By Nicole Li
Yale University
The Rural Youth Voices Initiative seeks to empower rural youth to better serve their communities, reshape dominant narratives about rural engagement, and encourage rural-serving organizations to center youth voices. Twelve Fellows from across the United States received $500 and support from Campus Compact to support a narrative change or civic engagement project in their community.
When I joined the Rural Youth Voices Initiative, I saw it as a chance to reflect on my work with Collierville Community Justice (CCJ) and to contribute to the elevation of rural youth in civic life. Founded in 2020, CCJ is a grassroots coalition of residents working to advance racial and economic justice in Collierville, a semi-rural town on the Tennessee-Mississippi border. As CCJ’s lead youth organizer, I have focused on bridging local youth and local history, especially minority histories that have long been excluded from mainstream narratives. By grounding civic learning in community storytelling, I aim to help rural youth see themselves as inheritors and shapers of the rural South.
One of the most meaningful parts of this work has been creating space for high school students to participate in CCJ’s Southside Oral History Project. Students interview elders about their experiences in historically Black neighborhoods—stories of resilience, community-building, and the ways Collierville has changed over time. Recorded in living rooms with two generations seated face-to-face, the interviews are deeply personal and grounding. Elders shared vivid memories of church life, attending segregated schools, and participating in civil rights protests in Collierville’s Town Square. Watching students absorb these accounts directly from the people who lived them affirmed for me how transformational intergenerational dialogue can be. Many students walked in unsure of what they’ll hear, but they left with a clearer understanding of their town and a stronger sense of responsibility for its future.
This commitment to elevating minority history also guided our work on CCJ’s “Writing Alcorn Village” exhibit at the Collierville Morton Museum. Students attended the opening reception, asked questions, listened to long-time residents, and later created an infographic highlighting the exhibit’s themes. Their presence underscored that in a town where Black history has long been sidelined or sanitized, youth are now helping shape the public memory of place. Preservation became not just an act of looking back, but a statement about who gets to participate in telling the story of the rural South.
Another highlight was our visit to the Isaac Chapel Rosenwald School in Byhalia, Mississippi. Before this field trip, none of the students had stepped inside a Rosenwald school or understood the profound impact these institutions had on Black education in the rural South. Touring the building and hearing elders describe its legacy helped students grasp the significance of rural history in a more tangible way. As they studied the old chalkboards and framed portraits of former teachers and school administrators, the students began to see how rural communities across the South are connected through shared experiences, struggles, and traditions of resilience.
These experiences made my participation in the Rural Youth Voices Initiative especially meaningful. The fellowship pushed me to reflect on how rural youth define civic engagement and how their voices can reshape dominant narratives about rural America. For our students, civic engagement looks like uplifting marginalized histories, asking critical questions about their town’s past, and envisioning more equitable futures. Working with CCJ has shown me that rural youth have tremendous potential to lead civic movements and are already doing so on the local level. Our responsibility, as organizers, educators, and institutions, is to keep opening doors, providing resources, and creating spaces where young people can shape the narratives that define the places they call home.