Educational leaders and teachers also believed that extra curricular programs, specifically FFA and FBLA, were critical supports to student achievement and goal attainment in many forms. Student support systems in all three schools served as a means of overcoming disadvantages of poverty, lack of English language proficiency, and rural circumstances as identified in the literature (Bottoms & Carpenter, 2004; Chenoweth & Galliher, 2004; Keren Zuniga, 2005; Lapan, Tucker, Kim, & Kosciulek, 2003). Many of the student support systems found on all three campuses resulted from collaboration with external entities and extensive school-community interrelationships.