[INTRO INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]
Denny Spinner:
From the Indiana University Center for Rural Engagement, welcome to Our Indiana: Stories from Rural Hoosiers, recording today from Maxwell Hall on the Indiana University Bloomington campus. We are with Colleen Rose, the director of student engagement at the IU Center for Rural Engagement, Dayanara Alvarado, and Noah Bootcheck, students here at IU Bloomington. So welcome to the podcast, guys. We’re going to start with some introductions. Dayanara, tell us a little bit about you, where you're from, what you're studying.
Dayanara Alvarado:
Yes, hi. My name is Dayanara Alvarado. I am currently a junior here at IU Bloomington studying community health on the pre-physician assistant track. And I'm originally from Jasper, Indiana, which is southern Indiana, about an hour and 30 minutes or an hour and 20 minutes away from Bloomington, Indiana.
Denny Spinner:
I know that very well because I make that drive too. I'm from Huntingburg, so we're Dubois Countians. We’ve got little little DuCo going on here today.
Dayanara Alvarado:
Yes.
Denny Spinner:
So Noah, tell us a little about yourself.
Noah Bootcheck:
My name is Noah Bootcheck. I am a freshman at Indiana University studying law and public policy on the pre-law track with a minor in Spanish, and I am from Farmland, Indiana. And what the town consists of is about exactly in the name. It’s mainly cornfields. It's about in central Indiana, about 10 miles east of Muncie.
Denny Spinner:
Okay. Well, one of the things we talked about is stories from rural Hoosiers. You are both from small communities, found your way to IU and this quite large campus. So what was your transition to IU like, coming from primarily a rural school? I mean, your schools weren't very big, and now you're in classes that are probably as big as maybe your whole high school. So tell us a little bit about that transition. What was that like?
Dayanara Alvarado:
So for me, my graduating class was about 260. It was very, very small. Not big. I know for Huntingburg as well, I think their graduating class was — I don't even think it reached 100. So it's a pretty small town. But coming here to Bloomington, Indiana, it was kind of a shock as well because — not saying that Jasper doesn't have a lot of diversity, but once you come into Bloomington, you're meeting a lot of people from different backgrounds, a lot of international students. And it's just very nice to see how amazing that is, how it's very diverse here in Bloomington. So I really like that because I made many friends from different cultural backgrounds and from different countries. So it's been great.
The transition, I would say, was kind of difficult at first, just because I'm not really used to a big, big — like, a lot of students here. Obviously, I went to a small high school, so for me, having about 25 students in my class compared to a whole lecture hall was pretty different, especially in my chemistry and biology classes. Everyone's trying to kind of find a seat. And obviously, I did not know about the 20-minute to 30-minute rule. Getting to lecture on the first week of classes, I literally had to find a seat and wiggle my way in through the seating of the lecture hall. And it was just kind of crazy. I mean, you get used to it. On the first week of classes, you kind of have to get there a little bit early.
But I found it nice too just because there's a lot to discover here at U Bloomington, and I just made a lot of friends and connections here. So it's been pretty great.
Denny Spinner:
Noah, how about your transition?
Noah Bootcheck:
So I'm only a freshman, so I'm still in the beginning stages of being a college student. My graduating class was 58 people, and it was the largest graduating class in my high school’s history. There's only about 800 people in my town, so coming to Indiana University where there are more people in my dorm building than within a 20-mile radius of where I'm from, it definitely takes some getting used to.
One of my biggest concerns coming into college was how to make a community of students — not just how to make friends, but how to feel like I belong. Coming from a very small community, we are very tight-knit. Everyone knows everyone. And on the first week of classes, I'd be walking down the main avenue, and I'd see people I'd never seen before. I still see people I have never seen before. And so while that doesn't need to be one of the biggest things I need to adjust to, it still is difficult for me to adjust to.
Additionally, like Dayanara said, when it comes to classes, my biggest class this semester was 100 kids. I've never had a class with more than 20 people. It’s crazy. When you have something like a dining hall or have something like going to the gym, and everything is packed. I go to my local diner in my town and there's, at most, 5 people in there at any given time. And you go to the dining hall and have to wait in a line of 20 people to get your food.
And when it comes to making friends, that's probably been the biggest thing for me to adjust to. I am still a semester and a week into classes, and I'm still trying to make new friends. It's really difficult because in high school, you've had this set group of people that you see every day for 13 years. But in college, you kind of have to pick your community. And coming into it, I was very worried about that. Like, oh, how am I going to make friends when there's 50,000 people at IU?
