COLLABORATION KNOWLEDGE GENERATION ADVOCACY CONTACT THE TEAM

ABOUT AREAS

The Assessing Rural Education Assets and Strengths (AREAS) Consortium of rural colleges and universities investigates the programs, policies, and practices that improve rural college students’ outcomes in higher education and facilitate rural college students’ successful transitions to the workforce. We center the experiences of rural college students through collaboration, advocacy, and knowledge generation.

In Spring 2025, we initiated a large, multi-institutional survey to collect data on college students’ experiences and outcomes. The research questions framing this project are as follows:

  1. What are the effects of institutional programs and practices on low-income rural college students’ academic outcomes (e.g., retention and degree completion)?
  2. What are the effects of institutional programs and practices on low-income rural college students’ psychosocial outcomes (e.g., sense of belonging, psychological well-being, perceptions of campus climate)?
  3. What are the effects of institutional programs and practices on low-income rural college students’ workforce-related outcomes (e.g., career decision-making efficacy, employment status, preparedness)? 

View the study’s conceptual framework, the survey instrument, and Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for the study. 

The AREAS Consortium is based at the University of Idaho and funded by the Ascendium Education Group in partnership with the American Institutes for Research.

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Associated Research Projects

Higher Education Employees Research

In 2024, Dr. Krista Soria and a team of doctoral students are conducting a study on higher education employees’ experiences with burnout, turnover intentions, and engagement. We used webscraping techniques to pull employees’ contact information from colleges/universities across the nation and randomly selected participants for the survey. The survey includes the following constructs:

  • burnout, work-life variables, and turnover intentions
  • trauma-informed practices and beliefs
  • employees’ mental health and experiences with basic needs insecurity
  • thriving and flourishing
  • emotional labor and work gratitude

In connection with the work of the AREAS Consortium, we are planning to examine differences in higher education employees’ experiences based upon the location of their college/university (i.e., rural, urban, town, suburb) and location of their home/community of upbringing. We will use the Community Assets and Relative Rurality Index as one of our measures of rurality, so we are collecting location data by the latitude and longitude of employees’ college/university and home/community of upbringing.

We have received University of Idaho IRB approval to conduct the research.

View our releated research:

Soria, K. M., Kokenge, E., Heath, C. A., Standley, E. C., Wilson, S. J. F., Connley, J. R., & Agramon, A. I. (2024). Looking inward: Academic advisors’ mental health. NACADA Journal, 44(1), 66–80.

Soria, K. M., Kokenge, E., Heath, C. A., Standley, E. C., Wilson, S. J. F., Connley, J. R., & Agramon, A. I. (2024). Factors associated with academic advisors’ burnout. NACADA Journal, 43(2), 105–120.

Soria, K. M. (2024, October). Looking inward: Academic advisors’ mental health [Conference presentation]. NACADA Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.

College Students with Disabilities

We have partnered with the National Center for College Students with Disabilities (NCCSD) to collect data on students’ use of disability-related accommodations. The NCCSD provided guidance on measures related to disability, disability-related accommodations, and foster care experience. 

Rural Students’ Fact Sheets

Students have higher rates of recent homelessness and are less confident in their ability to come up with funds to cover emergency expenses. Approximately 20% of students attending four-year public or private rural colleges and universities experience low or very low food security.

Read more in our fact sheet.

College students attending four-year public or private colleges and universities who are rural home communities are more likely to be older, be married with dependents, be unmarried with dependents, or have earned a GED compared to students from city, suburb, or town home communities.

Read more in our fact sheet.

College students attending four-year public or private colleges and universities who are rural home communities are more likely to be first-generation students, less likely to receive any support from their parents or guardians to pay for college, and more likely to receive less amounts of financial support from their parents or guardians to pay for college compared to students from city, suburb, or town home communities.

Read more in our fact sheet.

First-generation college students from rural communities often face challenges accessing paid internships, limiting their ability to gain critical work experience. However, students who participate in paid internships are more likely to secure full-time employment within 6 months of graduation and report higher job satisfaction. These internships provide financial support and help develop essential job-specific skills and professional networks. Expanding funding for paid internships and strengthening partnerships between educational institutions and employers is crucial to ensuring all students, regardless of background, can benefit from internship opportunities.

Read more in our fact sheet.

Although career services are important for any college student, rural first-generation college students are less likely to use career services compared to continuing-generation students. We encourage career services offices on college campuses to extend additional outreach efforts to rural, first-generation students. 

Read more in our fact sheet.

Publications

Soria, K. M., & Vakanski, S. E. (2024). Rural college students’ experiences during the pandemic: Implications for academic advisors. NACADA Journal, 44(2), 1–14. 

Soria, K. M., & White, T. (2023). Mentorship and belonging among students of color at rural colleges and universities. In S. Ardoin, T. Hallmark, & D. Means (Eds.), Race and rurality: Considerations for advancing higher education equity (pp. 276–289). Routledge.

Presentations

Rural College Students’ Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Presented at AERA 2024

To provide stronger advocacy for rural college students, it is important to collect data about students. We designed the AREAS Consortium survey to capture students’ demographic characteristics, academic experiences and outcomes, and career-related experiences and outcomes. We are conducting a multi-institutional survey of college students.

 We received University of Idaho Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval to conduct this research. 

Contact Our Team

Dr. Krista Soria
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor
Leadership & Organization Development
University of Idaho
1031 N Academic Way
Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814
ksoria@uidaho.edu

Dr. Ahsanul Kibria
Postdoctoral Scholar
Western Rural Development Center
322 E Front St, Suite 222
Boise, ID 83702
akibria@uidaho.edu