Recently we were asked about the factors that make for a top college for Native Americans students. It is a great question and it really depends on individual student needs and goals; however, that does not make for a great blog. So I will answer this with a top ten list of things that Native American students should consider when choosing a college.
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute’s (SIPI) Restorative Teachings team gathered for our annual “Community Planting Event.” Every April for the past couple of years SIPI’s preschool children have planted corn, melons, and chile peppers. This event involves children, families, and staff members of both SIPI and the Youth Development Incorporated (YDI) Head Start.
Cheryl Crazy Bull, American Indian College Fund President and CEO, will lend her expertise on a 20-person advisory committee of Native leaders, influential stakeholders, and racial equity experts for an unprecedented national project to bring Native Americans out of the shadows of public consciousness.
Tribal college students and Native Scholars Waycen and Brook are at the Democratic National Convention with our partner AT&T in Philadelphia. Among the tribal nations and delegates represented at the Democratic National Convention this week are some of our tribal college students and alumni.
Internships, like scholarships, are an important piece of a student’s higher education process. Internships provide students with opportunities to improve their skills and confidence while allowing them to build relationships in their professional fields. Unfortunately, not all students have the opportunity to work as an intern.
Last week the 2016 graduating class at Salish Kootenai College (SKC) celebrated its graduation. Located on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, SKC has served the Flathead Valley since 1978. This year the school awarded baccalaureate degrees in the arts and sciences; associate degrees in the arts and sciences and associates of applied sciences; and and certificates to 127 graduates.
Malcolm Macleod, President of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, writes in the blog Giving Matters that the foundation stands with the American Indian College Fund to make scholarships a tool for social justice in achieving equity for Native peoples, mainly for education.
Spring is in full bloom here at the Northwest Indian College (NWIC) Early Leaning Center, and the College Fund’s Restorative Teachings Early Childhood Education (ECE) Initiative is beginning to take shape. We are fortunate to live in a part of the country where the seasonal changes are so dramatic and each transition brings such a feeling of change to our surroundings.
I was inspired to see Hilary Pennington’s article, “Rethinking scholarships as social justice” in the Ford Foundation’s Equals Change blog. Her article examines the approach in action through the implementation of the Ford Foundation’s International Fellowships Program, which spans 22 countries and a decade to support emerging leaders who face discrimination because of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, economic status, or physical ability. Her essay opens the door to discussing and examining further why scholarships are particularly important to indigenous people as tools of social justice and opportunity.
We salute all of our graduates who are embarking on new chapters in their lives with a college degree. Len Necefer, a College Fund alumnus, is just one of many recent graduates. The new Dr. Necefer successfully defended his dissertation, is an expert on energy policy, and now has a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy.
