Internships, like scholarships, are an important piece of a student’s higher education process. Internships provide students with opportunities to improve their skills and confidence while allowing them to build relationships in their professional fields. Unfortunately, not all students have the opportunity to work as an intern.
I have relied heavily on scholarships to pay for my schooling and thanks to the American Indian College Fund I was able to attend the University of Montana and acquire my Bachelor’s degree without student loans. I now know what it takes to pursue and acquire a post-secondary education and this has given me motivation to go for my Masters of Public Health from the University of Montana
Last week the 2016 graduating class at Salish Kootenai College (SKC) celebrated its graduation. Located on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, SKC has served the Flathead Valley since 1978. This year the school awarded baccalaureate degrees in the arts and sciences; associate degrees in the arts and sciences and associates of applied sciences; and and certificates to 127 graduates.
Malcolm Macleod, President of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, writes in the blog Giving Matters that the foundation stands with the American Indian College Fund to make scholarships a tool for social justice in achieving equity for Native peoples, mainly for education.
Spring is in full bloom here at the Northwest Indian College (NWIC) Early Leaning Center, and the College Fund’s Restorative Teachings Early Childhood Education (ECE) Initiative is beginning to take shape. We are fortunate to live in a part of the country where the seasonal changes are so dramatic and each transition brings such a feeling of change to our surroundings.
The Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute’s (SIPI) Early Childhood program, together with the Youth Development Incorporated (YDI) happily launched their Restorative Teachings initiative on April 26, 2016. SIPI’s initiative seeks to develop a campus wide community that is inclusive of SIPI staff, faculty, students and the YDI Head Start. The collaborative initiative will focus on providing educational opportunities that support knowledge in the areas of health/ wellness and economic security.
I was inspired to see Hilary Pennington’s article, “Rethinking scholarships as social justice” in the Ford Foundation’s Equals Change blog. Her article examines the approach in action through the implementation of the Ford Foundation’s International Fellowships Program, which spans 22 countries and a decade to support emerging leaders who face discrimination because of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, economic status, or physical ability. Her essay opens the door to discussing and examining further why scholarships are particularly important to indigenous people as tools of social justice and opportunity.
We salute all of our graduates who are embarking on new chapters in their lives with a college degree. Len Necefer, a College Fund alumnus, is just one of many recent graduates. The new Dr. Necefer successfully defended his dissertation, is an expert on energy policy, and now has a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy.
Drums Along the Hudson, a New York non-profit organization that sponsors an annual music and multi-cultural festival in celebrating American Indian contributions to the environment and culture, has named the American Indian College Fund as one of its 2016 honorees.
Congratulations to the American Indian College Fund’s Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz, the 2016 recipient of Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Alumni Council Award for Outstanding Contribution to Education.
