Back home, Kendra Beaudoin, a University of Michigan sophomore from Lake Linden, Mich., didn’t know a lot of people with a bachelor’s degree; fewer than 1 in 5 rural adults aged 25 and older have them, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.
At Michigan, Beaudoin is majoring in biopsychology, cognition and neural science, and has co-founded a club for first-generation students to give each other moral support and advice.
“I’m still intimidated by professors. Going to office hours is terrifying,” she says. “There were definitely moments when I was like, ‘I’m only going here to fill a diversity quota and I don’t really belong here and everybody else is so much smarter than me.’ ”
One challenge faculty and staff face in helping rural students: they often don’t realize that rural students, who are predominantly white, need the extra help. “If you are an instructor in a class looking out, you cannot identify [a first-generation rural student] in the way you might say, ‘Well, I have an African-American student in this class,’ or, 'I have a student of Muslim identity in this class.’ So we start there,” says Gail Gibson, director of the University of Michigan’s Kessler Presidential Scholars Program. “What the student is experiencing in a classroom situation or in a dorm situation may or may not be visible.”
There are other reasons universities are suddenly addressing this group. One is self-interest. As the number of 18- to 24-year-olds declines, and a robust economy draws more people straight into the workforce, enrollment at universities and colleges has fallen by 2.9 million since its last peak in 2011. Institutions need to find more students, and rural America has an underutilized supply.
Another reason is political. “If we want to increase conversations across party lines and ideologies, we have to be exposed to one another,” says Sonja Ardoin, assistant professor for Student Affairs Administration at Appalachian State University, and a one-time rural student herself.
Lycoming College’s Kent Trachte adds, “We in higher education had better be thinking about how do we bring together young people from these different backgrounds to a place where they can hopefully have civil discourse.”
further take: Kili is straight-up ugly by dwarf standards. Thorin is like, the dwarf equivalent of Benedict Cumberbatch. Some dwarves think he’s an absolutely dreamboat, others think he is super weird looking, there’s very little middle ground.
omg now i’m like. what does this make frodo by hobbit standards
by hobbit standards, I’m afraid Frodo is probably. not conventionally attractive at all.
Frodo is the sexiest hobbit by elf standards
@femmefaramir this is some fucking galaxy brain level tags and im crying out of sheer horror
honestly, as someone who’s cared for a LOT of cats, indoor cats are very often unwittingly maltreated, bored, and low key traumatised from too little space and insufficient nutrition. I wouldn’t tell anyone NOT to keep an indoor cat, but I would honestly suggest you research the other side of the fence and it’s benefits. Trapping a cat inside because you’re scared of it being hurt is very selfish, they deserve to live full and free lives
I’m sorry, but you’re wrong - and please be aware, you’re following a blog with indoor cats.
though cats are less work than dogs, they still require WORK. like maintaining a mentally stimulating environment with proper nutrition (not sure why not eating local wildlife = malnourishment?)
I think the root of the problem is that your language (”trapping”, “free lives”) is anthropomorphic. which is compassionate, but PLEASE understand that a genuine understanding of their needs will benefit cats more than blind compassion.
rather than go on & on, I’ll link to ppl more eloquent than me with helpful studies, as well as rare instances where outdoors cats are alright:
I would like to show the many examples of the traumatic life my non free roaming cat faces.
Here she is suffering in her own personal sandbox filled with toys.
Here is in one of her four horrible, cruel harnesses.
Here she on a weekend getaway to Cape May. This is an awful place called Higbee Beach. It was very hard for her having to be on a leash, She was very upset, as you can see here.
Here she is sunbathing on a rock overlooking a bay. Cats hate sunbathing!
We also have tortured her by keeping her safe while hiking in a state park.
Lastly, here she is tied to her stroller on a Sherpa blanket in a 3 layer sweater hand made sweater.
I would like to apologize. I see the traumatized life my indoor cat is living. She has very little space, her cat food only costs me $3 a can, and shes clearly dying of boredom. Please someone save her from this agony. My selfishness will be the end of both of us!!!!!
Responsible pet owners posting adorable pics of happy fluffballs out of spite is like, my peak aesthetic.
this is an appreciation post for my trash gremlin whomst i love. she produces the most rancid farts known to humankind, insists on yelling at all hours of the night if you don’t let her snuggle with you, and maintains eye contact as she chomps on the houseplants even as you’re frantically advancing towards her to snatch away the tasty leaves that she will inevitably puke up into the furnace vent on the floor. she’s old and stinky and occasionally revenge shits in my roommates bed. all her muscles have been atrophied since before we got her at the shelter, but she still finds the energy to come trotting at full speed when she sees someone sit down on the couch with an open lap, or smells delicious cheese products.
i will mourn the inept implementation of this absurd band-aid policy the same way i mourn all personal losses: by putting on a silk robe and dark lipstick and cheerlessly peeling and eating a tangerine on my back porch
tumblr sucked yet its the only thing people like us could ever have posted on. tumblr was a deep sea geothermal vent and we are all pallid, desperate crabs snapping at the dark toxcic nutrients spweing from its hole, and bringing us into the harsh light of the instagram influencersphere would kill us instantly.
u can tell who the ancients of tumblr are bc they’re the ones not posting anything abt where to find them if this site collapses…we know this site isnt going anywhere….the apocalypse couldnt stop this garbage…..it has the cybernetic code of a cockroach
