A program at Binghamton University is trying to meet the needs of rural health care systems. Thirty graduate students visited the university's new nursing facility Monday.

Each of them live in rural parts of New York or Pennsylvania and have agreed to work in those areas.

The program is paid by a $2.8 million grant providing full financial support for students in the nurse practitioner master's program.

One student says serving these communities takes a whole new set of skills.

“It’s very easy to make assumptions about different populations, but once you immerse yourself in the culture of that population, you have a better insight to how that population works, what its quirks are, and also how to navigate some of the pitfalls that someone from that area could have,” said Isaiah Buchanan, a nursing student in the program.

This is the first year the new Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences has been open to students.