Resilience in Rural Communities

EOU faculty and students empower local communities through insights

You’ve probably heard reference to the “REV” Center before. Or at least know EOU has a REV Center. The Rural Engagement & Vitality – or REV – Center is a joint venture between Eastern Oregon University and Wallowa Resources with the goal and intent of serving as a hub to connect students, faculty, staff, and community, to the revitalization of the rural region of Oregon, and beyond.

Wallowa Resources’ mission is to “empower rural communities to create strong economies and healthy landscapes through land stewardship, education, and job creation.” Eastern Oregon University, designated as Oregon’s Rural University in 2018, has a long tradition of serving rural students and has identified as a goal in its strategic plan the aim to promote prosperity and resilience in rural communities. Together, the two share oversight of the REV Center as a means to provide steady guidance and support to reach their shared vision of vibrant and prosperous rural communities across eastern Oregon. “This allows the University to be engaged in applied, practical, project-based work that contributes to community developmen and business needs and provides an opportunity for students to be involved in real-world experience in the hopes of training a workforce who will stay and work here,” said Nils Christoffersen, Executive Director of Wallowa Resources. “This has been just over three years in the making with a good portfolio of projects. The REV aims to push innovation as a sector of growth, not by competing with existing organizations but looking for its own niches.”

The REV Center was originally founded in January of 2020 by EOU and Wallowa Resources as an innovative new hub for connecting local and regional communities with the university, especially where businesses, agencies, and local governments need interns for a variety of projects. “The REV is the junction box that helps connect EOU to the communities we serve,” said Tim Seydel, Vice President for University Advancement. “The REV is a very unique, mission-driven project you don’t see in a lot of other areas. There are so many community needs throughout the region we can be responsive to and provide real-world learning opportunities for students, while truly helping our communities.”

While many might associate the REV with natural resources and land use projects, its capacity and reach spans into all areas of focus, including education and even performing arts. “We want to tap into all of the great resources we have on campus,” Seydel said. “On the list of current projects is arts and humanities connected with the theater department. There is a group of people exploring the urban-rural divide and are turning this into a first-person theater production. We’re primarily focused on eastern Oregon, but the types of projects we have the capacity for spans across many fields and industries.”

This is an important tool, as it serves many different people in a multitude of ways. It provides students the opportunity to work on, learn from, and provide input on real-world issues, projects, and agencies. It’s a hands-on approach to education. It provides faculty and staff the chance to interact and engage with the communities and region to help revitalize and keep rural Oregon vibrant. It’s a continued application of research and methodologies. It’s a fresh set of eyes and renewed enthusiasm for the community organizations and agencies on their own projects. It’s unique, but personalized and data-driven answers to real questions and programming.

“Our aim is to promote prosperity and resilience in rural communities and we’re doing this by providing students with experiential learning opportunities,” Seydel commented. “We’re enhancing the vitality of the region by developing tomorrow’s rural workforce and leaders. And we’re doing this by engaging our faculty and students in this work through projects supporting economic development, land use and regional planning, arts and culture, and educational strategies for youth in partnership with other businesses, organizations, and agency. Exactly like a junction box.”

Communities served by REV

Three EOU faculty sat down together to discuss and share their unique perspectives about the REV and its multi-faceted impacts on students’ experiences, on their own work, and on the communities these projects serve.

Why is the REV advantageous to EOU and the communities served?

Peter Maille:  Anything that can link EOU to the region is a good thing; universities who work with and for their communities do better.  It’s everything from an internship program to allowing teachers to be out there serving the communities.  Faculty oversee and work on projects, serving as a resource as well.  We truly understand and are in-tune with the needs of the region because we live this every day.  We can take our expertise and leverage that for the local communities, agencies, and resources for maximum use.  We are stewards of the agencies and resources, and we’re stewards of the university.  We can take our students and go out there and make good things happen for the community. 

Daniel Costie:  It’s offering the opportunity to counter the narrative that degrees don’t do anything for the towns.  What’s being learned and taught at EOU has practical applications for the city, county, and region.

Scott McConnell:  There is expertise in your backyard to tap into.  There isn’t need to outsource to agencies outside of the region where an underlying understanding of actual community needs may not exist.  We can provide local expertise.  There’s huge potential to really grow and further provide the resources for different agencies and organizations and to serve the needs of the community.

What has been your favorite experience thus far with the REV?

DC:  I’m fascinated by how people come together to solve problems.  I’m still learning about rural spaces and how that happens and have found it takes a lot more ‘of the village’ to align for these projects to come together.  Working with so many levels of government, especially with the BIC, I’m seeing these in action.  It’s making me a better teacher.  It’s making me approach my research in a way to affect real change.  The public engagement sessions I’ve facilitated are the most enjoyable interactions I’ve had because of REV.  I get to see so many parts of this region I hadn’t yet seen before.  I have met so many people I may not have had the opportunity to meet prior.   

PM:  The best thing I’ve worked on through the REV was with the socioeconomic study to help advise the forest management plan.  I haven’t had a chance to do a project of that scale since my Ph.D. research, from start to finish.  What an accomplishment and I loved it.  It was such a fun, challenging project and the opportunity to collaborate with so many stakeholders was incredible.  That’s why I live here: for those relationships and those opportunities.

What makes the REV unique for EOU students?

SM:  The experience is real.  It’s real resume-building material.  You’re sitting in on these meetings with the highest levels of officials, how many other students can say they do this?  It’s a great EOU experience because you’re engaging with eastern Oregon, with the movers, shakers, and decision makers.  No matter what you’re doing, you’re learning so much, things you might not even realize you’re learning.  There is so much to take away from all of these opportunities.  Just getting to be there, absorb the conversations, maybe offer an opinion.  Realizing ‘this is what this world looks like’.

DC:  If you want to do mission-driven work and change your community, and if you really want to have influence, these are true opportunities to do so.  There are projects where we’re offering data-driven recommendations to help inform these agencies and the students’ work is informing real-world decisions.  This may be the best way to ‘grow a great society by planting the tree you won’t take shade under,’ to quote the proverb.  This is where EOU, its students, its faculty, its community partners, truly make a difference.