When I visit with my grandmother, I enjoy hearing the stories she tells about being a young person during the Great Depression, wars that saw her brothers and nephews sent to different countries and the many advances in technology. She is one of eight children and, at 101 years of age, the only surviving member among her siblings. When asked what the greatest invention was in her lifetime, she doesn’t hesitate to say “indoor plumbing.”

My grandparents’ families lived in the same rural area of Pennsylvania for as long as either of them could remember. There were not many written records beyond my great-grandparents’ family Bible, which recorded births and deaths and had some pressed flowers between the pages. For the most part, my family lived within a few miles of one another for generations, as did their neighbors’ families. They saw one another through hardships and joys, traversing the same familiar roads to one another’s homes for holidays, picnics, reunions and Sunday dinners.

In Maine, some of our rural students have experiences that are similar. They live on land and in places that are home to generations of their families, and they often live just within miles of one another. There’s a security that can come with this sense of knowing who is near you, and some sense of trepidation when neighbors or places change. There is a rhythm to this life with its traditions and cadences, often established around work driven by harvests, seasons and other connections to land or sea.

As I listen to our students from rural Maine talk about their growing up places, they express a sense of pride and value in their communities, and they hope others will feel the same way about their homes. Unfortunately one challenge we face is that our society is replete with images and messages that denigrate rural peoples and communities. Films, reality television shows and the media often depict rural people as backward, inbred or dangerous, and these inaccurate misrepresentations and stereotypes ignore the diversity and complexity of rural communities and people.

I am learning about the nuances of life and the interesting people in rural Maine. I enjoy the beauty of the coastal communities and inland communities, and because I visit our sister universities in Fort Kent, Farmington, Presque Isle, Machias and Orono, I am able to see the benefits and vitality colleges can bring to rural areas.

Our rural places are home to artists, farmers, entrepreneurs and business owners, as well as educators, doctors, nurses, dentists and lawyers. I also enjoy reading books that provide different histories and perspectives on rural life in Maine, from Ruth Moore’s “The Weir” to Ariel Lawhon’s “The Frozen River” and Monica Wood’s “How to Read a Book.”

Certainly there are communities and people in urban areas that are perpetually misunderstood, ridiculed and overlooked, too. And there are also generations of families who come from the same block or neighborhood, and who have seen their families and friends through hardship and joy.

It is time to engage in serious and intentional dialogue to find commonalities across the different places we call home. The divisions we face are often arbitrary and grounded in misunderstandings and stereotypes.

My goal is for our university to be a place where we can overcome these misunderstandings and see one another as nuanced and interesting people. I want our university to be a place where our humanity and commonalities are celebrated.