Many Rural and Small Town Students Skip College Or Go Local. A New Effort Aims to Change That

First-year college student Zoie Geronimi is the only person she knows from her small town who goes to Columbia University. Geronimi, 19, went to high school in Kingsford, Michigan, where the population of about 5,000 is just a fraction of the size of New York City.  Now that she's studying computer science full time, Geronimi is helping students from her hometown and surrounding rural towns look beyond those borders through a program at her school called Take Columbia Home. Columbia is one of 16 of the nation's top colleges and universities partnering with merchant banker Byron Trott, chairman and co-CEO of BDT & MSD Partners, to increase access to college for students from small towns and rural America.