$20 Million Gift Launches 16-College Network To Boost Enrollments From Rural America

Sixteen of the nation’s leading colleges and universities are teaming up in a new effort to help students from small-town communities and rural America enroll in and graduate from college.

The STARS College Network (Small-Town And Rural Students) is supported by a $20 million investment from Trott Family Philanthropies, the foundation of Byron and Tina Trott. Its aim is to boost participation in postsecondary education by the 9.7 million high school students who live in rural America. According to the STARS website, only 29% of 19-to-24-year-olds from rural areas are enrolled in college, compared to 42% of students from metro areas.

The network includes Brown University, California Institute of Technology, Case Western Reserve University, Colby College, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, The Ohio State University, University of Chicago, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Yale University.

With the support through STARS, member institutions will redouble their efforts to enroll more students from rural areas through a combination of summer pipeline programs, college application workshops, on-campus recruiting visits, expanded outreach by college admissions staff, and assistance in applying for financial aid and scholarships. All of the programming is free to students who register with STARS.

Byron D. Trott is Chairman and Co-CEO of BDT & MSD Partners, which he started in 2009 after nearly 30 years at Goldman Sachs, rising through the ranks there to eventually become vice chairman of investment banking. Forbes pegs his net worth at $2.5 billion.

Trott was inspired by how college transformed his own life, which began in small-town Union, Missouri and included earning undergraduate and MBA degrees at the University of Chicago.

“There is a massive talent pool in our small towns and rural communities that has so much to offer — to our colleges, to society and to future generations,” Trott said. “These small communities simply don’t have the resources to help show these students what is possible and help them get there. Collaborative partnerships like STARS and rootEd not only help to turn the tide — they have a multiplier effect that can catalyze far greater change than any single institution or agency could make on its own.”

With the launch of STARS, Trott-affiliated philanthropies have now invested more than $50 million in programs to support students from small towns and rural communities. Those efforts include the rootEd Alliance, founded in 2018, which has teamed up with other philanthropies and the states of Missouri, Texas, Tennessee and Idaho to train and place college counselors in local high schools that did not previously offer that service to students.