2022 Rural Fellows—Kimball County

Marthe Niyingenera Author

08/08/2022 Added

15 Plays

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Student and Community Fellows talk about the community development projects they worked on in Kimball County, Nebraska during Summer 2022.

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[00:00:00.480]Welcome to Kimball County.
[00:00:03.660]Hello, this is Marge (indistinct).
[00:00:05.850]I'm rising senior at UNL.
[00:00:08.227]And this summer I've been working with RPN in Kimball County
[00:00:11.730]as a rural fellow.
[00:00:13.380]I was working remotely with Jamie Bright
[00:00:16.350]as my community leader.
[00:00:18.117]And we were working on different economic projects that
[00:00:21.840]aimed at developing rural communities in Kimball County,
[00:00:25.530]including Dix, Bushnell and Kimball community.
[00:00:31.530]Some of the projects we worked on include gathering
[00:00:34.980]demographic information for Sydney Creative District.
[00:00:38.430]And this is in Cheyenne County,
[00:00:40.530]which is different from Kimball.
[00:00:42.600]And also literature review for Youth Advisory Committee
[00:00:46.620]in Kimball.
[00:00:47.880]And it was just compiling best practices, procedures,
[00:00:51.420]and guidelines to help youth in Kimball come together
[00:00:54.600]and impact their community.
[00:00:56.520]I also helped to create community surveys that were to
[00:01:00.750]improve the quality of life in Bushnell, Dix and Kimball.
[00:01:05.220]And these were just to understand how people in these
[00:01:08.160]communities view their communities, what they love
[00:01:11.700]about their communities and what they would like to change
[00:01:14.880]about their communities to make life better.
[00:01:18.540]The most fun part of this internship was visiting
[00:01:22.170]Kimball County, as I got a chance to see all the places,
[00:01:26.250]all the significant areas of Kimball County. And I also got
[00:01:30.090]a chance to climb on the highest point of Nebraska.
[00:01:34.110]It was very fun with my team.
[00:01:36.540]We got time to connect as we were working virtually
[00:01:40.080]and this was time for us to meet in person
[00:01:42.930]and have fun, connect with each other
[00:01:45.870]and learn about each other.
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[00:02:17.910]Another project I worked on was identifying grants for a
[00:02:22.410]community center slash disaster shelter in Bushnell.
[00:02:27.000]Because most of the people in this area
[00:02:30.570]don't have basements and they need a community center
[00:02:34.890]or disaster shelter just to help them.
[00:02:38.070]So I worked on identifying the grants they are eligible for
[00:02:43.017]and got them some information about those grants.
[00:02:47.100]I also worked on historic walking tour brochure,
[00:02:53.400]which was just to help the people
[00:02:56.820]who want to walk around Kimball.
[00:02:59.070]I was giving the information and was inserting appropriate
[00:03:02.790]pictures for the significant places, buildings,
[00:03:06.870]and inserting some directions and maps to help them.
[00:03:11.730]To guide the people who wants to walk around Kimball.
[00:03:15.330]The last project I worked on was literature review on
[00:03:18.960]boom/bust communities.
[00:03:21.180]Specifically to prepare for a boom period to
[00:03:24.180]make it more sustain sustainable for the following bust.
[00:03:28.650]All of this projects were very important for
[00:03:31.920]Kimball community development, Kimball county development.
[00:03:35.940]And they were very helpful to me as a person,
[00:03:39.300]to develop as a leader, cause they left me with a great
[00:03:44.220]leadership skill, cause I was working independently
[00:03:48.000]and I had to be independent.
[00:03:50.520]I had to be strategic in the way I was working to accomplish
[00:03:55.830]all the projects I was given.
[00:03:58.290]Surprisingly, I loved life in rural areas.
[00:04:02.250]When I went to Kimball, I never thought,
[00:04:05.940]life in a small town would be as fun as it was.
[00:04:11.250]At least for me. Just one day I spent there.
[00:04:13.680]It was amazing. And I loved it. I felt relaxed.
[00:04:17.520]And I just loved the feeling of being in the small town.
[00:04:22.620]Through this experiential learning, I got an opportunity
[00:04:26.340]to grow both personally and professionally.
[00:04:29.340]And I'm very grateful for being part of this rural fellows
[00:04:33.060]program because I grew into an inclusive leader.
[00:04:36.930]And I'm ready to go out in the world
[00:04:39.090]and exercise this effective leadership style
[00:04:42.300]wherever I will go.
[00:04:43.800]Thank you so much.
[00:04:46.290]One of the things Marge worked on this summer
[00:04:48.330]was a Citizens' Institute on Rural Design project
[00:04:51.840]in Kimball County.
[00:04:53.520]She helped create surveys and look for grants for projects
[00:04:58.350]in place making and people attraction and tourism
[00:05:02.160]in Kimball, Bushnell and Dix.
[00:05:05.190]This project will help these communities be more resilient
[00:05:08.910]in the future and try to capture some younger populations,
[00:05:13.860]and become more sustainable in the long term.
[00:05:18.030]Her assistance was invaluable and really saved the community
[00:05:21.270]leaders a significant amount of time.
[00:05:24.300]It was also really valuable to get her background
[00:05:27.030]and perspective, as someone who comes from outside
[00:05:31.380]of the country, just to see her frame of reference
[00:05:35.250]and how she views the world.

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2022 Rural Fellows—Kimball County

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