Native American Grads: Get Ready to Rock Your Grad Walk Mocs!
Virtual Graduation Regalia Walk to Celebrate Native Cultures, Communities, and Achievements
March 27, 2025, Denver, Colo.— Many colleges and universities are cancelling Indigenous graduations and celebrations this spring in response to political pressure. But national Native scholarships providers know our students’ cultures are their strength. Creating vibrant tribal regalia is a centuries-long tradition. Families, friends, and entire communities demonstrate their love by creating regalia for an honored relative to wear, demonstrating cultural ties while celebrating the hopes and dreams our ancestors and kin hold for the future—a Native person’s wealth. By wearing this demonstration of community respect, an honored tribal member walks confidently into the future. To celebrate Native students and their achievements, the American Indian College Fund with Native Forward Scholarships, AISES, and Cobell Scholarships, is hosting an online graduation walk on social media for students to share photos and videos as they rock their mocs, their ribbon skirts, their ribbon shirts, their beadwork, their unique jewelry combinations, their headpieces—and everything that makes their graduation unique as Native people. Graduates can also post pictures of themselves in their graduation gowns.
We invite all winter and spring Native graduates to post photographs of their regalia from creative inception to completion on their social media channels. Please share photos of your designs on paper, your fabrics, feathers, and beads, and your regalia coming together, stitch by stitch. Post photos of you proudly rocking your moccasins and your graduation regalia to show Native students are here, we achieve, and we are fulfilling our dreams of the dreams of our ancestors. Be sure to tag your social media posts using the hashtags #NativePathways and #EducationIsTheAnswer.
Tribal college presidents, faculty, staff, and other recent graduates are encouraged to show your support and post your throwback graduation regalia photos as we celebrate our students, our cultures, and our communities together!
Mariah Plummer (Navajo Nation, Diné), Program Administrator of Student Engagement and Communications at the American Indian College Fund who works to support Native scholars, said, “Our regalia and traditional outfits are our wealth. They are stitched with love, hand-crafted from generations of creativity, and threaded with wisdom from our ancestors. We carry all that with us, it becomes part of our wisdom, and it is something we look forward to passing on to future generations.”
About the American Indian College Fund — The American Indian College Fund has been the nation’s largest charity supporting Native higher education for 35 years. The College Fund believes “Education is the answer” and provided $20.5 million in scholarships and other direct student support for access to a higher education that is steeped in Native culture and values to American Indian students in 2023-24. Since its founding in 1989 the College Fund has provided more than $349 million in scholarships, programs, community, and tribal college support. The College Fund also supports a variety of programs at the nation’s 33 accredited tribal colleges and universities, which are located on or near Indian reservations, ensuring students have the tools to graduate and succeed in their careers. The College Fund consistently receives top ratings from independent charity evaluators. It earned a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, a Gold Seal of Transparency from Guidestar, and the “Best in America Seal of Excellence” from the Independent Charities of America. The College Fund was also named as one of the nation’s top 100 charities to the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance. For more information about the American Indian College Fund, please visit www.collegefund.org.
Journalists— The American Indian College Fund does not use the acronym AICF. On second reference, please use the College Fund.
