Many rural development graduate students have worked for years in rural development contexts. For others, the program may be some of their first encounters with the principles and practices of rural and community development. In either case, when rural development M.A. students graduate from the program they formally enter the role of rural development practitioner. Since 2022 the rural development master’s program has included a capstone course where both research and non-research pathway students review key concepts from the core courses in the M.A. program and develop a graduate portfolio illustrating their application in rural development contexts. A key part of the course is creating a synthesizing paper or video that connects the key concepts of rural development with their work and lives, develops a model for rural development practice, and examines how they might apply this model to their future work.
The design of this course is intended to function as a review and synthesis of rural development key concepts, but it is also designed to embrace students unique perspectives and strengths, especially around how knowledge is created and shared. For that reason, students are allowed to choose how they present their knowledge and experience – through websites, traditional papers, videos, or other formats. Every year we discover new creative opportunities and new challenges. This year, with their permission, we are highlighting the work of some of our RD MA graduates.