But I've come to realize that it's much easier than I expected it to be. Because while, yes, there are people from every different background you could possibly imagine, and I love that, it's very easy to find people that are very similar to you. There’s a larger pool of people to find people that are similar to you. And so it's been kind of liberating. I'm still figuring it out as I go.
Denny Spinner:
Is it kind of a confidence thing as well, that you're kind of comfortable in a comfort zone when you're in your own hometown, and now you're in with a lot of new people? The confidence of putting yourself out there and being open to meeting people of a little bit more diversity than you're used to seeing — is that part of what you had to really kind of adjust to?
Dayanara Alvarado:
Yeah, so for me, I would say that I'm pretty much an extrovert. But coming here, I was very humbled by just the amount of people. Like Noah said, you come from a small town, you kind of have your friends already. And you're growing up, and your friends go off to college. Some are just working. And so you come here, and it's like kindergarten. Like they say, it's kindergarten all over again. You have to figure out what you want to do. You have to find your own friends.
And for me, I just really had to kind of go out there and explore. And I think IU does a really good job with Welcome Week and introducing organizations and clubs and culture centers. Because I feel like that's really important for how people just find their friends and their community here at a big campus, or a big school like IU.
Noah Bootcheck:
Like Dayana emphasized — Welcome Week, Welcome Week, Welcome Week. It is legitimately kindergarten in college. Everyone is willing to meet other people. Everyone is super friendly. You go up to shake someone's hand, they're likely going to shake it back and start a conversation. That is the easiest way to make friends. I'd say most of the people I'm familiar with on campus I've made through Welcome Week. Granted, I'm only a semester into college. Things might drift off a little bit. But I have made people I consider long-term friends during the orientation weeks where you are learning about everything the campus has to offer. You go to call-out meetings. You go to a call-out meeting, you might not join a new club, but hey, you made a new friend.
Additionally, I feel like you kind of just have to try everything coming to IU. You may have a preset of beliefs coming from a rural community as to what you like, what is comfortable to you, but you do have to step outside of your comfort zone because of all of the diverse things IU has to offer. You may not be used to, for example — at least I know I didn't — like, having a swim club at IU, or intramural sports, or club sports. I've joined a philanthropic group here at IU. I did not have that back home. And so just kind of dipping your feet in the water and finding what is right for you is incredibly important.
Denny Spinner:
Right. Colleen, in your title — you're the director of student engagement, and you're hearing these stories. So what are the ways that IU does recognize that — they mentioned welcome time, but what are the ways that, as students make that transition — and there's a lot of rural students coming to IU for the first time. These two are great examples. But what are the things that you look at as tools and assets that you can bring and help students in making that transition to the campus?
Colleen Rose:
Yeah, there are just so many different ways students can get connected at Indiana University, starting with Welcome Week and building on there. There are student activity fairs where all 700-plus student organizations on campus set up tables out in Dunn Meadow, and you can come and talk and connect to groups that you're interested in. There is a website that lists all of the student organizations on campus. And you can search by your interest, whether it's philanthropy, like Noah, or sports or arts. Whatever you're interested in, you can find an organization that fits who you are.
Our campus has a service center called IU Corps, so students can find volunteer opportunities on campus. Other students who are interested in volunteering and engage in some community service experiences that way. And then our city, I think this is pretty cool, our city actually has a department that's just for connecting people in the community with volunteer opportunities across our city and our county. And that's another great way to get involved. It’s called Bloomington Volunteer Network.
But then, Denny, I was also thinking about this question because I know there may be people listening who aren’t at IU. And so I would just say to anybody in college across the state of Indiana or anywhere else beyond, pretty much every campus has a community service center or a student activities center. You can check with your local United Way for volunteer opportunities. And then there's a really cool opportunity through our federal government called AmeriCorps, where you can do national service in your local community or elsewhere as a way of serving your country. So lots of great ways for college-age and college-attending folks to get involved.
Denny Spinner:
So as you may know, you're halfway through your first year here, you've had a little bit more experience, but how do you see yourself different than you were when you came in the door? What are the ways that you've kind of grown as a student coming from a rural area into this larger environment? What are the things that maybe surprise you about yourself now that you've been here and in this environment for a while?
Noah Bootcheck:
I have become a lot more bold. Within my high school community, I was always afraid to — oh, if I slip up once, everyone's going to know, and it's going to become a big thing. But here at IU, I have tried all sorts of stuff. While I'm an extroverted person, I've always lacked a level of confidence when it comes to trying new things. I have joined clubs that I didn't even know existed until I got here.
