Building Belonging: How a Rural Missouri Middle School Is Using Beta Club to Boost Connection, Confidence, and Community

“Without that project, I never would have met my friends, and now I’m super close with them.”

“Every single time I’ve met new people, and I like that”

“I like the competitions– they are hard sometimes, but always fun.”

Sitting in a loose semi-circle around the Cassville (MO) library, about fifteen middle school students spoke with a sense of pride and comfort that belied their usually-shy age. Speaking to a group of Cassville school leadership, the RSC team, and representatives from Missouri State University and Community Foundation of the Ozarks, the students took turns describing their experiences in National Beta Club, a competition and community service organization that is the focus of Cassville’s participation in the GRAD Partnership.

Cassville is one of ten Missouri schools to have joined the GRAD Partnership in 2024, and all joined through GRAD Partnership intermediary and RSC Missouri Regional Hub partners at Missouri State University (MSU). Alongside Drs. Rhonda Bishop and Denise Cunningham, co-directors for the Missouri State Center for Rural Education, Cassville is also supported by Russ Brock, MSU GRAD Partnership liaison. For more about the GRAD Partnership rural cohort and its fifty rural schools, read here.

When the leadership team at Cassville first learned about the GRAD Partnership work, they felt that it fit perfectly with their recent ‘Portrait of a Graduate,’ a county-wide initiative to identify and develop post-secondary success tailored to Barry County, MO. In speaking with local businesses, they found that attendance at work was a big issue, mirroring challenges within the school building. Similarly, the idea of being a good neighbor came up in many conversations, making fostering connectedness– between both peers and the community– essential at early ages. “We wanted to make sure to focus on the middle school, because we knew that that's where some of our students, with attendance and that connectedness piece, were struggling,” shared Dr. Traci Mitchell, Cassville assistant superintendent.

After looking at successful programs to build upon, the school’s Beta program emerged as an obvious choice. National Beta is an independent youth non-profit organization which facilitates honor-society activities such as community service and competitions for students 4th-12th grade. Dove Haney, a middle school math teacher, is in her first year of leading the program, which has doubled from 32 students in 2023-24 to 64 students in 2024-25. Students are recruited via a teacher’s ‘shoulder tap;’ staff look for students who show potential for more achievement, but often lack an existing extracurricular like sports or don’t have a strong friend group.

Participation in competitions is tied to attendance, providing intrinsic motivation for the many students who have come to love Beta to prioritize their attendance. The program does one service project a month: recent ventures included a Thanksgiving food drive and making cookies for local public safety officials. Up next is planting a sensory garden at the county development center, beautifying the outdoor space and providing engagement for young students with disabilities there. Through it all, Beta provides students with another trusted adult in the building. Samantha Cosper, elementary principal, put it best: “finding something where they can shine is a game changer for building confidence.”

Highlighting the visit to Cassville, the RSC and MSU team met with about a dozen students who participate in Beta. They described how fun it was to participate in competitions and service with their friends, with several noting that they made new friend groups as part of their experience. Competitions run the gamut of interest areas, with Cassville students excelling in visual arts (quilting, black & white photography), STEM (robotics, engineering, math) communications (marketing, speech), and language arts (poetry, songwriting). Several have qualified for nationals this year, and many who didn’t have their sights set on next year.

Although it’s a bit unfamiliar, Samantha is excited to see programs like Beta, at a rural school like Cassville, get more shine and attention, which will hopefully lead to more funding and participation. “In a rural community, you put your head down and you work hard– that's the value, right? And that hard work pays off eventually, and we see that, but we're not out there tooting our horn about it, because we're trying to find good opportunities for our kids. I think every adult that works at Cassville works really hard to bring big opportunities to our small town . . . You'll see that in every building across our district, with business partnerships through the community, through the county.”

GRAD Partnership rural cohort schools receive a small grant award for participating in the GRAD Partnership, which will empower the Beta program at Cassville to keep growing. With support matched by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, the grant is already providing opportunities for students to travel to events that their families would otherwise struggle to afford. Samantha describes that “we really look for those opportunities to open our doors and allow our kids to have more opportunities and experiences as they would if they went to a big public school.” The hope is that Beta can continue to expand, both in breadth and depth, for students as they find their promising place in their rural community.

Nearing the end of the visit, Dove told a story about a student that has major struggles with attendance. Showing up, let alone on time, is a constant battle. Similarly, finding connections with other students has not always gone smoothly. Beta, however, has become a second home for him, and the staff have set a goal of higher attendance and maintaining at least ‘B’ grades to participate in Beta. While he still is inconsistent with overall attendance, he always shows up on Beta day. As everyone who has worked in education knows, sometimes the smallest steps are the most important ones a student will take.

Rural Schools Collaborative would like to thank Missouri State University Center for Rural Education co-directors Drs. Rhonda Bishop and Denise Cunningham, as well as GRAD Partnership liaison Russ Brock, for facilitating our visit to southwestern Missouri and for their tireless efforts to support rural education throughout the Missouri State University service area. We would like to extend additional gratitude to Beth Hughes and her team at the Community Foundation of the Ozarks for supporting the GRAD Partnership schools and rural education in the greater Springfield (MO) area.