Cassie Patterson, assistant director, Center for Folklore Studies, along with Dr. Patricia Cunningham, Ohio State’s Office of Student Life, and Krista Bryson, PhD candidate, Department of English, received a $15,000 grant from the Governor's Office of Appalachia for their project, The Appalachian Project, Ohio: How I Got to College. The project will be administered, housed, and archived by the Center for Folklore Studies.

The Appalachian Project, Ohio (AP) consists of an interdisciplinary team of faculty, staff, and students conducting fieldwork at Ohio State and in Ohio counties to learn from community members about the factors shaping the life choices of young people in the region, especially in relation to higher education. The project focuses in particular on college students from the region: how they get to college, their strategies for negotiating the college experience, and their destinations afterward.

The AP team takes a predominantly narrative approach to data collection, relying on quantitative data for supporting and complicating information.

“We believe that listening to the personal reflections of the young people and older adults affected by economic and educational challenges in the region will give us a fuller picture of the issues affecting Appalachian Ohio and lead us to new findings to assist recovery,” said Patterson.

The purpose of the AP project is to use interdisciplinary approaches to identify the factors affecting Ohio Appalachian students’ decisions and/or readiness to obtain post-secondary education understand Ohio Appalachian students’ strategies for negotiating their college experiences produce recommendations for addressing the barriers and challenges that students face, and work toward creating a sustainable educational and economic atmosphere in Appalachian Ohio create a conversation at Ohio State and beyond about the issues Ohio Appalachian students and the region face.

To date, AP project members have already collected background research on the region, conducted site visits to 10 counties, and accumulated video interviews with community members. They have presented at a conference on poverty at Ohio State and a roundtable at the annual conference of the Appalachian Studies Association in March 2013.