When it comes to the more academic side of things, I have come to learn that there is a lot of stuff they throw in your face in college. You've got assignments, projects. You've got an opportunity that you need to get on top of. You need to do this thing in order to orient yourself for the career you want to go into. You’ve got clubs, activities. And then you want to have a little free time. It's really hard to get into a schedule when it comes to balancing all these different things.
But the truth is that — something that I was never told coming into it is that there is no one right way to do it. Coming into college, my mom would tell me, okay, this is what you need to do, this is how you need to do this. That's really just not how it is. You need to take initiative for your own action, hold accountability for yourself. But you also need to understand that you're going to mess up. You’re going to feel chaotic at times. But sometimes, the chaos is just part of the balance.
Dayanara Alvarado:
Yeah, I would say for myself, honestly, the same thing. Being a junior in college now, I've had to experience a lot of trial and error and just figuring out what I really want to do and just figuring out and navigating that way with my classes, with friends, with clubs. For me, I remember in high school, I felt like I had everything figured out. I kind of had a set routine. But I feel like once you're in university, it kind goes all over the place because your semester changes, your classes are different. You don't know If you're going to be part of this organization because you're too busy. Maybe you're doing research. Maybe you’re volunteering for something else.
So for me, it has changed a lot. And like Noah said, you just need to figure out and balance. I remember in high school, I would never really do that. I just felt like I had the same routing. But you just need to navigate and figure out what you want to do, especially on the academic side. I was really afraid of asking for help and asking my teachers in high school for questions. I felt like I would only connect with certain teachers in high school and certain people in class.
But once you're in college, especially with me — I'm on the pre-physician assistant track, so I'm taking a lot of science classes. And these classes are really big. Like I mentioned, I just took, last semester, organic chemistry laboratory, so that I had probably 200 students in my class. It was a big lecture hall. And honestly, it was a hard class. Like, it was really hard. But I found people, especially my lab class. I would have labs on Fridays, and a four-hour lab was not the move. But I have met my friends from there, and now we're taking microbiology this semester, and I'm just so glad because me in high school, I would've never been able to talk to people from my classes. I would've just stuck with my friends that I've always hung out with since, like, kindergarten. But now I'm going out of my way to meet these people and just connecting with them. And it has been truly, honestly, a blessing.
Denny Spinner:
In some of the conversations we've had — and I'll throw this open to anybody who wants to comment — you come in, you're a little scared about things. But the one thing that I've heard other students say is that the university wants you to succeed, and they want you to reach out. What are resources that you maybe were a little bit scared — or what are the things that you can say, If I need help, don't be afraid to ask for help, right? There's a lot of resources, a lot of places you can go to get that assistance, right?
Noah Bootcheck:
Absolutely. In my high school, coming from a rural community, there is a huge stigmatism when it comes to mental health. But coming here to IU, one of the first things they emphasized to me is that there are free counseling services available at IU. And you simply just have to go over to the Health Center or go to the respective place — some places are different — and just ask for help. And it may seem really difficult because, say you go to a counselor at your high school. There's a relatively decent chance — while there is a level of confidentiality — that someone will find out. You're scared that people are going to know that you're going through something. But here at IU, it is very official, very by the book, but also adaptable.
I know during my first semester, I went to go to the counselling services just because things were getting a little bit tough, and I did not have anyone to talk to. And I learned more about myself through that service than I have naturally here at IU, and it itself was a huge help to me, and especially going into my second semester here has kind of given me, like, a guideline for myself as to how I want to approach school this year.
Dayanara Alvarado:
I would say honestly the same for myself. I honestly have not used the CAPS services, but I know that it is phenomenal. I have talked to other peers that have really liked it. And honestly, for me, I have just grounded myself with, like how we mentioned, with Welcome Week. I got involved with the Latino Culture Center, La Casa, and I also got involved with an organization called Chi Alpha, which is a campus ministry.
So being involved with that and being involved with others has been great because I know that I truly trust the people that I'm around, and the emphasis on just really going out there and meeting what organizations you really want to be a part of. Because I have met so many people and so many friends from there, and I just have connected with them on things like academics, or with other stuff that's involved from back home, or just other situations.
I just cannot emphasize enough that IU really, really has a big emphasis on organizations and connecting with other people from different backgrounds. So I think it's really a blessing that I made lots of friends from there.
Noah Bootcheck:
And I've got one more thing that — for example, my public affairs school, they have a service where you can go to get resume help, to get career help, to get advice. I know the business school has one. I know the music school has one. Every school at IU has some sort of career development service. Additionally, if you ever need help with housing, there's a housing service. If you ever need help with the dining hall, there's a dining hall service. And everyone I've met here so far through my four months so far has been extremely accommodating.
