Think Indian Community Awareness Grants
Think Indian Community Awareness Grants of $2,500 are available to student groups and accredited higher education institutions. These grants encourage institutions who serve Native students to promote the positive message of “Think Indian,” the vibrancy of Native students, and the highlight the support provided by Native scholarship programs to their campus and community.
“Think Indian” was originally created as a public awareness campaign to promote the American Indian College Fund, and the many ways that its scholars contribute to, and change our world. Its message connected so deeply with Native students and institutions that it was revived in 2018, specifically to promote the College Fund’s scholarship, and other student programs.
The American Indian College Fund has created a grant program to highlight its “Think Indian” campaign, and scholarships program for Native students. The grants are intended to encourage institutions who serve Native students to promote the positive message of “Think Indian,” the vibrancy of Native students, and the highlight the support provided by Native scholarship programs to their campus and community. Projects must engage or include Native students.
Student groups and institutions can use grant funds for any activity or project that will promote the “Think Indian” campaign and scholarships in their community. Programs can include, but are not limited to:
- Informational, social or artistic events
- Art displays, installations or murals
- Music performances or video screenings
- Local awareness, publicity or marketing campaigns
- Online/social media campaigns
- Participation in existing campus or community events
- Themed volunteer or service events (including Native vote or census projects)
CLICK HERE to view summaries of the 2019 awarded projects.
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American Indian College Fund Faculty Advisor Serves as Fulbright Specialist
American Indian College Fund Faculty Advisor Serves as Fulbright Specialist
Stephen Wall Uses Experience on Faculty Advisory Council to Aid Aboriginal Community
Denver, Colo., September 10, 2026 — American Indian College Fund (College Fund) Faculty Advisory Council member Stephen Wall (White Earth Minnesota Chippewa and a Cattaraugus Seneca descendant) was named a Fulbright Specialist, spending a month working out of Sydney, Australia with an Aboriginal Registered Training Organization (RTO). RTOs serve all Australians providing vocational training, and occasionally leadership development, to their communities. The Fulbright Specialist allows U.S. academics and professionals the opportunity to conduct short-term, project-based exchanges with institutions around the world.
Stephen Wall (White Earth Minnesota Chippewa and a Cattaraugus Seneca descendant), member of the American Indian College Fund Faculty Advisory Council and Fulbright Specialist.
Wall, a long-time faculty member at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), a tribal college in Santa Fe, N.M., submitted his application to serve as a Fulbright Specialist in the area of Indigenous public administration and governance. He had met the executive director of Tranby, one of the oldest independent Aboriginal-controlled organizations, at the 2022 World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education. She later requested his assistance with the RTO. Wall provided Tranby with cultural education, training, and lectures on Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous governance models. He also analyzed the governing documents created for a collaboration between Tranby and another Aboriginal RTO. To conduct this work, Wall participated in yarning sessions, a traditional form of discussion amongst aboriginal mobs, the local term for Tribe, and also facilitated conflict resolution sessions.
Wall relied upon his experiences at IAIA and the College Fund to advise the RTOs. Tranby’s six-week training courses reminded him of IAIA’s “low residency” master’s programs. Both programs require less time on campus for in-person learning because they understand people have jobs and families to care for. Tranby’s new advisory board reminded Wall of the uncertainty faced by himself and the other founding members of the College Fund’s Faculty Advisory Council. They initially were unclear on who they reported to, what their duties were, and their overarching roles in the organization. Wall was able to offer the Tranby Advisory Council members guidance on these topics and professional development training he believed would most benefit them.
Now back in New Mexico as a new school year begins, Wall isn’t slowing down. His tenure as the interim provost of IAIA has ended and he is in the final year as a College Fund Faculty Advisory Council member, yet he continues to educate and inspire. After working at IAIA for 22 years, Wall is now a faculty emeritus teaching courses on decolonization for personal and professional development. Wall hopes he can inspire others to participate in the Fulbright Specialist Program, especially Indigenous people who can meet with similar communities around the world and share experiences.
About the American Indian College Fund — The American Indian College Fund has been the nation’s largest charity supporting Native higher education for 37 years. The College Fund believes “Education is the answer” and provided more than $23 million in scholarships and other student support for higher education in 2024-25. Since its founding in 1989 the College Fund has provided more than $391 million in scholarships, programs, community, and tribal college support. The College Fund also supports a variety of programs at the nation’s 35 accredited tribal colleges and universities, which are located on or near Indian reservations, ensuring students have the tools to graduate and succeed in their careers. The College Fund consistently receives top ratings from independent charity evaluators. It earned a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, a Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid (Guidestar), and the “Best in America Seal of Excellence” from the Independent Charities of America. The College Fund was also named as one of the nation’s top 100 charities to the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance. For more information about the American Indian College Fund, please visit collegefund.org.
Journalists—The American Indian College Fund does not use the acronym AICF. On second reference, please use the College Fund.
