Collection: A look at rural higher education access across the state
Emily Lund and her father, JJ Lund
Lund and her dad, J.J. Lund, on the family farm where Emily lives and raises animals in Richland Center. J.J. still lives in Mukwonago more than two hours away but will make the drive out to Emily's farm to help whenever she needs assistance. He sees how determined Emily is to get her bachelor's degree after the local UW campus shuttered. “She’s going to get (her degree) one way or another,” J.J. Lund said. “They took something away, and they didn't give any facility to support it … and now it's a wasted year, wasted tuition, some wasted experiences, in a sense.”
Emily Lund and her goat, Michael
Emily Lund, with her goat, Michael, on her family’s property where she lives and raises farm animals in Richland Center. Michael doubles as an official therapy pet, Lund said.
Emily Lund
Emily Lund carries feed to the beef cattle she raises on the family farm she revived just outside of Richland Center. She previously attended one of the Universities of Wisconsin's two-year branch campuses, in Richland Center, to get her degrees in agricultural business and science, but when that was ordered to close last year, she opted for UW-Madison, an hour and a half away.
Emily Lund on her Richland Center farm
Emily Lund restarted the Richland Center area farm, which has sat in her family for generations but went unfarmed for more than 150 years. She moved there from Mukonago three years ago after taking an interest in cattle.
Emily Lund
Emily Lund, who grew up in Mukwonago, cares for dozens of animals full time while trying to get her bachelor's degree.
Emily Lund
Emily Lund is raising ducklings and chicks. Previously, when the Richland Center campus closed last summer, she had to sell off some of her birds to reduce her workload at the farm.
Emily Lund with ducklings and chicks
Emily Lund shows the ducklings and chicks she raises on her family’s property in Richland Center.
Morgan and Johnathan Biba with their children Kaydence and Elliott
Morgan Biba, a student at Mid-State Technical College, watches as her daughter, Kaydence, 7, writes down complicated math problems, while her husband, Johnathan, interacts with their 3-year-old, Elliott. Morgan is a nursing student who relies on Mid-State's Adams branch so she doesn't have to travel as far to get her degree and can spend more time with her family.
Morgan and Johnathan Biba with their children, Kaydence and Elliott
Morgan Biba, a student at Mid-State Technical College, said the semesters where she'd need to travel more than an hour away to Wisconsin Rapids for classes were hard on her family. Johnathan has a job that allows him to be with their children during the afternoon and early evening hours, but it put a large strain on him, too.
Morgan and Kaydence Biba
Morgan Biba, a student at Mid-State Technical College, with her daughter, Kaydence, 7, spend time outside after school at their home in Endeavor.
The Biba family
Morgan Biba, a student at Mid-State Technical College, with husband, Johnathan, right, and kids, Elliott, 3, and Kaydence, 7, play outside after school at their home in Endeavor.
Morgan and Kaydence Biba
Morgan Biba, a student at Mid-State Technical College, listens to her daughter, Kaydence, 7, read "The Littlest Dragon" at the kitchen table. Morgan will often do her nursing homework alongside her daughter after getting home from classes at the Adams branch.
The Biba family
Morgan Biba, a student at Mid-State Technical College, listens to her daughter, Kaydence, 7, read, as her husband, Johnathan, helps with their 3-year-old, Elliott, with Spanish flash cards at the kitchen table in their home in Endeavor.
Amara O'Leary
Madison College student Amara O’Leary walks with her goat Billy on her family’s farm in La Valle. She lives about 10 minutes from both a regional campus in Reedsburg and her job at the Sauk County Health Care Center, which is vital for her as she works through her nursing degree. If O'Leary didn't have local access to college, she likely wouldn't go, she said.
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Michelle McPherson and her daughter, Amara O’Leary, converse in La Valle, Wis. home Saturday, April 27, 2024. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
Amara O'Leary and her grandfather, George McPherson
Amara O’Leary, left, is often "on call" to help her grandfather, George McPherson, center, as health conditions have limited his mobility and repeated surgeries have required O'Leary and other family members to pitch in and help him with recovery. Having the nearby Madison College campus in Reedsburg allows O'Leary to be around to help. "I think it's a great idea (for O'Leary to be a nurse) because she'll always have a job," McPherson said. "It's something that people like me need."
