Narratives like the one below drives North State Together to continue to do what we do! Our mission is to increase community vitality by increasing educational access and success in the North State through local solutions within a regional support framework. At the heart of North State Together are our county networks such as Cradle to Careers for Siskiyou (C2C4S). C2C4S is a collective impact collaboration between educational partners, family support community organizations, workforce development, indigenous tribes and county government agencies engaged in, or supportive of, the education and well-being of children, youth, and adults in Siskiyou County! This article by Nick Fouriezos is a good read highlighting the rural challenges of living in the Far North region of California.

Rural Imposter Syndrome in Weed, CA

Nick Fouriezos, an Open Campus national reporter, featured Siskiyou County in Mile Markers, a bimonthly newsletter about rural higher education. Open Campus is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to investigating and elevating higher education.

Growing up in the ski resort town of Mount Shasta, a town of a few thousand people at the merging point of State Highway 89 and I-5, Miranda Connelly is well aware of the paradoxes of life in rural Northern California.

Drive 15 minutes east, and you find yourself in an upscale neighborhood with a luxe golf course and the country club crowd to accompany it. Drive 15 minutes north, and you reach the rolling farms of Weed, where, of course, you can buy a t-shirt of Snoop Dogg declaring “I ❤️ Weed (California).” In between those extremes, there were other polarities more troubling to her. She saw incredible wealth all around her, and yet, tremendous poverty was just a short drive away as well. “I grew up with both the peace-loving hippies, the really conservative folks, and there’s really nobody in between it seems,” she says.

Despite the paradoxes around her, one constant in her upbringing was education. Her mother was a humanities professor at the College of the Siskiyous, a two-year institution in Weed. Connelly earned her associates degree from College of the Siskiyous and transferred to Cal Poly Humboldt four hours away. There was never a question she would go to college. But as she got older, she realized college was a rarity for many of her peers. 

Just about 21% of Siskiyou County’s adults over 25 have a bachelor’s degree, significantly below California’s 35% average. Despite two local scholarships available to cover gaps in federal and state aid, a number of her peers were convinced they couldn’t afford college, and chose to pass on even trying. “For so many years, they had it pounded into their heads that it wasn’t feasible,” Connelly says. “It’s not a blatant thing. It’s mostly parents just saying they can’t afford to send them to college. It’s an unwritten thing. But it adds barriers.”

Connelly, who now works as an academic mentor to first-generation students, notes that many rural students are the first in their families to go to college. They don’t always know how the system works. For example, Connelly once congratulated a mentee for needing just a few more courses to graduate with their associate’s degree. Then, she realized the student had thought it was a four-year program.

“If you don’t know, you haven’t seen the college experience explicitly like that, you feel very judged … and maybe too vulnerable to even ask a question about something like that,” she says.

“North State Together is excited to engage with The GRAD Partnership for Student Success, and fully align its mission to improve the success of both students and educators.” - Susan Schroth, Director of GRAD Partnership for  Northern California Regional Hub

In partnership with Rural Schools Collaborative, North State Together has launched a pilot network of 10 participating rural schools in from our 10-county Far North region with the goal to establish innovative and research-based student success systems to keep their students on track for graduation. Read about their recent visits to two of the ten high schools located in Shasta County - Fall River High School and Burney Jr/Sr High School and see the great work that's being done!

Check out our latest regional data dashboard developed by James Crandall, Director of Technology & Data Strategies for North State Together. These tables present information on UC Applicants, Admits, and Enrollees for the ten-county North State Together region. Freshman applicant counts are presented for fall and transfer counts are presented for the full academic year. Use the tabs at the top to step through the available dashboards. You can filter and download the data as needed. Below is a static example of the type of data that can be found, filtered, and downloaded on the new interactive data dashboard below.

North State Together and Shasta College are excited about the new UC Davis AvenueM program! Our K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant has allowed us to develop and focus our efforts toward the development of healthcare pathways. We see the AvenueM program as being a strategic opportunity to partner and provide even greater opportunity for our region. AvenueM will be sharing highlights pertinent to the North State as well as ways we can continue to expose our local institutions to the AvenueM pathway at our upcoming North State Together Regional Summit.

AvenueM is a community college to medical school pathway program that aims to reduce barriers to entry to medical and other healthcare careers. UC Davis School of Medicine will partner with three 4-year institutions – UC Davis, California State University (CSU), Sacramento, and Cal Poly Humboldt – and a network of community colleges feeding into them, to establish this robust educational ecosystem. Learn more about AvenueM.

APPLICATIONS are still being accepted for the Spring cycle through March 31, 2023. You can also reach them via email at avenuem@ucdavis.edu if you have any questions. 

If you are early in your community college career or are in high school, you are encouraged to complete the Interest Form. Please click the link below to get more info on how to submit your application.

North State Together is all about supporting equitable pathways from high school to postsecondary education and into the workforce. We leverage the Regional K-16 Education Collaborative to create occupational pathways that include accelerated degree/credential programs and work-based learning opportunities not only in healthcare, but also in education within its 10-county network. Take advantage of the amazing opportunity Western Governors University has provided for paraprofessionals who are seeking a career in teaching!

