Hey there, Rural Rams...

Welcome to our final edition of the Rural Rams Roundup for the 2024/25 academic year! We have had so much fun creating this newsletter, we hope you have enjoyed reading it this spring. 

Speaking of spring, we had AMAZING weather for our team participation in the Out of the Darkness walk to support suicide awareness. It was wonderful to spend time in community for such an important cause. A big thank you to those of you who were able to come out. 

Fingers are crossed for similarly beautiful weather for our year end celebraiton in Monroe Park. On April 17th at 2pm bring a blanket/towel and your ice coffee and/or favorite snack and meet by the fountain! This will be a casual celebration of the Rural Rams community we created this year, and might even be your last opportunity to snag a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie :) 

Rural Rams Year End CELEBRATION! 

EVENT Rural Rams Picnic in Monroe Park Thursday, April 17 2:00pm - 3:30pm Private Location (sign in to display) Link Add to Google Cal,Outlook,Yahoo,iCal Picnic Social in Monroe Park! Rural Rams will be meeting up at 2pm by the fountain in Monroe Park. A casual opportunity to bring your own treat and socialize in the park with other rural folks/rural supporters at VCU! RSVP Weather looks like it will be awesome- hope to see you there!

Looking for Some New Productivity Tools for the Home Stretch of the Semester?

• Pomofocus.io – A clean, customizable Pomodoro timer.

• Coffitivity – Recreates the ambient noise of a café to help you focus.

• A Soft Murmur – Customizable background noise generator for focus or relaxation.

• Habitica – Turns your to-do list into an RPG game.

Rural Faculty/Staff Spotlight: Megan Holt-Smith 

Hi everyone, 

My name is Megan Holt-Smith, and I am an Academic Coach with our VCU Campus Learning Center (CLC). Hailing from Surry County, NC, and with connections to Patrick County, VA via my parents, I have a strong appreciation for our rural communities– especially those in Appalachia. If you use the word “y'all” routinely, you are my kind of people :)

Growing up in a rural community taught me the value of community and connecting with the people around you. At home in NC, I was fortunate to have family members, friends and mentors at school, and fellow church members in my support network. Within my community, support felt organic and like a natural ebb and flow. Many times I would see this happen through acts of kindness. For example, when I needed a formal dress for an upcoming school event, a friend of mine at church let me borrow one of hers. In return, my mom and I did some seamstress work for that friend’s family. 

Money wasn’t always used as the main form of currency in this ebb and flow of support. Quite often, acts of service were used in place of a rigid dollar amount: Cooking an extra meal for someone who has been sick, giving your elderly neighbor a ride to the grocery store, etc. That effort would find its way back to you sometimes in the form of a homemade treat in a Wal-Mart bag, placed with care on your front door knob while you were away. 

Seeking out forms of community in the various places I have lived has proven to be a bit more challenging, but it is something I still find to be important. I have had the utmost privilege of attending college in the mountains of NC, traveling internationally to extend my studies, and living in a different state. In all of these places, I have made it a priority to connect with those around me to establish a local support network, while trying to simultaneously keep in touch with my community back home. 

The types of currency I use nowadays to provide community support look a little different – sharing my lived experiences as a first-gen student and a person with a disability, and trying to serve as a resource for others  – but the overall goal is still the same. At the end of the day, we all can greatly benefit from being part of a supportive community. That ebb and flow of learning from and helping one another ensures that we all make progress. This is a mindset that was ingrained in me early on, and it’s one that I will continue to take with me throughout life.

VCU Events that Caught our Eye: