Abstract Rural and small-town students in the United States are significantly less likely than their suburban peers to enroll in postsecondary STEM degree programs; this disparity is usually linked to limited access to advanced coursework and lower STEM-teaching capacity in the schools they attend (Saw & Agger, 2021). While near-peer mentoring and dual-enrollment coursework remain the most commonly discussed responses to this gap (Corin et al., 2020; Zaniewski & Reinholz, 2016), a growing body of research points to three additional, comparatively underused strategies with strong measured impact: parent-focused motivational messaging, asset-based place-based curriculum design, and research partnerships embedded directly within Tribal college coursework. This paper reviews the evidence behind each strategy and illustrates how it could be implemented within North Dakota's rural, agricultural, and Tribal college contexts through composite, real-life-style scenarios. The paper concludes by situating these strategies within NSF EPSCoR's mission of building human infrastructure and broadening participation in states that have historically received a smaller share of federal research investment and proposes a cross-institution pilot as a starting point for collaboration among North Dakota's colleges and universities. Keywords: STEM recruitment, rural education, broadening participation, place-based learning, Tribal college partnerships