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Amara O’Leary leaves Madison Area Technical College’s Reedsburg Campus after finishing up class in Reedsburg, Wis., Thursday, April 4, 2024. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Avery Simpson
Avery Simpson, a UW-Madison senior and College for Rural Wisconsin ambassador, shows the beehives she cares for on her family’s farmette south of Brooklyn. Simpson spent her first two years of high school in Evansville before transferring to Oregon and saw firsthand the differences in school districts' approach to college.
Avery Simpson
On the Simpson farmette, everything is a family affair. From helping run their parents' small businesses by pouring candles in the kitchen, caring for a dozen chickens and helping Avery Simpson, the middle of three daughters, harvest and process honey from her bees, everyone in the family pitches in — a reality shared by many rural families.
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Campus of UW-Platteville at Baraboo in Baraboo, Wis. Tuesday, April 9, 2024. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
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Merchandise promoting the University of Wisconsin-Platteville at Baraboo’s Fighting Spirits mascot are displayed on the campus in Baraboo, Wis. Tuesday, March 19, 2024. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
UW-Platteville at Baraboo Sauk County
UW-Platteville at Baraboo students make their way to classes on the campus in Baraboo.
Stephen Swallen and Katie Kalish at UW-Baraboo
University of Wisconsin-Platteville at Baraboo professor Katie Kalish and Administrative Director Stephen Swallen say they see a lot of first-generation and adult college students at the Baraboo campus. "They just feel that UW-Madison is too big for them and they're not quite ready for such a large place," Swallen said. "(They're) getting their feet wet in higher education, so we help them figure out (what) their goals are going to be, because most of our students come majoring in completely undecided."
UW-Platteville at Baraboo Sauk County
Sauk County board members voted earlier this year to put up county funds to bridge the budgetary gaps that UW-Platteville at Baraboo Sauk County is expected to face in the next two years. Sauk County is one of the richest counties that expects to have a Universities of Wisconsin branch campus after spring 2025, but the county's ability to step up financially might not be a viable solution for other counties with a branch campus in trouble.
Allison Hoch, Wisconsin Dells High School principal
Allison Hoch, principal at Wisconsin Dells High School, walks a loose goat back to the barn on the school property in Wisconsin Dells. The high school is one of a handful around the state that have farms on campus, this one a relic from the family that sold the school district the land for the new high school. Here, students can learn about farming, animal care and crop maintenance.
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Allison Hoch, principal at Wisconsin Dells High School, feeds the goats as she gives a tour of the school’s barn in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., Monday, Feb. 26, 2024. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Career and Technical Education areas at Wisconsin Dells High School
Senior Andrew Seiler works on a laser engraver in the shop at Wisconsin Dells High School. The Wisconsin Dells School District is one of many in rural areas that's investing in Career and Technical Education programs; expanded shop areas were part of a bid for Wisconsin Dells' recently built high school in 2020.
Wisconsin Dells High School students
Wisconsin Dells High School seniors, from left, Nick Meller, Claira Weaver and Jaquelin Barrita, walk to their veterinary science and culinary classes at Wisconsin Dells High School. Many Wisconsin Dells High School students are pursuing college degrees, but administrators also have increased efforts to encourage students to find their own path, whether or not it includes a four-year degree.
Ian Cole, Adams-Friendship High School student
Senior Ian Cole handles recently painted trim work that will be used in a house that students are helping to build for a community member, in the advanced construction class at Adams-Friendship High School. Cole initially entered high school thinking he would go for a four-year college degree but instead found he loved construction and plans to attend a technical college program for it. "Starting in middle school, I started taking a lot of advanced math classes. (My) seventh grade year, I was taking Algebra 1, so I always looked at like a career somewhere involving math, but never really thought the construction route," Cole said. "Coming into high school, I was thinking more something like accounting or working in the bank or something like that. Just because it's all numbers, you know?"
