For many Tribal College and University (TCU) students, including non-traditional students who work or are parents, the First Year Experience program will be the first opportunity to learn about their TCU and to forge a sense of belonging. The American Indian College Fund’s First Year Experience Symposium provides resources and support to first-year students and peer learning opportunities for the Cultivating Native Student Success (CNSS) Community of Practice groups. Over five years, program officers will support TCU grantee partners to create strategic enrollment plans and to address the priority areas where TCUs need assistance to design and implement strategies to promote Native student success. One common priority area TCUs identified is with students’ first year experience.
The First Year Experience Symposium welcomed 45 participants from TCUs and other colleges to learn about Native students’ unique needs and how to meet them.
Sessions included information on how to create a sense of belonging and inspire success. Dr. Benjamin Rieth consultant from the College of Menominee Nation shared how they use the Indigenous heart berries as a model and the 5 Rs of belonging (respect, relevance, responsibility, reciprocity, and relationship) to ground their activities in Indigenous ways of knowing.
Student activities at a welcome event over two days with allow them to create relationships with each other and faculty; participate in cultural activities such as talking circles, learning teas, and campus tours of the Green Bay and main campus; registration; textbook ordering; and other orientation activities. Students will also go through mentorship activities during the school year.
Non-traditional students who work or have children have the opportunity to meet with advisors individually while also learning what they might miss from the sessions and how to make up assignments.
Participants discussed incorporating cultural activities into orientations such as basket weaving, sweat lodges, late-work policies, tutoring services, and books clubs to meet student needs. The conversation also led to discussions around the unique needs of non-traditional students and transfer students and how we might engage these students in First Year Experience activities.
The University of South Dakota Native Student Services team presented ways they engage their living learning community by connecting students with Native Speakers. Students can engage, ask questions, and see themselves represented in a multitude of career pathways. They also work with Native students through TRIO and the Multicultural Office by providing support through an orientation created with a first-generation lens to make college more accessible for all students. Students learn about campus acronyms, financial aid, and office hours through this program.
Participants also learned about how Northwest Indian College engages with students both in-person and online after having the transition to online programming during the Covid-19 pandemic. Colleges spoke about how it’s best to meet the online student needs by offering programs entirely online rather than hybrid formats so students can be fully engaged in programming.
