Rural Transformational Service Activities with Pre-K-12 Teachers

. North Carolina has 100 counties out of which 80 are considered rural with a limited talent pool of highly competent, caring and capable Pre-K-12 teachers working in diverse and remote school locations. Higher education programs are engaging in more community partnerships to augment this teacher shortage. Several teacher education programs across NC are designing service-learning engagement approaches and experiential activities by preparing pre-service teacher candidates for employment opportunities in rural and underserved communities. The purpose of this presentation will provide a research model with supportive data over two years using an immersion service-learning approach in designing a model with vignettes, interns-site partners action plans, journal writings, and interactive artifacts to showcase the significant role of higher education programs in combating Pre-K-12 teacher shortage in rural and underserved communities in NC. The underlying rationale of this project and presentation is to improve the teacher shortage in rural and underserved communities and the vital role that higher education programs play to prepare pre-service teacher candidates for employment opportunities in rural and underserved public or private schools, community agencies or organizations.