2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipients Announced
The Rural Gone Urban Foundation is honored to announce our 2026 scholarship recipients — women whose stories reflect grit, resilience, compassion, hard work, and an unwavering commitment to building meaningful futures for themselves and the communities they call home.
Through 15 scholarships valued at $1,000 each, we are proud to invest in women who are chasing bold dreams, overcoming real obstacles and using their experiences to serve others.
Founded in the wake of an allegedly incurable medical diagnosis, the Rural Gone Urban Foundation was created with the hope of showing the next generation, beginning with founder and executive director Brooke Taylor’s daughter, that success is so much more than a GPA or résumé. It is found in work ethic, resilience, passion and the bravery it takes to pursue a life you are proud of.
“This isn’t about checking a box or rewarding perfection,” Taylor said. “It’s about recognizing women who keep showing up — who do the hard work, carry real responsibility, and still choose to build something meaningful. That’s who we’re proud to stand behind.”
Now in its fourth year, the Rural Gone Urban Foundation’s scholarship program continues to grow, drawing 204 applicants in 2026, ranging in age from 17 to 47 from 78 rural communities across the country.
“Reading through this year’s applications, it was clear these women are already doing the kind of work most people wait years to step into,” Taylor said. “They’re leading, serving, and building something meaningful in real time. It made choosing this group both challenging and incredibly rewarding.”
Scholarship Committee Chair Taylor Bowen echoed that sentiment: “These applications were filled with grit, responsibility, and a clear sense of purpose. Every woman brought something unique to the table, which made narrowing it down incredibly difficult. It’s an honor to support women who are already doing the work to build a future they believe in.”
The 2026 recipients will soon head to traditional universities, technical programs, graduate programs and community colleges, pursuing fields ranging from healthcare, education and agriculture to law, engineering, business and public service.
Meet the 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholars
A remarkable group of women whose stories remind us why investing in grit, passion, and perseverance matters.
Kristen Williams
Murray State University Honors College
Vienna, Illinois
Kristen Williams, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Kristen Williams was once nonverbal. Today she's headed to Murray State University's Honors College — and the path she took to get there is one most people couldn't imagine walking.
She's poured more than 100 hours into volunteer service and carried her community with her every step of the way. Her childhood experience with developmental delays didn't just shape her resilience — it sharpened her focus. Rural kids facing those same challenges often go without the specialized support they need, not because they don't deserve it, but because nobody shows up. Kristen intends to be the person who shows up — as a pediatric occupational therapist, practicing in the communities that need her most.
She knows what it costs a child to go without help. She knows what it means to fight for every milestone. The Rural Gone Urban Foundation is proud to invest in what comes next for her.
Jessica King
TimelyCare
Enid, Oklahoma
Jessica King, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Jessica King is a single mother in Enid, Oklahoma, with a plan and the work ethic to back it up. She's pursuing a career in dental hygiene because she wants to help people — and because it offers the stability that means her child grows up watching their mother win.
Every step toward her credential is a deliberate one, made with her family's future in full view. That focus is what sets her apart — not just as a scholarship recipient, but as someone already living the values this foundation was built on.
The Rural Gone Urban Foundation is honored to stand behind her.
Laela Chee
Northern Arizona University
Pinon, Arizona
Laela Chee, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Laela Chee founded an FFA chapter, organized a no-cost prom dress drive, and put together care packages for senior citizens — all before finishing high school. Service isn't something Laela talks about. It's just what she does.
When a severe post-COVID illness left her wheelchair-bound, she was told by local medical professionals to relocate to a larger city to access the care she needed. She had to travel to a larger city to get the care she needed — and that experience didn't just change her health. It changed her direction. She's heading to Northern Arizona University to become a pharmacist, with her sights set on tribal reservations and the underserved communities that deserve far better access to care than they currently receive.
Laela Chee knows that gap personally. Now she's training to close it. Brave. Strong. Rural.
MaryJane Beaman
The University of Montana Western
Turner, Montana
MaryJane Beaman, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
MaryJane Beaman has been holding a full plate since before most of her peers knew what that felt like. At Turner High School, she's played volleyball, basketball, and track, participated in FFA and student council, and held down multiple jobs — driven by a work ethic that was clearly never optional for her.
Her experience in the foster care system gave her a blueprint most people will never have. She's heading to University of Montana Western to earn a degree in social work, with a clear-eyed intention to advocate for people navigating the same systems she once had to figure out on her own.
Turner, Montana produces people who know how to work. MaryJane Beaman is proof — and she's just getting started.
