Native Students Stepping Forward:
Dollar General Adult Education Program
2014 – Ongoing
About The Program
The American Indian College Fund’s Native Students Stepping Forward: Dollar General Adult Education Program is designed, in partnership with tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), to fulfill our vision of supporting adult students along the literacy pathway to adult basic education (ABE), high school equivalency (HSE), college, meaningful employment, and healthy lives. While still emphasizing HSE enrollment, persistence, and completion, this grant program strengthens the whole adult education pathway, incorporating a broader concept of literacy that includes reading and writing, but extends to areas such as math, cultural, financial, digital, and family literacies.
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation (DGLF) is the program’s primary funder, supporting it at up to $434,000 annually. With DGLF’s investment, the Native Students Stepping Forward program is committed to helping individuals of all ages receive the educational foundation they need to succeed in post-secondary education opportunities or the workforce. Through TCU-implemented programming, this work seeks to strategically expand services and resources for adult education students. In a continuous effort to value the whole student, the program aims to assess and address students’ needs to succeed, encourages culturally relevant programming elements, promotes visibility of HSE students at TCUs, and supports college and career readiness. TCU grantee partners also regularly engage across the cohort in a Community of Practice (CoP) to connect and build relationships, share best practices and challenges, strengthen programming, and examine holistic impact on students and communities.
High School Equivalency Visibility Project
The American Indian College Fund engaged three TCU high school equivalency (HSE) partners for the HSE Visibility Project, featuring the stories of HSE students and graduates in a social media campaign throughout winter and spring of 2024.
2024 Adult Education Program Convening
Fall 2024 – Rapid City, SD
Previous Adult Education Convenings
Grantees
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University
Northwest Indian College
Oglala Lakota College
Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College
Salish Kootenai College
Sinte Gleska University
Sitting Bull College
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
Turtle Mountain College
Related Blogs
TOCC’s GED Program Is a Game-Changer
Living on an Indian reservation the size of a state and shuttling between three tribal college campuses and six satellite offices can be a monumental undertaking—especially when access to transportation is limited.
Meet Oglala Lakota College’s New Community Continuing Education/GED Program Team Members
Oglala Lakota College has launched its Dollar General American Indian and Alaska Native Literacy and Adult Education Program. The following individuals will be serving OLC students under the program.
College Fund/Dollar General Remove Obstacles for Students Seeking GED
The Community Continuing Education/GED department of Oglala Lakota College is located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota. Oglala Lakota College is a decentralized campus with the main administrative buildings located six miles south of Kyle in South Dakota.
Sinte Gleska University Celebrates 35th GED Graduation
GED graduation marks the beginning of a new chapter for adult learners—one filled with increased education and employment opportunities. Family, friends, and community members gathered to celebrate that new chapter for 14 adult learners at the 35th Annual GED Graduation Ceremony held in conjunction with Sinte Gleska University’s 46th Annual Graduation Ceremony on August 24 at the Wakinyan Wanbli Multipurpose Building on the university’s Antelope Lake campus in Mission, S.D.
