Hailey Troupe graduated from high school in a class of 25 students. Growing up in rural eastern Washington state, she felt a little lost and had a hard time envisioning a future for herself based on the examples around her. It wasn’t until she received a mailer to participate in a program on an Ivy League campus at the end of her freshman year that she was inspired to “strive for unreasonable dreams and obtain these ridiculous goals.”
She applied and was accepted to take part in UChicago’s Emerging Rural Leaders program, which connects students from small towns and rural areas across the country with classes and college application workshops.
A first-generation college student, Hailey is now a second-year student at UChicago studying business economics.
Why UChicago?
Growing up, my high school was primarily focused on educating students for the purpose of agriculture. I grew up feeling like none of these things that people around me were doing, that historically have been done, were things that I was interested in. My freshman year, I didn’t really care about grades or going to college, because I just wasn't focused on my future yet. When I got that mailer from Yale, I thought, 'this is so cool.' And that tiny little thing inspired me to do better. At first, it was just trying to get better grades and pay more attention in class. Then the next quarter, I was able to maintain a 4.0 GPA, which is something I didn't think I could do, personally. From there, everything just snowballed.
My high school guidance counselor sent me links to a few programs she thought I might be interested in—one was the Emerging Rural Leaders program, which I did remotely after my junior year because of COVID. I had never heard of UChicago before, but thought the classes looked interesting, my high school didn’t offer much philosophy or any advanced courses. So I applied, was accepted and chose Collegiate Writing, Awakening Into Consciousness as my course. I was struck by the intellectual nature of the class, knowing that most other courses at UChicago would be just as and if not more interesting, was really thought-provoking.
Then I got a stipend to come and visit UChicago’s campus. As soon as I stepped foot on the school's property, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I love this place. It's so beautiful. It's amazing. I have to go here.’ And then that was the point where I decided this is my top school.
What is an experience that stands out during your time here?
I think the coolest thing is the opportunity to network with all kinds of people—international students, people from different socio-economic statuses from all over the world, different states, all different kinds of people. Where I'm from, people are primarily white, Christian and very conservative. So to be able to have the difference of opinions, and also to be able to have cultural diversity here is super awesome.
Also, campus resources for first-generation, low-income, and rural students were definitely a really big factor in my decision to come here. I’m involved in the Rural Student Alliance, we just officially became an RSO (recognized student organization).