Durango raised me, from preschool at Needham Elementary through Durango High School graduation. I am now a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, investigating potential treatments to repair the brain after stroke. The Trump administration is jeopardizing the future of rural students and communities by dismantling the same grants that allowed me to attend college and conduct research.
While my love of learning began at home, Needham’s teachers fostered it, educating through activities and field trips while promoting curiosity and resource accessibility. The annual Read-a-Thon funded my purchases at Maria’s Bookshop and facilitated opportunities to pour goop on Principal Pete Harter.
I attended Miller Middle School and DHS; in the Talent Search (one of eight Federal TRIO Programs) office at DHS, Martha Schanfarber introduced me to QuestBridge, a nonprofit connecting low-income students to full-ride scholarships.
Aided by QuestBridge, Heidi Jordan, Barbara McLachlan and many other educators, I attended the University of Chicago, fully subsidized by Pell Grants, UChicago’s Odyssey Fund and a conglomeration of other scholarships.
Entering college, I had no idea what “research” entailed, but I decided to interview for undergraduate positions. One professor noted my journalistic experience with politicians through the DHS newspaper, El Diablo, hinting at the strong tie between politics and research that, at the time, was unbeknownst to me. He gave me a chance, and I completed my honors thesis in his lab studying Alzheimer’s disease.
In 2020, I enrolled in UCLA to pursue my neuroscience doctorate. Two years into researching stroke therapeutics, I applied for and was awarded a National Institutes of Health Kirschstein National Research Service Award Fellowship Grant, which funds American science trainees. My rural upbringing and previous Pell Grant eligibility qualified me for the F31-Diversity, a predoctoral fellowship to promote diversity in health-related research.
Because of the Trump administration, the F31-Diversity opportunity no longer exists. Now, trainees from rural areas have lower chances of being awarded fellowships to support their scientific training, which will limit their career opportunities. My experiences with economic instability and the support I received from Durango community members have made me feel responsible for championing diversity in scientific research by ensuring that other rural students from low-income backgrounds can reach their full potential.
The administration is terminating grants across the board and at targeted universities. The NIH and National Science Foundation fund rural and geographically diverse institutions, but the current budget proposal would slash their funding, likely affecting education and research grants to Fort Lewis College and other rural schools. Scientists are ending projects before they reach full potential, and even clinical trials have been cut. Meanwhile, foreign countries are recruiting American scientists to conduct research abroad.
The president’s administration also seeks to eliminate TRIO programs and drastically reduce Pell Grants, which would further limit opportunities for rural and low-income students seeking higher education. Grant cuts will continue to reinstate hurdles that will lead to fewer rural students in competitive institutions and less rural representation in all sectors.
Durango raised me to succeed academically while balancing busing tables at Mama’s Boy, selling rocks and jerky in Silverton, constructing a leopard outfit for the “Safari So Good” Snowdown, volunteering at the Humane Society, and tubing down the river and camping with friends. My Durango(t)an(g) identity differentiates me from my peers in Chicago and Los Angeles, allowing us to share unique insights and become better people, better thinkers and better citizens – together.
Rural students deserve these opportunities, and rural communities deserve health, scientific and educational equity. The administration’s cuts to federal grants actively threaten these notions. We can do better. Call your representatives and support funding for scientific research and education.
Elle Rathbun is a former Durango resident and a neuroscience Ph.D. candidate at University of California, Los Angeles. She submitted this column as a part of the McClintock Letters project that has hundreds of graduate students writing to their hometown newspapers to defend funding for scientific research.
