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Monmouth College's educational studies program received a major boost to help prepare teachers for rural communities. Several federal grants were secured for communities in the area and Monmouth College was the recipient of $750,000 for their education effort. The grant will support the Monmouth Rural Education Initiatives program, which aims to address teacher shortages in rural communities, increase the representation of teachers of color and encourage more student-community engagement. "This exceptional grant recognizes and advances Monmouth College's role as a force for good in our immediate community and in communities across Illinois," said Monmouth President Clarence R. Wyatt. "I am proud of the work being led by our educational studies faculty members and their students. I am especially grateful to Congresswoman Cheri Bustos for her great efforts in securing this grant and for her strong partnership with Monmouth College." Since its inception in 2019, the Monmouth Rural Education Initiatives program has worked with more than 150 students at the liberal arts college, three dozen of which went on to become teachers in the region. The program has also worked with more than 600 Warren County school children through involvement with various programs, including the College's Educational Farm & Garden. The Monmouth Rural Education Initiatives has three components -- the TARTANS Rural Teacher Corps; place-based teaching sites that provide classrooms where students focus on their local place through project-based inquiry learning; and the Monmouth Educational Farm & Garden, which provides living resources that enrich hands-on education about agriculture, sustainability and nutrition. In its less than five years of work, "it's been pretty extraordinary to see how the Monmouth Rural Education Initiatives program has helped bring forth transformative opportunities in our region, thanks to working together with a diverse group of organizations and people," said Jennifer Dickens, the program's director of partnerships and initiatives. "The Monmouth Rural Education Initiatives program has mobilized what's already good in the region and it has introduced crucial opportunities to strengthen it," said Dickens. The federal funds came from U.S. Representative Cheri Bustos, who secured the money through the federal Community Project Funding program before leaving Congress.