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Senior Ian Cole handles recently painted trim work that will be used in a house that students are helping to build for a community member, in the advanced construction class at Adams-Friendship High School in Adams, Wis., Friday, Feb. 23, 2024. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Students bottle-feed lambs at Adams-Friendship high school
Junior Savannah Bednar, left, and sophomore Destany Amell bottle feed lambs in their agriculture class at Adams-Friendship High School in Adams. In rural areas, high schools are starting to put more emphasis on students pursuing what they want to do post-high school and less on pushing four-year college degrees.
Kelsey Chojnacki and Tim Jensen, Adams-Friendship High School
Adams-Friendship High School counselors Kelsey Chojnacki, left, and Tim Jensen talk in Chojnacki’s office. Together, they manage most of the high school students who live in Adams County, based on the sheer size of the rural school district. "We promote not trying to get students to decide to go to college or tech school so much as, 'What do you want to do, what are you what are your abilities, your skills, your interests, your aptitude and how can we help you get there?'" Jensen said.
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Counselor Kelsey Chojnacki checks on student class requests for the next school year at Adams-Friendship High School in Adams, Wis., Friday, Feb. 23, 2024. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Brehon Hoffman, Nekoosa Student services coordinator
Nekoosa High School Student Services Coordinator Brehon Hoffman helps manage more than 300 students at Nekoosa High School, stepping in for the school's single guidance counselor, who was out on medical leave. Hoffman is the in-between for students: How urgent is their issue, and if it's related to college, how can she help get them information? "They don't have the path at home or they have parents that haven't gone to college ... they're coming in saying, 'I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, what do I do, where do I go? A lot of it is a live and learn. We don't have all the answers either, but we certainly like to give them places to go."
Keith Johnson, Nekoosa High School principal
Nekoosa High School Principal Keith Johnson said he's seeing an incredible amount of apathy and "terminal thinking" with high school students. It's always existed, he said, but it seems to that increasingly students don't have a post-high school plan.
Post-secondary rates in Nekoosa School District
Post-high school placement percentages are displayed at Nekoosa High School. The number of Wisconsin high schoolers participating in either a four-year or two-year college program has shrunk by 14% in the last five years.
Nekoosa Middle School technical education class
Nekoosa High School tech ed instructor Benjamin Peters guides a student in an engraving exercise at the district’s middle school in Nekoosa. There, students at all grade levels are given age-appropriate exposure to career and technical education topics.
Brooke Braunschweig, Mauston High School student
Students participating in Mauston High School’s Upward Bound program, including Brooke Braunschweig, left, talk about summer opportunities. Braunschweig, who is attending UW-Stout this fall, will be the first of her four siblings to leave the Mauston area, despite being the youngest. She isn't the first to attempt college, though: Both her mother and her next oldest brother had taken a few classes at Western Technical College but found the hour-long trip each way where most of classes were held to be taxing.
Upward Bound at Mauston High School
Students participating in Mauston High School’s Upward Bound program head to class after a meeting at the school. Advisers to the program see the difference it makes for their 64 students and often wish it could be expanded. “If this was something that could be more available to other kids, that would be cool, but also just encouraging kids in general, from a school administrative standpoint (to) just pursue some path in some way, even if it's not college-based, it's tech-based,” John Maki, one of the advisers for Upward Bound, said.
Upward Bound at Mauston High School
Students participating in Mauston High School’s Upward Bound program gather at the school in Mauston. Upward Bound is a federally funded program that provides information about going to college, financial aid and applying for scholarships to students who are rural, first-generation or live in poverty.
Many rural students in Wisconsin are finding it increasingly difficult to access higher education. Branch campus closures, a lack of guidance counselors and financial concerns have exacerbated this problem.
The 151-year-old prison, the oldest in the state, is also undergoing a federal investigation into smuggling of drugs, cellphones and other contraband.
"You feel like you’re fighting and clawing to get out of a pit and no one is going to give you a ladder,” Campbell resident and town supervisor Lee Donahue said.
A year later, the campus' closure has left many in the community still grieving and bitter over how it went down.