Like you said, they are here to help you. It is not only their job, they actually want to do it. For example, the people in the career hubs are students who are volunteering or getting paid just to help you. They are doing it because they were once in your shoes, and they understand where you may want to go. But they also understand the challenges that come along with that.
Denny Spinner:
Now, Colleen, we are of course working here at the IU Center for Rural Engagement. We love the opportunity to engage all students in rural Indiana, to give them ideas of what can happen in rural Indiana. What are some of the things that you do that connect students like these back to their community or communities like theirs to get a sense of how their education is connecting to their home life?
Colleen Rose:
Yeah. So a big portion of what I do at the Center for Rural Engagement is manage a really wonderful program called Sustaining Hoosier Communities. And with Sustaining Hoosier Communities — we call it SHC — we work with one rural community, usually within a 90-minute drive of the Bloomington campus, to learn what kinds of projects they'd like to see done in their community to make it as vibrant as they hope for it to be. And we take those project ideas, and we come back to campus, and we find all kinds of different IU resources to advance that community’s project ideas. Generally, we are doing that in the form of course partnerships with communities.
So, for example, we may have a design class working on a mural that downtown Jasper wants installed. We are working in Daviess County in Washington, Indiana, right now. They want to enhance their bicycle infrastructure, so we're working with a SPEA O'Neill class to come up with some strategies and recommendations for that. So that's one way we engage students of all backgrounds in rural Indiana, and the things that rural communities want done is we have IU students work on projects as part of their class.
Denny Spinner:
And one of the missions of IU, one of the goals under the 2030 plan, is service to the state. And that's how, through these projects, we're showing how you can impact a rural community. You are both from small communities, and the opportunity to go back and help your own hometown is something I hope that you're seeing. What I'm learning here is great on the global stage but is also directly related to my life back home. There's things that I can do to really advance my hometown. Right?
Colleen Rose:
Yeah.
Denny Spinner:
Do you see that connection coming? That maybe that's something I can take back to Farmland and help somebody back home.
Noah Bootcheck:
I definitely agree. I want to go into the legal field. I want to be a lawyer. And one thing my town lacks is proper legal representation for people, especially of minorities. There is none. We have a local prosecutor's office, but they are usually busy with trivial crimes, that they are not focusing on bigger picture issues. And that's one reason I want to become a lawyer, so I can go back and help people who may not be receiving the need that they need.
In addition, I feel like it's not just that you're taking back your career expertise, you're also taking back personal expertise from your time in college. One thing I've learned, going to a very rural school, is that people do not dream outside of the community. We have a lot of people wanting to go straight into the workforce, not that there's a problem with that. However, people struggle to think abstractly when it comes to careers. My mom's a teacher. They've told my mom that they don't want to go into a career field because they there are not options available within the community to support that.
And I want to take back my experience that that is not necessarily the case, because you can dream bigger. You can dream outside of the sphere you belong to. You can go to college to go into the career field you want, and you can bring it back. You go outside the community. You can do it as you so please with your degree. But there is not a locked position that you have to go into. It’s very adaptable.
Dayanara Alvarado:
Yeah, I would say the same for me. Studying healthcare right now, I currently work at Jasper Memorial Healthcare Center as a CNA. So it's been pretty amazing. Also, the representation in the Latin or Latinx community has been great, especially with the amount of girls that we're getting. My high school offers a CNA program and an EMT program where you can work during high school hours.
And I knew from that start that I wanted to do something in healthcare because I just really valued patients’ health and the compassion that we gave to others. So I knew that I kind of wanted to do that. And obviously, learning so much here at IU that I wanted to bring back, going back to Jasper, hopefully a physician assistant.
I think, too, the representation that the Latin community is growing in some rural communities. And how Noah was saying was a great example. I think there is a great stigma about Latino people that some people, or some students or kids, they just want to work. And I have nothing against people working, but I really value that they can do so much more. I know that sometimes it can be hard with the struggle of money and finances, but there really is a lot of scholarships. I'm part of a 21st Century Scholar. So it's amazing that we get connected with these scholarships, and they help pay with the tuition.
And with that too, I knew that I wanted to do something big. Like yes, I could be a CNA. I know that my school offers that. Or maybe I could be an EMT. But I knew I could do something bigger, especially with being bilingual in English and Spanish has been great. And it truly helps whenever I'm at the hospital and translating. And so I wanted to do that much more with whenever I get my degree as a physician assistant and help my community back home.
I went to the dentist on Monday, and I saw a sign that said, I'm sorry, we are not offering translation services for people who are speaking Spanish, so you must bring someone that knows Spanish and English so we can offer your services to you. We currently don't have anybody that is bilingual in the office. I'm so sorry for this inconvenience.
