Native Students Stepping Forward:
Dollar General High School Equivalency
Completion Program
2014 – Ongoing
Program Details
The American Indian College Fund’s Native Students Stepping Forward: Dollar General High School Equivalency Completion Program, previously known as the Dollar General American Indian and Alaska Native Literacy and Adult Education Program, supports American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIANs) pursuing their High School Equivalency (HSE)/General Education Diploma (GED) credentials through Tribal College and University (TCU)-implemented programming.
Like the Dollar General Literacy Foundation (DGLF) that funds the program at up to $300,000 annually, Native Students Stepping Forward 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 grants to TCUs, the program seeks to strategically expand services and resources to achieve measurable outcomes in HSE/GED program enrollment, retention, and completion. 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/GED students at TCUs, and supports college and career readiness programming components.
Grantees
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- Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe College
- Oglala Lakota College
- Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College
- Sinte Gleska University
- Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
- Tohono O’odham Community College
Program Gallery
Native Students Stepping Forward:
Dollar General High School Equivalency Completion Program Blogs
Articles and success from the College Fund programs team.
Learning From a Distance: Utilizing Online Resources in GED Programming
Oglala Lakota College utilizes online resources in its GED program, to provide ease of learning for students like Dawson Pearson.
Introducing the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe College GED/HSED Program
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe College (LCOOC) is one of the tribal colleges participating in the College Fund’s ongoing Native Students Stepping Forward: High School Equivalency Completion Program. Recently added to the College Fund’s program, LCOOC’s General Educational Degree/High School Equivalency Degree (GED/HSED) Program has experienced a lot of transitions and transformations to get where it is today.
SIPI: Supporting Our HSE Students During the Coronavirus Pandemic
By Jim Snyder, SIPI HSE Instructor Note from the editor: This blog post was written in November 2020, but could not be published at the time due to required and delayed external permissions. We are publishing it now to share SIPI’s perspective and experience of HSE...
Grantees
Thank you to our Grantees for supporting this program.
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How to Help
Currently only 14.5% of American Indians hold college degrees. But with 42% of Native Americans being 24 years old or younger, you have the opportunity to make an incredible impact for this generation and generations to come when you donate today.