This article presents a qualitative case study that explored preservice teachers' perceptions about their own learning within the culture of a branch-campus, cohort-model teacher preparation program and through their first year of teaching. This study investigated how a cohort of twelve preservice teachers--many of whom were nontraditional-aged students, unable to relocate from their rural communities, and inexperienced with higher education--experienced their branch-campus, cohort teacher preparation program. This study was guided by two primary questions: (1) How did preservice teachers characterize their cohort community as a vehicle for their own learning about teaching? and (2) How did this sense of community influence how new teachers taught their first year in area schools? Three main recurrent themes emerged through the data analysis as important factors contributing to the students' learning within this cohort model: "field experience relationships," "peer relationships," and "instructor relationships." The data is interpreted through these three coding categories, which describe the students' perceptions of essential factors that contributed to their learning as the cultural community evolved. (Contains 1 table.)