Zoe Berg, Senior Photographer

Yale has joined a newly formed consortium of 16 colleges and universities working together to help students from small-town and rural America pursue opportunities in higher education.

The program, officially known as the Small-Town And Rural Students College Network, seeks to identify, recruit and support promising students from rural communities and small towns. This summer, Yale will use funding from the STARS network to build the inaugural STARS Summer Scholars program, which will offer five rural high school students the full financial support to participate in the Yale Young Global Scholars program. STARS will also work with non-profit educational platforms Khan Academy and Schoolhouse to offer a free online math program for students in small towns and rural communities.

“Throughout my time at Yale, I’ve worked closely with many of the STARS Network partner schools and liaisons on different admissions initiatives and projects,” Corinne Smith, associate director of undergraduate admissions, wrote to the News. “Honestly, the rural recruitment space is quite small and niche. Those of us involved have regularly communicated, shared ideas and best practices, and offered support for many years … By joining the STARS Network, our hope is to build upon our commitment and expand beyond Yale.”

The formation of the STARS College Network follows several years of work at Yale to better reach out to and support rural and small-town students. Smith, for example, serves as one of two advisors for the Rural Students Alliance at Yale, a student organization that formed in 2018 with the intention of improving rural students’ experience.

Yale’s admissions office plans to expand the STARS Summer Scholars cohort to more students in future years. The office also intends to recruit more student ambassadors, who visit high schools in or around their hometowns to share and answer questions about their Yale experiences.

“Collaborating with other colleges and universities helps to amplify and reinforce Yale’s

message,” said Yale Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan. “If we can help talented students from areas without strong college-going cultures aspire to attend four-year colleges with a strong commitment to affordability and a high graduation rate, we want to be part of that effort.”

The STARS program is being funded in large part by a $20 million donation from the foundation of Byron Trott, a wealthy investment banker. 

Trott, a former vice chairman at Goldman Sachs and current chief executive officer of BDT Capital Partners, was born in Union, Missouri, and said that his donation was inspired by the ways in which college transformed his own career journey.

“There is a massive talent pool in our small towns and rural communities that has so much to

offer — to our colleges, to society, and to future generations,” Trott said in a press release. “These smaller communities simply don’t have the resources to help show these students what is possible and help them get there.” 

Collaborations like STARS, Trott wrote, “have a multiplier effect that can catalyze far greater change than any single institution or agency could make it on its own.”

Smith too comes from a small community, hailing from a town of about 8,000 people that lies roughly an hour outside of Chicago. Until she moved to the East Coast, she thought of her upbringing as suburban. But when Smith began working at the University, she found herself relating to the experiences that small-town and rural students shared in their applications.

This feeling inspired Smith to get involved in advocating for rural and small-town students, both at Yale and elsewhere around the country, as evidenced through emerging programs like the STARS alliance. 

“I knew what it felt like to have an hour-long bus ride to my high school, to not be able to sleep because of street noise, to have no idea how to use the subway, and to be the first of my cousins to leave Illinois,” Smith told the News. “Meeting with [rural and small-town] students and families on campus and during travel season always feels so comfortable and welcoming. I can offer them advice and information I wish I’d had.”

Smith added that she endeavors to incorporate her experiences as a small-town student into her work with students in the admissions territories that she covers, which have large numbers of rural students. 

Devon Sawyer ’26, a student from Houston, Missouri — which has a population of 2,079 — is the first student in his town’s history to attend an Ivy League school.

Sawyer, who was admitted through the QuestBridge National College Match program, hopes that the new STARS initiative will reach students in towns similar to his. 

“Most of the kids at my high school and in other small towns don’t expect to go on to higher education after they graduate,” Sawyer said. “A lot of these students are below the poverty line and don’t even know about financial aid or any of the other opportunities schools like Yale offer.”

Yale matched with 66 QuestBridge Scholars who applied to join the class of 2027.