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
Sinte Gleska University and Oglala Lakota College GED Programs Complete Site Visits
The GED programs at Sinte Gleska University (SGU) and Oglala Lakota College (OLC) have much in common. Both programs date back to the early 1970s, operate multiple classroom locations, and serve vast Indian reservations in South Dakota. And both GED programs are also recipients of the American Indian College Fund’s Dollar General GED grant.
GED Program: Successful. Empowering. Needed.
These are the words that Kateri Montileaux uses to describe the Community Continuing Education/GED (General Educational Development) program she coordinates at Oglala Lakota College (OLC).
Sinte Gleska University Connects GED Classroom to Community, Culture
In 2019 the Sinte Gleska University Adult Basic Education (ABE) Department began offering community-based learning opportunities. The program introduces and enhances knowledge and skills relevant to GED students, their families, and community members.
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.
