"We have to ask ourselves 'Why do we do this work?' The question is sometimes difficult to answer, because when we ask ourselves 'Why?' we have to ask ourselves 'How?' We then come to understand that what we're doing is organizing. We are bringing together unity and unifying groups of parents, students, and community people who share a common vision, working from a collective strategy and programming work.

"We have made a conscious choice to put community interests over self-interest and when we do that, we are saying 'I have to decide within myself to help bring about a change to empower.'
     --Johnnie Johnson, Executive Director of the Drew Community Voter's League in Drew, Mississippi.

• In Rutland, South Dakota, a tiny town of only 29 people, got the one thing it really wanted -- a convenience store -- while an enterprising group of Rural Challenge high school students learned math, management, and other skills by running their own business. Students in Rutland polled the town's residents about what the town needed to make it a better place to live. They found out that a convenience store was something everyone wanted. Armed with that information, the students established and now run a convenience store that also sells gasoline and serves as a community



• In Pollock, South Dakota, students identified a need in their community for more housing. The high school's agriculture and shop classes are working together through the Rural Trust to renovate old mobile homes, and then rent them or sell them back to the community. Other student-run businesses in Pollock include a video editing business, a T-shirt monogram service, and a student-run cheese store that sells cheese produced by a local factory. The factory had closed its retail store; thanks to the students, the locally produced cheese is once again available directly to the community.



• Through REAL (Rural Entrepreneurship Through Action Learning) a Rural Trust partner program in Hillsborough, North Carolina, high school student Brian Blalock spent a full year as an apprentice to a local welder. As part of his classroom work with REAL, he developed a business plan and used part of his school time to build a trailer to make his welding shop portable and mobile. With help from a $1,000 REAL scholarship, he started his own business, developed some steady customers, and is on his way to stepping into the shoes of the town's only welder, who is retiring.