This article examines efforts made by a teacher preparation program to provide pre-service teachers with an introduction to the rural context, strategies for place-based pedagogy, and a field experience in rural schools. The study explores the influence of these efforts, along with how students' sense of place and educational upbringing, might be related to pre-service teachers' perceptions of preparedness for teaching in a rural school. The struggle to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers in rural schools is ubiquitous in the literature on rural education, but there is limited research on preparing pre-service teachers for rural schools. We draw on critical and socio cultural theories to understand the experiences of four teacher candidates as they negotiate their personal histories, expectations, and experiences in rural teaching contexts. While exposure to rural life has been credited with increasing the likelihood for teaching in rural schools, we suggest that exposure is only one aspect of preparing successful rural teachers.