Duke Joins National Network Promoting Higher Ed in Overlooked Rural Areas
Duke is expanding its outreach to potential students in rural areas by joining a nascent 32-school network formed last year to bring awareness about opportunities to attend U.S. colleges and universities. The move adds to Duke’s ongoing efforts to reach underrepresented student groups, such as the College Advising Corps, which Duke joined in 2014, and the Carolinas Initiative announced in 2023. Now, Duke has joined STARS College Network. The organization launched in 2023 and has doubled its members this year to include major public universities, smaller private schools, HBCUs and Ivy League universities. The organization says the network has already reached more than a quarter-million students with information about higher ed opportunities.
“One of the strengths of this program is that it's both public and private universities. It's a wide range of institutions, and that speaks volumes of the nature of the effort, and how it's less about the particular colleges and more about making sure that students know about opportunities that they might not have been exposed to.”
--Christoph Guttentag, Dean of Undergraduate Admission
