Thirty-three Students Honored as American Indian College Fund Student of the Year
March 28, 0000
| Dr. Verna Fowler, president of the College of Menominee Nation (right), is congratulated by Dr. David Yarlott, president of Little Big Horn College, after Dr. Fowler was awarded the Tribal College President of the Year award. |
| The American Indian College Fund honored 33 American Indian scholarship recipients at its 2011-12 Student of the Year reception at the American Indian Higher Education Consortium Student Conference in Rapid City, South Dakota. The program, sponsored by the Adolph Coors Foundation, awarded each honoree a $1,000 scholarship. American Indian College Fund President and CEO Richard B. Williams also presented Dr. Verna Fowler (Menominee), President of the College of Menominee Nation, Keshena, Wisconsin, with the Tribal College President Award for her contributions to American Indian education during her career. Dr. Fowler is the founding president of the college. She earned a master’s degree in 1986 and a doctorate in 1992, both in education administration from the University of North Dakota. In 1999, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities and was reappointed by President George W. Bush in 2006. Dr. Fowler also received a $1,000 award. Dr. Fowler said, “I am extremely grateful to the American Indian College Fund and the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. If it were not for those two organizations that were the pioneers that had the initiative and the drive and the determination… none of us would be here today. I also owe a lot to the tribal college presidents, both the current and the past, who set a path and called us all to a higher excellence in education. Way back in 1912 the Menominee sent a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs asking for a tribal college. It was finally these two organizations that came along and brought it to fruition.” Students of the year for each tribal college and university are as follows:
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| Grant Weston, on behalf of the guest singers Bad Nation Singers, gives a touching speech to honor the students saying, “Remember your identity. We are here as college students, also. Your mind, your ears and your heart need to hear these songs — it’s going to keep you ‘home’.” |
