For students who live and study at a branch campus of a mid-sized state university in southwest Pennsylvania, the 30 miles between them and their parent university represents a geographic gulf. No courier carries mail or deliveries between the main campus and the branches, and as a result, students at the branches have no access to the campus newspaper. Students are easily forgotten by departments. The branch campus population of about 200 is composed primarily of students designated as underprepared and at-risk. The landscape in the field of composition, however, is currently burgeoning with practices which urge student writers out into communities beyond their classrooms. Instructors have turned to publishing and field work as successful pedagogy for positioning their students as capable scholars. "Images," the branch campus literary magazine, has published student writing for years, and students are also encouraged to present papers at the English department's annual undergraduate Emerging Scholars conference. In addition, students are encouraged to submit their writing to a Web-published collection of model essays from heavily-enrolled courses such as basic writing and college writing. Two vignettes illustrate some results of students taking their work public. Field work using ethnographic methods has proven to be another vehicle through which underprepared branch campus students can position themselves as scholars. Ethnography creates a situation where "students are knowledge makers." To the student, to the parent campus, and to the community, this pedagogy creates visible benchmarks of attainment. (Contains 11 references.) (NKA)