Addison “Addi” Cupp
University of Kansas
Festus, Missouri
Addison Cupp, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Addi Cupp is a four-time state qualifier, two-time state placer, and two-time AAU All-American National Champion in wrestling — competing for Team Missouri while also captaining her varsity soccer team for two years and her wrestling team for three, serving as Vice President of the National Honor Society, logging more than 185 hours of community service serving as an ambassador for the National Marrow Donor Program, and tutoring at-risk middle schoolers for over 100 hours. That is not a typo. That is a Tuesday for Addi Cupp.
She's heading to the University of Kansas to study chemical engineering with a minor in biomedical engineering, driven by something personal — watching her grandfather battle renal disease and deciding that wasn't a problem she was willing to leave unsolved.
The discipline it takes to compete at a national level and the empathy it takes to sit with a struggling middle schooler and actually help them — Addi has both. Kansas is getting someone ready to do something serious.
Madison Shemenski
Montana State University
Rosamond, California
Madison Shemenski, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Madison Shemenski spent part of her high school years at a summer program with the National Test Pilot School in Mojave, founded an award-winning ballroom team, helped build benches for a local Vietnam War Veterans Memorial Wall installation, served as ASB President and Student Member of her School Board, and became a California FFA Ambassador — all out of Rosamond, California.
She arrived at Montana State already in motion. As a member of Pi Beta Phi, she spends time at a local elementary school working with students on reading as part of the fraternity's literacy philanthropy, Read, Lead, Achieve. The through line from high school to college is consistent — Madison finds what needs doing and moves toward it.
She came up through AP, honors, and dual enrollment coursework with a particular pull toward STEM, physics and construction specifically. Montana State is where she takes that further. Rosamond sent someone ready to work. Montana State is where she takes that pull toward STEM further.
Shelby Kirkhart
Autry Technology Center
Waukomis, Oklahoma
Shelby Kirkhart, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Shelby Kirkhart is enrolled in the Medical Front Office program at Autry Technology Center, raising a young daughter, and finishing her first self-published book. She is doing all three at once, on purpose, in a small town in Oklahoma.
Her daughter is the clearest explanation for her pace. Shelby moves with the focus of someone who understands exactly what she's working toward and who she's working for. The Medical Front Office credential is a foundation — stable, practical, and chosen with intention.
The Rural Gone Urban Foundation was built for women building something real. Shelby Kirkhart is one of them.
Emma Flaa
Gonzaga University School of Law
Ford ,Washington
Emma Flaa, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Emma Flaa grew up in Ford, Washington, and built her college career at Grand Canyon University around questions most people her age haven't started asking yet. She's finishing a degree in Government with a legal studies emphasis and a minor in Public Administration, graduating with Leadership Distinction, and leaving campus as the lead author of two forthcoming publications — one examining domestic minor sex trafficking, the other exploring how community-based organizations expand economic opportunity in underserved areas.
She served as President of the International Justice Mission Club and as a Resident Assistant, which means she's been doing the unglamorous, high-responsibility work of guiding people through hard moments while simultaneously producing academic research and preparing for law school. That combination — policy fluency, advocacy experience, and real-world leadership — is exactly what she's bringing to Gonzaga University School of Law.
Lauren Cody
Colorado State University
Burlington, Colorado
Lauren Cody, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Lauren Cody grew up on a farm outside Burlington, Colorado, raising meat goats and showing livestock — and somewhere along the way, decided she wanted to perform. Not as a hobby. As a career. Getting from the eastern plains to a Theatre and Musical Theatre program at Colorado State required travel to camps in Lincoln and Manhattan, Kansas, a trip to a dance convention in New York City, and enough bake sales — pies, cookies, and sourdough — to fund all of it.
She built that dream alongside a decade of 4-H leadership, county-level officer roles, a National Honor Society chapter presidency, and four years of FBLA state competition appearances. She captained her cheerleading team, earned varsity letters in golf, and organized a clothing drive for foster children in her community — an initiative she took on because she saw a need and moved toward it.
She'll tell you that showing livestock taught her more about performance than most people expect. You put on a smile, you present with poise, and you hold it together even when things go sideways. Burlington, Colorado gave her that. Colorado State gets the rest.
Addison Tipsord
Parkland College
Cissna Park, Illinois
Addison Tipsord, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Addison Tipsord played Dorothy in her school's production of "The Wizard of Oz," and if you know anything about Cissna Park, Illinois, you understand why that feels fitting. She's a small-town girl with a big range — lead in the musical, four-year varsity volleyball player on a team that won state her senior year after placing fourth her sophomore year and third her junior year, basketball manager, FFA member, and a student who pushed herself through dual credit coursework every year of high school.
