--- title: How Oregon Students Are Bridging the Rural and Urban Divide description: The Urban-Rural Ambassadors Institute in Oregon is bringing students together to learn and reflect on the rural and urban divide. canonical: https://time.com/collections/apart-not-alone/5809203/bridging-rural-urban-divide/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-03-26T10:30:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:38:12.888Z og:title: How Students in Oregon Are Bridging the Rural and Urban Divide og:description: The Urban-Rural Ambassadors Institute launched in 2018 og:url: https://time.com/collections/apart-not-alone/5809203/bridging-rural-urban-divide/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: How Students in Oregon Are Bridging the Rural and Urban Divide og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Students in Oregon Are Bridging the Rural and Urban Divide twitter:description: The Urban-Rural Ambassadors Institute launched in 2018 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- Mar 26, 2020 # How Students in Oregon Are Bridging the Rural and Urban Divide > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Amanda Courtois grew up in Weiser, Idaho, a town of around 5,000 people, and studies ecological biology at Eastern Oregon University. Scotty Johnson grew up in Portland, Ore., and studies community development with a minor in conflict resolution at Portland State University. But in 2018, they spent 10 days trying to get to know each other’s worlds. “The urban and rural divide does exist,” Courtois tells TIME. “You think of somebody living in a city as, you know, someone other.” Courtois and Johnson participated in the Urban-Rural Ambassadors Institute, which connects students from Portland State University and Eastern Oregon University in an effort to bridge the [urban-rural divide.](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/upshot/america-political-divide-urban-rural.html) The program launched in 2018 and is now in its third year. Roughly 20 students participate every summer, spending five days in Portland and five days in more rural La Grande, Ore., as they learn about and reflect upon the major issues facing both communities. The program exposes students to new environments: Courtois learned about [gentrification](https://time.com/tag/gentrification/); Johnson learned about efforts to revive the state’s salmon population. But Johnson says that “at the end of the day, people’s everyday life was pretty much the same. Worrying about paying rent. Making sure you got food on the table and clean clothes to wear.” “Every good person in the world wants to leave behind a better world than they found,” Courtois adds. “And you just have to figure out how you are meant to do that, whether you’re in an urban setting or a rural setting.” **Write to** Madeleine Carlisle at [madeleine.carlisle@time.com](mailto:madeleine.carlisle@time.com?subject=%28READER%20FEEDBACK%29%20How%20Students%20in%20Oregon%20Are%20Bridging%20the%20Rural%20and%20Urban%20Divide&body=https%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2Fcollection-post%2F5809203%2Fbridging-rural-urban-divide%2F). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/apart-not-alone/5809203/bridging-rural-urban-divide/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/apart-not-alone/5809203/bridging-rural-urban-divide/"},"headline":"How Students in Oregon Are Bridging the Rural and Urban Divide","datePublished":"2020-03-26T10:30:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:38:12.888Z","description":"The Urban-Rural Ambassadors Institute in Oregon is bringing students together to learn and reflect on the rural and urban divide.","url":"https://time.com/collections/apart-not-alone/5809203/bridging-rural-urban-divide/","keywords":["UnitedWeRise20"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/apart-not-alone/5809203/bridging-rural-urban-divide/","name":"How Students in Oregon Are Bridging the Rural and Urban Divide"}}]}] ```