Rural Learners
Rural communities are at the heart of Mississippi, yet learners in these areas often face extra barriers to postsecondary education. WHEF is committed to ensuring those barriers don’t define their future.
More than half of Mississippians live in rural areas. For many, the path to and through college is shaped by long travel distances, limited broadband access, and fewer nearby support services. These challenges can make higher education harder to reach and complete, even for highly motivated students.
WHEF invests in programs, partnerships, and policies that expand access for rural learners. Through Get2College and our grantmaking program, we provide college counseling and advising, as well as financial aid support, which includes assistance with the FAFSA, ACT preparation, and other resources, in schools and communities across the state. We also partner with other organizations, such as Global Teaching Project, to strengthen advising, peer tutoring, and academic coaching in rural regions, ensuring students outside major population centers have the same opportunities to succeed.
Mobile College Access and Planning Center
In 2024, Get2College launched its Mobile College Access and Planning Center, a 17-foot mobile unit designed to bring free college and career support directly into rural and underserved communities across Mississippi. The initiative was funded in part by support from the Walton Family Foundation and Entergy Mississippi, and unveiled with the help of local partners such as the City of Greenville and Mississippi Delta Community College.
Initially, the mobile center will serve Carroll, Holmes, Tallahatchie, Coahoma, Tunica, and Quitman counties—places where postsecondary attainment ranges from just 21% to 33%, significantly lower than the statewide average of 48.7%.
The unit is staffed by two full-time Get2College counselors and equipped with private counseling space, Wi-Fi, modern technology, and resources to provide financial aid guidance, which includes FAFSA assistance, ACT prep, college applications, and one-on-one advising.
Global Teaching Project
As part of its commitment to Ascent to 55%, WHEF awarded grant support in 2021 to the Global Teaching Project (GTP), a nonprofit that brings Advanced Placement (AP) STEM courses to rural and high-poverty high schools that otherwise would not have the capacity to offer them.
GTP launched its Mississippi program in 2017. That year, 1.5 million AP math and science exams were administered nationally—but in Mississippi, only 4,000. The issue wasn’t a shortage of bright students eager for the challenge. It was a shortage of certified teachers qualified to instruct them.
GTP stepped in to fill that gap, offering live and online AP courses taught by outstanding instructors, including college professors. WHEF’s support is helping GTP expand its reach, including the addition of seven high schools in Washington and LeFlore counties.
Today, 33 high schools across Mississippi participate, giving motivated students access to AP Physics, AP Computer Science, and other rigorous coursework that can earn them college credit while still in high school. The WHEF grant is also supporting GTP’s work to expand teacher training, technology resources, and student tutoring networks—closing gaps in advanced coursework and strengthening the pipeline of students prepared for college success.
By enabling students to take on challenging AP courses, GTP is not only expanding opportunity in underserved schools but also advancing the state toward its attainment goal. Every student who succeeds in these courses represents a step toward higher enrollment, persistence, and completion—key drivers of the Ascent to 55% vision.