What sets Addison apart isn't the list of activities. It's how she moves through the world. She asks questions until she understands something completely, feels things deeply and considers that a strength, and spends her free time with her nieces and nephews because that's genuinely where she wants to be. Those qualities — curiosity, empathy, emotional honesty — are exactly what draws her toward sonography, a field where the person behind the equipment matters as much as the technology itself.
She's heading to Parkland College to build the technical foundation for a career helping people get the answers they need. Cissna Park did its part.
Kelsey Evening
Idaho State University
Pocatello, Idaho
Kelsey Evening, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Kelsey Evening is a member of the San Carlos Apache and Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and lives on the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho. She has spent years working with young people — first as a Youth Development Specialist with the Boys & Girls Club of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, and now as a Liaison with the Tribal Youth Education Program, where she helps middle and high school students stay enrolled, work through obstacles, and keep moving forward.
She also owned and operated a food truck at a young age, which is how she arrived at Idaho State University pursuing an associate degree in Small Business Technology. The business instinct and the community instinct are related — Kelsey has always been oriented toward building something that serves people beyond herself.
Her long-term goal is to create programs that expand opportunity for Native youth on the reservation. She's pursuing the education to make that real, driven by a clear and personal understanding of what it means to need someone in your corner.
Kylie Fagre
Minnesota State Community and Technical College
Georgetown, Minnesota
Kylie Fagre, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Kylie Fagre grew up on a farm near Georgetown, Minnesota, raised by her grandparents and shaped by the rhythms of rural life — early mornings, hard work, and a deep sense of responsibility to the people around her. She's Native American on her father's side, and that background, alongside her upbringing, gave her a grounded perspective that shows up in everything she does.
She's been involved in student council and track, made an educational trip to Washington, D.C., and New York through the Close-Up program, and built a reputation among the people who know her as someone dependable — the kind of person you call when something actually needs to get done.
This fall she heads to Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Fergus Falls to pursue dental hygiene, a field she's chosen deliberately — drawn to the patient education side of the work as much as the clinical side. Georgetown raised her to show up and follow through. She's taking both to Fergus Falls.
Brooke Wiltfong
Fort Hays State University
Brooke Wiltfong, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Brooke Wiltfong earned her CNA license as a junior in high school, her EMT certification as a senior, and her CMA as a college freshman. By the time most students are figuring out their major, Brooke had already logged real hours in real emergency situations. That trajectory was deliberate — she's been moving toward emergency medicine since before she graduated high school.
Now a junior at Fort Hays State University, she's active in the Nurses Christian Fellowship, the Fort Hays Association of Nursing Students, the Fort Hays Honor Society, and Chi Alpha campus ministry. The common thread across all of it is the same instinct that drew her to emergency medicine in the first place — she's most herself when she's useful to someone else.
She plans to graduate in 2027 and return to rural Kansas as an emergency department nurse. Prairie View doesn't have a lot of margin for error when someone needs emergency care. Brooke Wiltfong intends to close that gap.
Gracie Risley
Oklahoma Panhandle State University
Vian, Oklahoma
Gracie Risley, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Gracie Risley grew up in Vian, Oklahoma, working with livestock before she ever set foot in a college classroom. That background wasn't incidental — it's the reason she's double majoring in Livestock Production and Management and Agricultural Business at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, with her sights set on feedyard operations and the producers who depend on them.
She serves as Treasurer of the OPSU CattleWomen's Association, competes with the Livestock Show Team, and is involved in Student Government and Women in Agriculture. She's also completed a marketing communications internship and is heading into an internship with Five Rivers Cattle — one of the largest cattle feeding operations in the country.
Gracie Risley knows this industry from the ground up. She's building the credentials to work at the top of it.
Hannah Traywick
College of the Ozarks
Luther, Oklahoma
Hannah Traywick, 2026 Rural Gone Urban Foundation Scholarship Recipient
Hannah Traywick is a homeschooled farm girl from Luther, Oklahoma, who spent the summer of 2025 shadowing an equine veterinarian and has been building hands-on animal experience ever since. She rides horses, tends to her family's animals, and has oriented her entire academic path around a single clear goal — equine veterinary medicine.
Her faith has been the steady thread through all of it, including a chronic illness she contracted as a child that she has since fully recovered from. She'll tell you God has been present in both the hard years and the good ones, and that clarity of purpose shows up in how she's approached her education and her future.
This fall she heads to College of the Ozarks to study Animal Science and Pre-Veterinary Medicine. After that, veterinary school, and eventually a ranch of her own somewhere in Oklahoma. She's known what she wanted for a long time. Now she's going to get it.
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