Catch Up With Chuck | Episode 1

Rural Futures Institute Author

11/01/2017 Added

8 Plays

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Catch up with RFI Founding Executive Director Chuck Schroeder about the outcome of RFI’s recent strategic plan as well as the Institute’s mission, purpose and efforts going forward.

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[00:00:05.370]Good morning, or whatever time of day
[00:00:07.061]it is where you might be.
[00:00:08.731]I'm Chuck Schroeder.
[00:00:09.940]I'm the founding Executive Director of the
[00:00:12.000]Rural Futures Institute at the University of Nebraska.
[00:00:15.821]And I'm delighted to welcome you to this first of a
[00:00:20.501]series of broadcasts we're doing
[00:00:22.495]called "Catch up with Chuck".
[00:00:24.146]And part of what I do in this role is
[00:00:26.844]travel around to rural places,
[00:00:28.476]meeting with interesting rural people,
[00:00:30.613]and I hope we can engage you in this conversation
[00:00:34.204]over the weeks and months to come.
[00:00:38.066]The Rural Futures Institute was founded late 2012.
[00:00:42.793]I was brought on board as the founding
[00:00:44.475]Executive Director at the end of 2013.
[00:00:47.715]And we have, since that time, been engaged
[00:00:50.107]in a variety of activities
[00:00:53.791]in order to address
[00:00:55.379]what we believe is a critical issue for Nebraska,
[00:00:59.249]for America, frankly, for people around the world.
[00:01:03.168]And that is thriving rural communities.
[00:01:06.038]What we do, fundamentally, at the Rural Futures Institute
[00:01:10.657]is we harness the intellectual energy
[00:01:13.129]of the University of Nebraska,
[00:01:15.507]across all of its campuses,
[00:01:17.387]along with our many partners in order to
[00:01:21.307]positively influence the future of mankind.
[00:01:23.706]Now, our partners is a very important element of that
[00:01:28.419]because it includes not only faculty and students
[00:01:32.678]across the University of Nebraska,
[00:01:34.689]but non-profit organizations, private companies,
[00:01:39.586]government agencies, rural communities themselves,
[00:01:43.038]all of them working together in order to
[00:01:46.430]make a positive impact on humankind on this planet.
[00:01:51.398]So we think it's important work.
[00:01:53.088]Some examples of things that we do
[00:01:55.710]through the Rural Futures Institute
[00:01:57.509]over the last several years:
[00:01:59.467]we've been sending out very high-talented students
[00:02:03.030]in what we called Rural Serviceships.
[00:02:05.379]They go into communities and work directly to solve
[00:02:08.819]a problem that that community has identified
[00:02:11.579]as being a real challenge to them.
[00:02:14.467]Helping them pursue opportunities that they believe will
[00:02:17.366]take them from where they are to where they'd like to be.
[00:02:20.278]It's been a very successful program,
[00:02:22.478]not only in influencing communities,
[00:02:24.337]but influencing some very talented young people
[00:02:27.397]to think about going back to rural communities
[00:02:29.630]for their lives and careers.
[00:02:31.778]And we've also hosted a series of
[00:02:33.549]regional rural forums around Nebraska.
[00:02:36.398]We've featured six communities that are successful
[00:02:40.149]in spite of all those myths about why a community
[00:02:43.539]can't be successful in rural America.
[00:02:46.619]We focused on entrepreneurs, on educators,
[00:02:49.830]on health care professionals, folks who are out there
[00:02:52.678]making decisions to make their community strong today
[00:02:57.140]and vibrant and attractive for tomorrow.
[00:03:00.774]We've sponsored over 50 research and education projects
[00:03:05.751]involving
[00:03:07.606]not only faculty from our various campuses
[00:03:12.646]of the University and other institutions,
[00:03:15.226]but also involving those partners
[00:03:18.185]that I talked about earlier,
[00:03:19.758]those non-profit organizations, private companies,
[00:03:22.828]who again join together in order to address
[00:03:27.297]real-world problems.
[00:03:28.756]And it's been an opportunity for us to look at things
[00:03:31.457]from leadership and entrepreneurship, broadband,
[00:03:35.166]small business development, leadership transition,
[00:03:38.326]childhood obesity, diversity, a broad variety of issues
[00:03:42.546]that are standing between rural communities today
[00:03:46.668]and where they would like to be.
[00:03:48.846]This last February, we launched what we think
