences.
[00:14:57.890]We also want to maximize the experience
[00:15:00.060]of current residents.
[00:15:01.710]And I also learned about different ways
[00:15:04.730]I act as a leader and how I can probably improve
[00:15:08.760]or actually keep doing what I thought
[00:15:12.220]was one element that was good.
[00:15:15.780]I think this has definitely helped me grow as a leader.
[00:15:18.320]It helped me with public speaking skills.
[00:15:20.550]It helped me be more,
[00:15:23.360]a lot better with like time management.
[00:15:27.690]Hi, we're Connor and Victor.
[00:15:30.070]This summer we've been working in Valentine
[00:15:32.300]as rural fellows.
[00:15:33.960]We lived with Mike and Kim.
[00:15:35.700]And here we are on what we call a Midwestern safari
[00:15:39.060]trying to track down some buffaloes.
[00:15:41.652]We also worked on projects that we hope
[00:15:44.720]will have a lasting impact on both us
[00:15:46.880]and the community of-
[00:15:47.713]The reason I think our work that we're doing here
[00:15:50.140]in Valentine is so important is that in the end
[00:15:52.890]we want to improve the overall quality of life of the people
[00:15:55.540]and residents in Valentine and Cherry County.
[00:15:57.680]I think that the work we're doing is really important
[00:16:00.300]specifically because it's allowing people
[00:16:02.480]of different backgrounds to work together.
[00:16:04.880]And in a world that's rapidly evolving
[00:16:07.160]towards globalization none of us are gonna work with people
[00:16:10.700]who are similar to us all the time.
[00:16:12.450]Coming to Valentine,
[00:16:13.430]I found it so cool that inclusive leadership
[00:16:15.790]in a rural community is based on relationships.
[00:16:18.400]The time-
[00:16:20.180]This summer here in Wahoo
[00:16:21.590]I was really focused on at the downtown
[00:16:23.780]and specifically working with the downtown businesses
[00:16:27.390]as I needed to discuss the upcoming projects,
[00:16:31.180]and construction such as revitalization efforts
[00:16:34.150]here in the coming years.
[00:16:36.560]I've learned a lot of valuable and wonderful things
[00:16:39.710]over this summer.
[00:16:40.543]Some of them pertain to communication skills
[00:16:43.490]and just personal skills in general.
[00:16:45.790]And I think that that is the number one thing
[00:16:48.040]I'll be taking away from this.
[00:16:48.973]My name is Ally Metscke
[00:16:50.287]and I am a civil engineering student (indistinct)
[00:16:53.160]Through the rural prosperity Nebraska program,
[00:16:55.830]I was able to work in the water utilities department
[00:16:58.400]and gain hands on experience with the utilities
[00:17:00.830]we use every day.
[00:17:02.110]My role in the beginning stages of this project
[00:17:04.390]was to collect data for the city and JEO,
[00:17:07.370]which is a local engineering firm founded in Wahoo.
[00:17:10.470]The hands-on and shadowing experience I had
[00:17:12.810]from this opportunity
[00:17:13.850]it was far more enriching than merely hearing about it
[00:17:16.320]in a class.
[00:17:20.997](lighthearted music)
[00:17:41.862](lighthearted music)
[00:18:00.971](lighthearted music)
[00:18:21.396](lighthearted music)

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2021 Rural Fellows Final Presentation

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