Scholarships are one of the many ways in which WGU removes obstacles from your path to achieving education goals and improving career opportunities. It's part of their investment in the future of their students!

Paraprofessionals are dedicated individuals who support teachers in the classroom and help students learn. These educators are vital in ensuring students get the help they need, and teachers have additional resources to succeed. 

As we recognize the impact that paraprofessionals have on their students, WGU is pleased to announce the Education Support Professionals Scholarship (worth up to $5,000) that can be applied toward any of WGU’s Teachers College degree programs leading to teacher licensure. Take the first step and apply to WGU!

North State Together is proud to be a StriveTogether network member. We are using StriveTogether’s proven Theory of Action framework to focus on ensuring effective communication with our county network partners and the community, using data to drive decision making, engaging partners and practitioners to improve county-level outcomes, and mobilizing resources to remove financial, operational and political barriers to impact equitable outcome improvement. As StriveTogether network members, our regional backbone team and our ten-county networks have access to the upcoming free learning opportunities. Check them out!

Take Advantage of the Mini-Courses Offered by

Leading Change in Systems -- Cohort 3

How can I strengthen my leadership skills to impact systems? This course builds foundational skills for leaders to enable collaborative systems change. Leaders will ground in key racial equity & systems-thinking concepts and build awareness around their role and how they can influence change.

Who should participate: Executive Directors

Theory of Action Pillar Addressed: Collaborative Action

This course has three sessions:

• Session 1: Tuesday, April 11, 2023 | 9:00 am–11:00 am
• Session 2: Tuesday, April 18, 2023 | 9:00 am–11:00 am
• Session 3: Tuesday, April 25, 2023 | 9:00 am–11:00 am

Planning for Actionable Systems Change -- Cohort 2

How do I create an equitable collaborative plan to change systems? This mini course provides an overview of Collaborative Improvement– a methodology for equitably improving conditions in your community using the Results Count methodology, continuous improvement principles, human-centered design process with an explicit focus on equity. Join this 3-session mini course to build your awareness and understanding of core collaborative improvement techniques.

When: This mini course consists of 3, virtual 90-min practice sessions. Each session requires 30-40 min of course work to prepare for each practice sessions.

• Session 1: Wednesday, April 12 from 10:00 am – 11:30 am
• Session 2: Wednesday, April 26 from 10:00 am – 11:30 am
• Session 3: Wednesday, May 10 from 10:00 am – 11:30 am

Declaring Your Backbone's Value -- Cohort 2

Are your partners and funders buying what you’re selling? This course will help you use a lens of equity to effectively codify, communicate, and sustain your efforts for the ‘change’ your Backbone wants to be and illustrate to others why investing time and money in your organization adds unique value to changing systems and achieving outcomes. This second cohort will meet in April on Mondays.

This course has three sessions:

• Session 1: Monday, April 20, 2023 | 9:00 am–10:30 am
• Session 2: Monday, April 27, 2023 | 9:00 am–10:30 am
• Session 3: Monday, May 4, 2023 | 9:00 am–10:30 am

Facilitating for Collaborative Work -- Cohort 3

How do I facilitate meetings to advance my partnership’s work? Results-Based Facilitation (RBF) is an approach to designing, participating in and facilitating collaborative meetings that supports systems-focused, community-wide work by helping groups move from talk to action.

Join these sessions to learn foundational RBF skills and techniques.

(Note: This is an introduction to RBF basics and is not a complete RBF 101 training.)

When: This mini course consists of 3, virtual 2-hour practice sessions. Each session requires 30-40 min of course work to prepare for each practice sessions.

• SESSION 1: Monday, May 1 from 10:00 am -12:00 pm
• SESSION 2: Monday, May 8 from 10:00 am -12:00 pm
• SESSION 3: Monday, May 15 from 10:00 am -12:00 pm

North State Together to Present

at Upcoming Rural Summit in NC!

Last year in April, NST attended the 2022 Rural College Access and Success Summit hosted by partners for Rural Impact. This year North State Together is proud to present at the 2023 Rural Summit: Cradle to Career, April 3-4, in Charlotte, NC, and share Reach Higher Shasta's exciting work and best practices at a couple of their breakout sessions entitled:

1. Leveling Up Your Collaboration with Colleges to Boost Postsecondary Enrollment Success: How to Improve Postsecondary Enrollment Rates Through Data Sharing Agreements

2. Community Connect: Linking Students and Their Families to Community-Based Services

REGISTER NOW for the 2023 Rural Summit: Cradle to Career!

Breakout Session Preview

North State Together is a regional network of cross-sector partners who have come together to strengthen educational outcomes from cradle to career for ALL in far Northern California. 

Our Vision

A thriving North State built on the educational success of every child from cradle to career.

Our Mission

To increase community vitality by increasing educational access and success in the North State through local solutions within a regional support framework.

Our Values

We are community, data, equity, and relationship driven.