[00:03:51.486]is an extremely important program,
[00:03:54.188]and that's our RFI Fellows.
[00:03:56.398]Now, everybody has a Fellows program
[00:03:58.644]but we think ours is kind of unique.
[00:04:00.718]In our inaugural class, some 26 fellows,
[00:04:03.868]we have 16 faculty members, and that's sort of
[00:04:07.198]the traditional Fellows model, if you will,
[00:04:10.198]and those faculty members are not only from the
[00:04:12.028]University of Nebraska.
[00:04:13.206]We have a faculty member from Peru State College.
[00:04:15.486]We're constantly looking at other institutions that
[00:04:18.478]are working effectively in this rural space.
[00:04:21.902]But we also have 10, what we call,
[00:04:24.794]Community Innovation Fellows.
[00:04:26.522]And these are folks that are working in
[00:04:28.933]non-profit organizations, that are addressing
[00:04:32.053]particular issues in the rural realm,
[00:04:34.183]they include business people, educators, health care
[00:04:38.474]professionals from rural communities who have
[00:04:41.733]demonstrated a track record of success
[00:04:44.834]in moving in a positive direction.
[00:04:47.653]Again, defying those odds developed by economists
[00:04:51.863]and others who are checking off boxes on a spreadsheet.
[00:04:55.553]We think the future of the Rural Futures Institute
[00:04:58.263]can be built around those fellows.
[00:05:01.293]So, that's what we do.
[00:05:03.153]But perhaps as important in this first conversation
[00:05:07.074]is why we do what we do.
[00:05:09.761]What do we believe in?
[00:05:12.013]We've been involved in a very serious strategic planning
[00:05:15.852]process for the Rural Futures Institute.
[00:05:18.013]It started last December,
[00:05:19.451]has carried us over the last several months,
[00:05:22.268]where we really took an in-depth look
[00:05:26.317]at not only what we do but what we believe.
[00:05:30.100]What we believe that underlies the decisions
[00:05:32.931]that we make every day about where we're going
[00:05:35.544]with this institute.
[00:05:37.492]So let me describe those for you.
[00:05:39.483]Number one, and fundamentally, we believe
[00:05:43.349]in people's capacity to determine their own future.
[00:05:47.044]We don't believe that past is prologue.
[00:05:49.884]We don't believe that analyses done on high and
[00:05:54.396]rained down on rural communities should define
[00:05:58.796]their future and their success.
[00:06:00.938]We believe the people can
[00:06:04.025]choose to pursue their own future.
[00:06:07.084]So we are in the business of supporting those folks
[00:06:10.095]who say, "I'm not okay with where we are.
[00:06:12.653]I think I know where we'd like to go.
[00:06:15.276]We know that there are barriers between here and there,
[00:06:18.316]I'm gonna need a little help."
[00:06:19.756]We wanna be in the business of helping those folks
[00:06:22.385]who indeed are determining the future for their family,
[00:06:26.252]their community, and by the way,
[00:06:28.253]the future of our species on the planet.
[00:06:32.975]We also believe in communities.
[00:06:34.735]We believe communities are the key
[00:06:37.076]to a thriving culture and a thriving society.
[00:06:39.777]In our vernacular, communities are not just places.
[00:06:43.495]Communities are networks of people who bring together
[00:06:48.006]a broad variety of talents, of strengths,
[00:06:51.185]of interests, of passions,
[00:06:52.944]share those things together in order to
[00:06:55.505]move toward a common purpose.
[00:06:58.255]So we think there are communities of rural educators,
[00:07:02.495]we think there are communities of rural health care people,
[00:07:05.247]communities of business people, of entrepreneurs.
[00:07:08.394]So again, we try to be good at connecting the dots.
[00:07:12.687]Bringing people together in a community
[00:07:15.255]where they can work most effectively
[00:07:17.047]with the best resources we can provide them
[00:07:20.127]in order to move in a positive direction.
[00:07:23.455]We believe in leadership.
[00:07:25.103]We believe leadership is the fundamental tool that
[00:07:28.705]can be used to drive a community in a particular direction.
[00:07:31.905]So we think that leaders, by the way,
[00:07:34.025]are known by their vision, their energy,
[00:07:36.383]their passions, their engagement in a particular cause.
[00:07:42.225]What do we not believe in?
[00:07:43.655]We don't believe that leaders are defined by their titles.
[00:07:46.493]We think that's an old notion,
