Our Programs
College Fund Initiatives
About Our Programs
The College Fund support TCUs in their efforts to strengthen education, Native communities, the environment, health and wellness, language and culture, emergent leadership, and infrastructure. It provides awards to TCUs within these key areas, focusing on people from cradle to career. It also supports the success of the funded TCU programs through ongoing professional development, technical support, and research and networking opportunities.
TCU Early Childhood Education Initiatives
Connecting TCUs and our earliest learners, we support the creation and development of early childhood education from within Native communities — strengthening Native families’ roles as advocates and partners in their children’s education, and creating collaborations between early learning centers and community partners. The result is reduced inequity, stronger early childhood education, and greater opportunities for family engagement in community advocacy and policy.
Native Culture and Language Preservation
Strong Native communities are built on tribal languages, cultural knowledge, and traditional arts. With many communities facing the risk of loss of language, culture, and traditional arts, we provide grants and support for communities to restore, sustain, and pass on traditional knowledge.
Environmental Sustainability
The College Fund invests in the TCUs that are engaged in strengthening their environmental science opportunities for students. It provides support for TCUs that are working with Native communities to develop and implement research initiatives and innovative collaborations. The goal is to help students learn to preserve natural resources, address environmental and climate issues, and strategically steward their resources to align with cultural and tribal connections to land, water, animals, and air.
Indigenous Visionaries
By connecting Native women students at TCUs with faculty within their academic disciplines, and providing support for strong mentoring relationships, the College Fund is helping to develop the next generation of Native leadership in early childhood education, environmental science, and traditional Native arts.
Infrastructure
By connecting Native women students at TCUs with faculty within their academic disciplines, and providing support for strong mentoring relationships, the College Fund is helping to develop the next generation of Native leadership in early childhood education, environmental science, and traditional Native arts.
Student and Institutional Success
We invest in individual students to support their pursuit of a college degree, and we invest in TCUs as the institutions that can provide an intellectual and academic home for students in Native communities. Providing technical assistance to TCUs, and academic and professional opportunities for students, as well as funding for both students and institutions, we work toward both student and institutional success.
Programs Blog
The Way to Reawaken Indigenous Language is to Nurture Speakers
Amanda LeClair-Diaz and Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz review research literature that demonstrates Tribal Colleges and Universities’ (TCUs) efforts in Native language revitalization. The review focuses on research of Native language revitalization opportunities in early...
Interactive Sensory Garden Featuring Flora That Is Indigenous to This Land
By Alex Elizabeth Stribling, Lead Toddler Teacher Northwest Indian College’s Early Learning Center innovated an Interactive Sensory Garden helping preschool children to engage in experiential STEM education. The lush and lively garden is the very first thing children...
Dollar General GED Program: Monique’s Story
By Monique Moran, 2018 Sinte Gleska University GED Program Graduate The Sinte Gleska University Adult Basic Education/GED department provides free GED tutoring and testing services to approximately 120 adult learners annually on the Rosebud Reservation and surrounding...