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Department Overview:
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The College for Rural Wisconsin Program through UW-Madison’s Division of Enrollment Management works to increase college access by rural, farm, and small-town students in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The program aims to address the barriers and challenges rural, small-town, and farm students face in pursuing higher education at a 2-year, 4-year, public or private institution. The program is part of the nationwide Small Town and Rural Students (STARS) College Network.
The Rural Peer Advisor position is a paid opportunity to support the outreach and educational efforts of the College for Rural Wisconsin Program and STARS College Network.
This position is supervised by the College for Rural Wisconsin (CRW) Program Director. This is not a recruiter position.
Think of this position as a combination of college admission counselor, youth career counselor, and campus student services coordinator! |
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Anticipated Start Date:
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October 12, 2026 |
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Anticipated End Date (If Applicable):
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This position is renewable as long as you continue to be an enrolled college student, you maintain good academic and conduct standing as stated above, and you perform your work successfully. |
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Remote Work Eligibility Detail:
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All Remote
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Anticipated Hours Per Week:
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Minimum: 2 Maximum: 20 |
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Schedule:
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Advisors can create a work schedule that helps balance academics, work, and family commitments. Past Advisors have worked as low as 84 hours and as high as 200 hours in an academic year. Expect to work evenings and weekends.
Most of the work is expected to be during the academic year (September through May); however, there is an opportunity for work during the summer months.
There are no set hours for work as much of the work can be done on your own schedule; however, due to school calendars and class schedules, many of our events and activities happen during the day and some evenings. Also plan for some weekends.
This position is renewable as long as you continue to be an enrolled college student, you maintain good academic and conduct standing as stated above, and you perform your work successfully. |
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Salary/Wage Range/Lump Sum:
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Minimum: $15.00 |
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Number of Positions:
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4-6 |
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Qualifications:
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• An enrolled college or university student in the Class of 2027, 2028, 2029, or 2030 for the fall 2026 semester.
• Must be from a rural area, small town, or a farm in Wisconsin. You can look up your home address in this tool: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/maped/LocaleLookup/ We are prioritizing students from the following categories: Rural-Remote, Rural-Distant, Rural-Fringe, Town-Remote, and Town-Distant.
• Be in good academic and conduct standing for the 2026 summer, fall, and 2027 spring semesters.
• Maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.6 or higher and a semester GPA of 2.6 or higher during semesters employed. If you are a freshman, you won't have a GPA yet and that's fine, there will just be an expectation to meet the requirements at the end of your first semester. Applicants who have under a 2.6 cumulative GPA may still apply; however, we will want to have a conversation to ensure you're able to balance being a student and being employed.
• Most events are in-person in rural and small-town communities across the state. Specific dates aren’t available at this time, but we will provide dates as early as possible. The director will work with the team to determine availability. You are not expected to attend all events; however, the goal is to have at least two advisors at each event.
This position can be located anywhere in Wisconsin. Team meetings and most work can be done remotely.
Travel is required for in-person programs and events. Advisors are not required to have access to a car as transportation will be provided if needed. |
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Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:
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• Interest in changing the lives of rural high school students!
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills.
• Strong time management and organizational skills.
• Able to travel (transportation can be provided) to off-campus locations. (Most events are in-person in rural and small-town communities across the state. Specific dates aren’t available at this time, but we will provide dates as early as possible. You are not expected to attend all events; however, the goal is to have at least two advisors at each event.)
College for Rural Wisconsin is looking for students who are interested in mentoring, supporting, and educating rural students, families, school staff, and communities about the college-going process. The Rural Peer Advisor position is primarily remote work, with some travel to in-person events (around Wisconsin).
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Position Summary/Job Duties:
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The Rural Peer Advisor position has two main responsibilities:
Peer Educator
Advisors create, teach, and support educational sessions and various college-access and career programs to support rural and small-town middle and high school students and their families.
Advisors are integral in assisting the director with planning, logistics, and content development of these programs. Advisors take the lead in teaching and presenting these programs to share information and their own college-going and career experiences.
Most of these sessions and events will be in-person at high schools and other locations across Wisconsin. Some events will be on college campuses. There are opportunities to be a part of activities and events reaching a national rural audience through CRW’s involvement in the STARS Network.
Peer Mentor
Advisors serve as peer mentors to individuals and groups of rural, small-town, and farm middle and high school students to provide support and information around the college-going process and career advising. Advisors will utilize their unique strengths and backgrounds to share their experiences and knowledge about college by answering questions, advising high school students, and through outreach programming.
Mentoring is done virtually and in-person through visits to high schools and other locations across Wisconsin, as well as through specific programming that we offer.
Mentoring also includes supporting current rural college students at your campus through planning and hosting events, discussing opportunities to meet rural students needs, etc.
Duties:
• Advise, answer questions, and provide resources to middle and high school students on college-going from considering higher education to planning to attend to applying to belonging in college.
• Advise, answer questions, and provide resources to middle and high school students on career options, connecting college to career, and the different pathways to a career.
• Design, develop, and teach educational sessions using own college-going experience, research, and accurate resources and information.
• Inform and contribute to the development of rural-focused college-going resources based on own experience as a rural college student and the questions and concerns received through peer-to-peer mentoring.
• Develop on-campus (your campus) programming to support rural and small-town college students with the goal of community-building, creating a sense of belonging, and student retention.
• Conduct research around rural and small-town students’ college-going needs.
• Assist the director with donor and media relations.
• Attend work-related trainings.
• Attend a short, weekly virtual team meeting with the College for Rural Wisconsin Program Director and other Rural Peer Advisors.
• Attend 1x a semester in-person team meeting (with food!) with the College for Rural Wisconsin Program Director and other Rural Peer Advisors.
The CRW Program Director works with the advisor team to highlight individual strengths and interests to align the position with the advisor’s personal and professional development goals.
The duties listed above are work that Rural Peer Advisors do; however, every Rural Peer Advisor takes a different approach to what they get involved with depending on their interests, skills, and level of time commitment. There is an expectation for you to contribute and be engaged, but you have a say in what that looks like.
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Physical Demands:
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Ability to lift up to 50 pounds.
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Institutional Statements:
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Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:
UW-Madison is an Equal Employment, Equal Access Employer committed to increasing the diversity of our workforce.
Institutional Statement on Diversity:
Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background-people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.
For more information on diversity and inclusion on campus, please visit: diversity.wisc.edu
Accommodation Statement:
If you need to request an accommodation because of a disability, you can find information about how to make a request at the following website:https://employeedisabilities.wisc.edu/disability-accommodation-information-for-applicants/
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