‘Rich Hill’ with Dr. Julie Williams and Kevin Stoller
July 31, 2025
What happens when the challenges students face outside the classroom overshadow everything happening within it?
In this episode of our school-focused movie review series, we dive into
Rich Hill—the 2014 Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary that offers an unfiltered look into the lives of three teenage boys growing up in rural Missouri. The film captures the challenges they face in poverty-stricken homes, unstable environments, and a school system struggling to support them.
Joining us to break down the themes and realities of
Rich Hill is a special guest – Dr. Julie Williams, a school superintendent at Fayetteville Public Schools who brings invaluable insight into how schools are navigating similar struggles across the country. Together, we explore what the film gets right, what educators can learn from it, and how it pushes us to think differently about the role schools play in students’ lives beyond academics.
Takeaways:
- Rich Hill shows how hunger, housing insecurity, and mental health challenges often come before homework. For schools, this underscores the need for trauma-informed practices and wraparound services.
- The boys in the film don’t just struggle in school—they struggle to show up, to stay focused, to feel safe. Educators are reminded that consistency, structure, and relationships are just as essential as curriculum.
- The film highlights how cycles of poverty are perpetuated by factors outside any one school’s control—but it also shows the power of local leadership and community partnerships in starting to break those cycles.
Learn More About Julie Williams:
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/drjulierwilliams
Connect with Host, Kevin Stoller:
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinstoller