May 8, 2023, Winnebago, Nebraska – Little Priest Tribal College (LPTC) received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Equity for Excellence (EES) for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) grant that will help the college meet compliance standards and ensure it is prepared to provide enhanced educational opportunities for its students. Grant funding came from within the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP), and its goal to support, “instructional and research capacities of specific institutions of higher education that serve the Nation’s Indigenous students.”

Manoj Patil, LPTC President says that this is a major win for the college and the funding is a much-needed step toward resourcing tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). “Little Priest Tribal College offers the same quality education that you’ll find at major universities, but TCUs do not have access to many of the same higher funding resources,” says Patil. “We are grateful to NSF for recognizing the need to invest in TCUs because these are the types of opportunities that can help us continue to support our own STEM experts within Indian Country.”

The NSF funding is also helping LPTC achieve benchmarks in ways that increase the safety and wellbeing of its students, families, and stakeholders. “We live in a world where we rely heavily on secure, reliable technology but creating these systems comes at a high cost,” says Morri Conway, LPTC Director of Information Technology. “Practically speaking, the grant funding will help the college get closer to its strategic goals of staffing, protecting the institutional network and data, providing a safe learning environment for students, and meeting federal and state compliance measures.”
Little Priest Tribal College will move forward with its planned cybersecurity infrastructure project and expects to be complete by May 31, 2024. To learn more about the Little Priest Tribal College, please visit, https://www.littlepriest.edu/about-lptc/

About Little Priest Tribal College: Little Priest Tribal College (LPTC) is an educational institution established by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska to fulfill the goal of its namesake, Chief Little Priest, “Be Strong and Educate My Children.” The college philosophy is to prepare its students to succeed in a multicultural world by emphasizing quality education of the highest level, humanistic values, and life skills. LPTC has been approved by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and has been accepted for full membership in the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC). LPTC is also fully accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). For more information on Little Priest Tribal College, please visit: https://www.littlepriest.edu/