[00:07:47.836]so we're constantly looking for those new leaders
[00:07:52.943]of this generation, indeed, that have a strong
[00:07:56.076]vision for their own communities.
[00:07:58.964]We believe in entrepreneurs.
[00:08:01.196]We believe that the entrepreneurial spirit
[00:08:03.567]of a community has much to do with its capacity
[00:08:07.025]to make decisions to move in a direction
[00:08:09.526]that may be difficult, may have challenges,
[00:08:12.795]but has people willing to take that step forward.
[00:08:16.875]Fear is not a barrier for them to take a step
[00:08:19.596]in the direction of their dreams.
[00:08:22.246]So we think entrepreneurs can be business people,
[00:08:25.795]we think they can be educators,
[00:08:27.134]we think they can come from all sectors of the community
[00:08:30.806]but those folks who have that creative, innovative drive
[00:08:33.945]to move in a positive direction.
[00:08:36.196]We also believe that diversity and inclusion
[00:08:41.095]driven by strong leaders in the community
[00:08:43.474]is critical to the success of today's smaller community.
[00:08:47.945]It's a different world than it was
[00:08:49.935]decades and generations ago,
[00:08:52.087]so we have to have leaders there today
[00:08:53.756]that are willing to draw those folks into the circle
[00:08:57.225]of activity in a community that perhaps in the past
[00:09:00.104]had been left on the sidelines.
[00:09:02.625]Finally, we believe that our very complex future
[00:09:06.476]with rural communities
[00:09:09.808]requires a strong, viable
[00:09:12.608]ongoing dialogue between rural and urban audiences.
[00:09:18.391]We're not just talking to ourselves
[00:09:20.950]out in rural communities,
[00:09:22.921]we're talking to people across the spectrum
[00:09:25.241]to understand that we need each other.
[00:09:28.529]That we're in this thing together, and by the way,
[00:09:31.628]we do believe its critical to the viability of mankind.
[00:09:34.950]So if those values, those belief statements,
[00:09:38.801]perhaps match up with what stirs around in your heart,
[00:09:42.547]I hope you'll be in touch with and I hope you'll follow
[00:09:46.270]the Rural Futures Institute and our activities and
[00:09:48.659]engage with us where you can,
[00:09:50.529]because we believe that collectively,
[00:09:52.889]we can make a difference.
[00:09:54.899]When we think about how we make a difference,
[00:09:58.030]from the standpoint of the Rural Futures Institute,
[00:10:00.161]we think there's a very important nexus.
[00:10:03.219]And I think we're gonna throw a graphic
[00:10:05.329]up on the screen to help you see that.
[00:10:07.569]This grew out of our strategic planning process
[00:10:10.609]that we engaged over several months.
[00:10:12.966]And that nexus involves students:
[00:10:16.669]we have students across the University of Nebraska campuses,
[00:10:20.869]as well as coming to us from other areas,
[00:10:23.978]we had students in our serviceship program
[00:10:25.889]this summer from Indiana.
[00:10:28.345]But those students who have a strong interest in
[00:10:32.277]rural communities, many of them come from the
[00:10:35.716]rural sector, so they want to go back there,
[00:10:38.478]and contribute to their community.
[00:10:40.409]But we also have students from LA, Chicago, you name it,
[00:10:44.049]who have really grasped the notion that a strong,
[00:10:48.156]viable rural sector is critically important to us.
[00:10:52.019]Had a great visit with a young man from New York
[00:10:54.538]who's a student at Peru State College just a few months ago.
[00:10:58.780]His father is an investment banker on Wall Street,
[00:11:01.300]his mother is a senior administrator
[00:11:03.366]at a major hospital in Manhattan,
[00:11:07.150]so he came from as urban a background as you possibly can.
[00:11:10.710]Came to rural Nebraska to school,
[00:11:13.678]actually on a baseball scholarship,
[00:11:15.430]has fallen in love with this culture.
[00:11:19.289]And has come to understand that it's important to him
[00:11:23.116]as a New Yorker that a place like Peru,
[00:11:26.628]small communities in the heartland of America,
[00:11:30.558]not only survive, but thrive going forward,
[00:11:33.579]in order for the fabric of America to be strong.
[00:11:37.238]Second element of that nexus,
[00:11:39.299]no surprise to you, is faculty.
[00:11:42.100]Our Fellows program has been one means by which
[00:11:45.318]we've been able to engage faculty from across our campuses.
[00:11:49.127]Really, some of the brightest minds that we have
