Meeting Rural Students Where They Are: RVU’s Rural Roots Program
By: Jessica Craig, OMS-II and Allie Hernandez, OMS-II (RVU Rural Roots)
As an institution dedicated to serving rural and underserved communities, Rocky Vista University is proud to highlight the student-led initiatives making that mission tangible. This post discusses Rural Roots with leaders Jessica Craig and Allie Hernandez, who explain how their program is opening doors for rural high school students across Colorado.
Breaking Down Barriers
Growing up in a rural area, Jessica had a narrow picture of what a healthcare career could look like: you either became a nurse or a doctor. That limited view is something we have both encountered again and again in the rural high schools we visit through Rural Roots, a program started by DO students at Rocky Vista University – Colorado (RVU-CO) in 2023 to expose rural high school students to the full spectrum of healthcare career opportunities.
Limited career awareness is just one of the barriers these students face. The cost of four-year universities, uncertainty about where to live, and limited knowledge of pathways through associate degrees and community colleges can make pursuing a healthcare career feel out of reach all add up. For Jessica, growing up in a rural community meant understanding the need for healthcare but having very little exposure to the range of careers within it. School focused on roles like physician, nurse, or EMT, and there were no career fairs or guest speakers to expand that picture. It wasn’t until college that the full breadth of healthcare careers came into view. That experience, Jessica says, is what drives her passion for Rural Roots, where she aims to broaden students’ perspectives and show them that there is a place for them in healthcare.
It’s a perspective we both share, and why we joined Rural Roots — to meet students where they are with data-backed, ongoing outreach that opens doors.
How Rural Roots Began
What started as a passion project in 2023 with just four students visiting four rural schools has grown into something we’re really proud of. Today, our team of eight RVU students visits 10 rural high schools twice per semester. For the first two years, students self-funded all of the outreach because the group wasn’t yet a registered student club. Rural Roots has since partnered with Peds Club for partial funding for their end-of-year event and is working towards becoming an official student organization by Fall 2026.
As Allie puts it, becoming an official RVU student organization would open many doors for the program, enhancing our ability to grow through funding and outreach, while complementing additional existing programs by offering another accessible pathway for students to explore and contribute to the future of rural medicine.
The Team
Rural Roots runs on the dedication of its student leaders. Jessica has served as School Outreach and Partnerships Lead, building and maintaining relationships with rural high schools, playing a major role in expanding the group’s reach. Allie has served as Program Operations and Funding Lead, working to secure funding and formalize Rural Roots as a registered student organization. Both of us have held these official roles since Fall 2025, though we have been part of the group since 2024.
We truly believe in this program’s mission and have put so much work into this club since we started. These official roles have allowed us to put more effort and time into growing the program: we’ve expanded our involvement from four to ten schools, established leadership positions, created a handbook, doubled our representative numbers, and produced dozens of presentations made by the team about various healthcare career topics. We hope to receive some school funding by Fall 2026 to continue our work with the rural high school students.
Looking ahead, we’re excited about the strong incoming leadership that will carry Rural Roots forward. Ashwini Bhat, OMS-I, will be stepping into Jessica’s school outreach role, and Ashlyn Churchwell, OMS-I, will be taking on program operations in Academic Year 2026-2027. Should Rural Roots become an official organization, Riley Thomas, OMS-I, will be leading the charge in developing the club internally.
Year-Round Engagement
We each commit to giving two presentations per school per semester, totaling thirty-two presentations split among eight students. While one school participates via Zoom, some in-person drives are up to two and a half hours from RVU-CO’s campus in Englewood. During the first visit, each of us presents on our own interests and a related case study. Allie, for instance, presented on careers in family medicine and their roles and responsibilities. From there, we tailor the programming to whatever the high school students tell us they’re most curious about. Throughout the year, we run pre- and post-surveys to track whether students’ interest and confidence in pursuing healthcare careers has grown.
Rural Med Day
After a full year of school visits, we wrap up the year with Rural Med Day at RVU’s Colorado Campus. It’s a full day of programming from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm, designed to give high school students a real feel for life as medical students.
The day starts with a campus tour, then heads to the Office of Simulation in Medicine and Surgery (SIMS), where students rotate through interactive stations covering everything from IV blood draws to suturing. This year, students also got to experience our VR Simulation set. During lunch, students from RVU’s Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice (DNAP) and Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) programs, as well as DO students who began their careers as nurses, shared their own career journeys. Students then toured the Anatomy lab, watched demonstrations of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM), and learned the basics of a thorough physical exam. Throughout the day, they learned about all the programs RVU offers, reinforcing just how many directions a healthcare career can take.
This year, Rural Med Day took place on April 23 with 35 students from six schools in attendance. The end-of-day surveys reflected overwhelming positive feedback, with students expressing excitement about pursuing healthcare careers and noting that the day helped ease concerns about whether they could actually do it. One student put it simply: “I feel that going to places like this pushes me more towards the career I want to be in.”
Thank Yous
This program would not be possible without the generous support of the RVU community. We would like to personally thank the SIMS department and our guest speakers: Rachelle Rogers, PA-S1; Madeline Taylor, PA-S1; Alexander Peters, CRNA Student; Shanet Kaithathara, RN, BSN, OMS-II; and Amber Galligan, RN, BSN, OMS-II. And to the members of Rural Roots — Veronica Bello Martucci, Sarah Stigberg, Sydney Mattox, Jackie Valencia, Ashwini Bhat, Marisol Burciaga, Ashlyn Churchwell, and Riley Thomas — thank you for your passion and for the effort you pour into making these experiences meaningful for students.
We’re also grateful to Malcom Anderson, DO, Assistant Dean of Clinical Education, Resources and Curriculum; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics; and Co-Director of RVU’s Rural and Wilderness Track, who has served as our faculty sponsor for various events and has been a fantastic advocate as we work toward becoming a registered student organization.
Looking Ahead
Serving rural and underserved communities is at the core of why RVU exists, and it’s a big part of why we both chose to come here. Rural Roots is our way of living out that mission as students. As Dr. Anderson, our faculty advisor, notes, “Student Doctors Allie Hernandez, Jessica Craig, and the Rural Roots Program have been instrumental in assisting high school students explore medical professions. It is one of the most significant ways that Rocky Vista University helps Colorado to ‘grow their own’ medical professionals.”
If you’re interested in learning more about how RVU supports this work, explore the Tracks and Special Programs available at RVU, including the Rural and Wilderness Medicine Track and the Urban Underserved Medicine Track.