But the Delta, like many rural areas, has long confronted the challenge of poverty. Today I’ll speak about three areas of opportunity for addressing the challenges of rural poverty--education and workforce development, entrepreneurship and small business development, as well as access to financial services-the topic of this conference.
MVSU’s mission, providing young people an affordable college education, is itself a very powerful antipoverty program--for its graduates, of course, but also for other communities that are touched by the university. MVSU opened its doors in 1950 as Mississippi Vocational College. The vocation of every member of its first class of 200 students was teaching.