[00:11:52.358]in a variety of disciplines who have come forward
[00:11:54.878]and said, "We believe this work is important and
[00:11:58.100]we're willing to dedicate some of our time and talent too."
[00:12:01.969]We've also involved over a 120 faculty
[00:12:05.318]in those research and teaching projects
[00:12:08.129]that I mentioned earlier.
[00:12:09.778]And they, in turn, have been involved with nearly
[00:12:13.310]200 rural communities, again, addressing real-world
[00:12:16.609]problems ranging from leadership and entrepreneurship,
[00:12:20.710]to leadership transition,
[00:12:23.630]to health care, to education
[00:12:25.140]to broadband, to diversity,
[00:12:27.889]and leadership in communities.
[00:12:29.710]It's been a great partnership.
[00:12:31.950]Well, the third element of that nexus is communities.
[00:12:35.940]We're not working at 30,000 feet
[00:12:39.470]at the Rural Futures Institute
[00:12:41.340]seeing all rural communities as alike
[00:12:44.678]and trying to rain down solutions
[00:12:47.249]on those poor folks who live out there, no.
[00:12:50.598]We are engaged directly with rural communities,
[00:12:54.009]recognizing that every community has its own character,
[00:12:57.630]its own strength, its own set of assets.
[00:13:01.590]So we believe when we can bring those three pieces together,
[00:13:05.369]and target some of our resources
[00:13:07.969]in that green spot in the middle,
[00:13:10.569]it is where we have the best opportunity
[00:13:13.230]to make a difference for a community that's trying to go
[00:13:17.100]from where it's been to where it would like to be.
[00:13:22.180]Let me just say that we believe fundamentally
[00:13:25.129]that if a community is gonna be strong,
[00:13:27.588]if a community is gonna be resilient,
[00:13:29.777]if a community is gonna have an opportunity
[00:13:31.840]to deal with adversity,
[00:13:33.379]gosh, in the last two days I just had an opportunity
[00:13:37.513]to revisit
[00:13:39.343]a conversation
[00:13:40.351]with folks from Pilger, Nebraska,
[00:13:42.393]that in 2014, 75% of the town
[00:13:45.612]was blown away by twin tornadoes.
[00:13:50.029]The folks at Pilger said, "You know what?
[00:13:53.353]Our town isn't gonna die.
[00:13:55.513]And by the way, we're not just gonna come back,
[00:13:57.761]we're gonna reinvent ourselves.
[00:14:00.401]Reinvent ourselves.
[00:14:02.521]They developed a powerful vision,
[00:14:04.172]we supported their planning activities and partnership
[00:14:07.600]with the Heartland Center for Leadership Development
[00:14:09.793]with folks from Nebraska Extension.
[00:14:12.391]Worked together with folks in that community
[00:14:14.783]who said, "We're gonna rebuild."
[00:14:17.160]And they have.
[00:14:18.012]They have come back in a community, a small community
[00:14:21.943]in a very rural sector of Nebraska that,
[00:14:26.432]by the way, is stronger than it was before that tornado.
[00:14:29.863]It's amazing.
[00:14:30.943]But we believe that a thriving community grows from within.
[00:14:36.313]Supporting local businesses, local entrepreneurs,
[00:14:39.743]having the school at the center as a partner
[00:14:42.743]in the strength of a community,
[00:14:45.121]having health care folks in that community
[00:14:47.673]that know the people who are there,
[00:14:49.732]who bring a high-touch approach to the high-tech
[00:14:53.183]that is being used to deliver healthcare today.
[00:14:56.103]So, let me just say, in coming weeks,
[00:14:58.772]we hope you'll come back and join us again and again
[00:15:01.393]for this "Catch up with Chuck" conversation.
[00:15:03.841]We're gonna be talking with rural people,
[00:15:06.492]we're gonna be visiting rural places,
[00:15:08.633]we're gonna be sharing success stories,
[00:15:10.503]stories of innovators, of good thinkers, of good doers,
[00:15:14.380]who are out there creating rural communities
[00:15:17.823]that are a legitimate best choice
[00:15:21.176]for those families that are looking for a place
[00:15:24.184]to invest their time, their talent,
[00:15:25.744]their energy, their values,
[00:15:27.485]in a place where they can make a difference.
[00:15:29.992]So, we're gonna be talking about broadband,
[00:15:31.955]health care, education, leadership, entrepreneurship,
[00:15:36.605]all of those things.
[00:15:37.984]So I hope you'll come back and join us again and again.
[00:15:40.715]Good day.

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Catch Up With Chuck | Episode 1

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