And it kind of just broke my heart because there's not a lot of Latinos or even not just people kind of wanting to reach out and help others in need that truly need those services because it just lacks. And I really want to bring that back and kind of help the community that really needs it, especially in rural communities. Because there needs to be help in healthcare. There needs to be help in law. There needs to be helping wherever, wherever we are at. So I kind of wanted to bring that representation coming here to IU and bringing that back home to a rural community like Jasper.
Denny Spinner:
And that's kind of one of our missions, right?
Colleen Rose:
Yeah, yeah. You know, I think when students from small towns and rural communities especially come to campuses like IU that are large, public, residential, sometimes the either explicit or implicit expectation is you're coming here to move on to other places and other things. And it's part of our mission to celebrate that. Some of our students want to go home, right? I think we heard really great examples from Dayanara and Noah of how they want to go back to their small town and their rural community to make a difference.
And so I think it's important for all of us who do work in higher education, or even who are working with high schoolers, to celebrate all of the different pathways that students find themselves on, and especially celebrate those students who want to go home and help them find internships, help them find job opportunities, help them make networks back home so that they can see themselves doing good work in their communities as a person with a college degree.
Denny Spinner:
And as a former — I was the mayor of my hometown for a while. And I know that seeing these students come back into town, there's nothing more rewarding as a community leader to see one of your students, a student, a person who's lived in your town come back and, say, “I want to contribute.” I can tell you that those doors are open. There's a lot of opportunities for service, for growth, and for leadership in rural communities that may — you don't have to wait in line to get that opportunity. I think in the rural communities, there's an open door for that type of service.
We're about to wrap things. You guys are now our experts on this. As you look out, we have listeners that may be thinking about attending IU particularly. But going to university in the coming years as a student at one of our rural schools, what words of advice do you have for those who are thinking about — maybe next year at this time, they'll be in this seat with us — what advice would you give to a student who's thinking about coming to Indiana University?
Noah Bootcheck:
Just do it. It seems scary at first. It will seem terrifying. I was terrified coming to IU, 50,000 people here. That's more than anyone within a 30-mile radius of where I'm from. And it's hard to conceptualize that, coming from a rural community. But you can do it. You have to start somewhere. You cannot be trapped or inhibited by the fear of moving out, the fear of going out. You have the opportunity to go out. You can come back to your hometown. You can go to Spain, to Italy. You can do whatever you want to do. Just because you're from a rural town from Farmland, Indiana, does not make you any different than someone from New York City in terms of, this is America. You can do whatever you want to do, and IU is a great place to get started.
You have every opportunity you could want. You have people willing to help you. You have a community that cares about you, that cares about what you want to do. You have clubs that are there not just for enjoyment, but to kickstart careers in wherever you may want to go. You want to be an astronomer? There's an astronomy club. You want to be a cartographer? There's a cartography club. If you want to be a professional wrestler, we have recreational wrestling here at IU. There is limitless opportunity. It is just you who is able to unlock whatever bounds you to where you are. You just need to —
Denny Spinner:
Love it!
Dayanara Alvarado:
Yes, I definitely agree. And also, too, that it's definitely okay to mess up. Right now, you are in college. You are exploring. It's okay to change your major as many times as you want. It's okay to ask for help. I really, really, really do beg that people come to a school like this because I just feel like you will find more opportunities.
And then as we talked about and as we mentioned, we can always go back and serve our rural community or a rural area where we were at. I think it's just really important that we kind of explore and go outside of our box and go somewhere to university like IU. I think it’s great. You will find people. You just really have to explore, and you will literally find amazing people.
Also, you will just create so many memories. I sometimes look back on my old memories and my old videos from my freshman year. I'm like, wow, I'm so glad that I did that, even though I don't do it anymore. Or I'm so glad that I tried — like, IU and Bloomington in general has so many food options. I'm so glad that I had tried Thai food. And Korean food. Like, I'm just so glad that I came here.
I’m not saying that where we're from is bad. I love where I'm from. I love representing that I go to Jasper, even though I have to emphasize that I'm an hour away from Evansville. People are like, yes, I know where Evansville is at. But truly, I would say that is okay to mess up. Ask for help. And yeah, it will be one of the best four years, especially if you go somewhere like a big university to just explore. And you'll find people, and you'll find a way.
Denny Spinner:
Well, thank you both very much for being here. Colleen, thanks for being here as well, and we appreciate your comments. We love hearing stories from rural Hoosiers. This is what our podcast is all about. So thank you for joining us today, and thank you for listening and joining us on Our Indiana: Stories from Rural Hoosiers. Talk to you next time.
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