The American Indian College Fund honored 34 American Indian tribal college students of the year, tribal college president Dr. Laurel Vermillion, and U.S. Department of Education employee John Gritts on March 19 at the 2017 Student of the Year and Coca Cola Award Banquet in Rapid City, South Dakota in conjunction with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium Spring Student Conference.
The College Fund named Dr. Laurel Vermillion, President of Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, the 2017 American Indian College Fund TCU Honoree of the Year. This honor recognizes a distinguished individual who has made a positive and lasting impact on the tribal college movement.
The Achieving the Dream (ATD) program helps networking colleges to improve student success by providing a menu of services to its colleges, including technical assistance, leadership, data coaching, and more. In addition, ATD hosts an annual DREAM conference where more than 2,000 leaders from 200 community colleges across the country gather.
As a staff member with the College Fund, I had the honor to attend the spring Scholarship Awards Night at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) to witness 260 students moving one step closer towards their educational goals. The event awarded 534 College Fund scholarships to 260 students totaling $519,906.
The fellowship’s goal is to promote environmental sustainability in tribal communities that leads to systemic change. The research component of the fellowship is designed to create research projects that are meaningful and relevant to the students’ tribal communities by improving community environments and the health of tribal people. By educating tribal communities about environmental issues and working together as a community, tribal communities can build and utilize better land and resource management systems.
A new guide for educators titled Teacher Education Across Minority-Serving Institutions: Programs, Policies, and Social Justice, edited by Emery Petchauuer and Lynnette Mawhinney (Rutgers University Press, 2017) shares successful teaching practices and teacher education programs from minority-serving institutions (MSIs) across the country.
A higher education is a tool for a better life. But for education to also be a portal for social change in Native communities, a one-size-fits-all approach is not sufficient. A new guide for educators titled Teacher Education Across Minority-Serving Institutions: Programs, Policies, and Social Justice, edited by Emery Petchauuer and Lynnette Mawhinney (Rutgers University Press, 2017) shares successful teaching practices and teacher education programs from minority-serving institutions (MSIs) across the country.
Are tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) the result of de facto segregation? Currently in higher education there is considerable discussion about the value and challenges faced by our Nation’s historically black college and universities (HBCUs). While this debate rightly belongs squarely in all discussions about access and affordability and value of higher education, it neglects the experiences of American Indian and Alaska Native students and the colleges and universities that have emerged to serve them in a similar fashion.
Dr. Cynthia Lindquist, Ta’Sunka Wicahipi Win (Star Horse Woman), President of Cankdeska Cikana Community College on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota, is a contributing author to a book titled Overcoming Educational Racism in the Community College: Creating Pathways to Success for Minority and Impoverished Student Populations, edited by Angela Long and published by Stylus Publishing LLC, 2016.
Deborah His Horse is Thunder has worked for the tribal colleges and universities for more than 25 years and currently serves as the American Indian Higher Education Consortium NARCH Project Director in addition to her work with individual colleges. She is Nakoda and lives on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation with her husband, Ron.