Observing Orange Shirt Day and the Dark History of Boarding Schools
Darker aspects of a nation’s history are often depicted as part of its past. Be it the United States, Canada, or any other country born of colonial conquest, we like to think that society has evolved and is detached from any atrocities that came before. Even the Civil Rights Movement, so often represented through black and white photography common at the time, is made to feel like a bygone era. But Ruby Bridges, the first African American child to attend a formerly segregated school in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1960, is only 71 years old today.
Educational institutions were often focused on harming marginalized communities. American and Canadian citizens younger than Ruby Bridges can attest to this fact. One former student’s story sheds light on the traumas of boarding schools that affected generations of Native students.
Phyllis Webstad (Stswecem’c Xgat’tem) is 59 years old today. Like Ruby Bridges, she was only six years old when she was sent off to school. Unlike Ruby, she wouldn’t be coming home that evening or for the next year. Phyllis’ grandmother had gifted her a new, orange shirt for her first day of school. Upon arriving at St. Joseph Mission Residential School in British Columbia, Canada, the staff quickly stripped Phyllis and took away her clothes including the shirt. They never returned it.
Phyllis’ story is not unique. Referring back to old black and white photos, there are many examples of Native students on both sides of the border whose traditional clothing and long hair was removed in portraits and class photos. Captain Richard Henry Pratt, the founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, supported the forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples across the continent. He is credited with the phrase, “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” Certainly killing, both in the literal and figurative sense, occurred. Hundreds of Native children died at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, thousands in total at residential schools across the nation and generations. Thousands more lost their language, culture, familial ties, and self-identity. The last residential school in Canada closed in 1997, and while boarding school operations largely ended in the United States in the late 1960s, a few schools continue to operate today though now under voluntary attendance. Even as this particular means of forceful assimilation ended, other practices, such as the removal and adoption of children from Indigenous communities to white families continued, despite legislation to the contrary.
September 30 is a day to help remember and honor the Native students who were negatively impacted by the boarding school system. On Orange Shirt Day, so named to honor Phyllis’ story, we share the history of residential schools in full color by wearing orange and talking about a topic many are unaware of or find taboo. In doing so, we highlight the experiences of people still living today rather than letting their stories collect dust as part of an archive. Through sharing these stories, we can uplift the voices of Native youth past and present to ensure such a system is never enacted again.
And if you are local to the Denver, Colorado area, visit us at the 37th Annual Friendship Powwow hosted by the Denver Art Museum on September 12. We will be distributing orange bandanas at our table for the community to wear on Orange Shirt Day.
American Indian College Fund Welcomes New Cohort of Faculty Fellows
American Indian College Fund Welcomes New Cohort of Faculty Fellows
Denver, Colo., August 25, 2026 — The American Indian College Fund (College Fund) is supporting six new faculty fellows with funding to pursue master’s and doctoral degrees to enhance the academic programs at their tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). Funding for this cohort comes from two fellowship programs administered by the College Fund.
Two faculty received College Fund fellowships. Gabrille Kennedy (Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan), general science learning assistant at Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College in Mount Pleasant, Mich., is pursuing a Masters of Science in general biology. She received the College Fund Master’s Fellowship which supports TCU faculty and staff accepted to or enrolled in a master’s degree program. Fellows receive awards of up to $25,000 for up to two years under this program.
Nyleta Belgarde (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa), arts and humanities faculty member at Leech Lake Tribal College in Cass Lake, Minn., is pursuing a Ph.D. in education, culture and teaching, with an emphasis in Ojibwemowin reclamation. She was awarded the College Fund Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, which provides TCU faculty who are in the final stage of their doctoral program with a one-year award to complete their dissertation and other requirements for graduation. The program aims to support individual faculty members’ educational goals while increasing the number of TCU faculty members with a doctorate and cultivating leaders from within. Fellows receive awards of up to $20,000.
Four faculty were awarded a Nyswander–Blanchard Pre-Dissertation Fellowship. Roxanne Frenchman (Oneida Nation), Assistant Professor of Business at Little Priest Tribal College in Winnebago, Neb., is working on a Doctorate of Business Administration; Rosemary Matt (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation), Native language teacher education chair and faculty member at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Mont., is pursuing an Ed.D. in educational leadership; Kimberly Pinson, early childhood education faculty member at Bay Mills Community College in Brimley, Mich., is pursuing a Ph.D. in education-curriculum and instruction; and Jenny Serpa, adjunct instructor and Site Manager at Northwest Indian College-Nisqually in Olympia, Wash., who is pursuing a Ph.D. in leadership studies.
The Nyswander–Blanchard Pre-Dissertation Fellowship supports TCU faculty who have been admitted to or are enrolled in a doctoral program and are in the coursework phase of their studies. The fellowship was established in 2012 with support and funding from then-College Fund Board Member Kim Blanchard and the Nyswander-Manson family. Fellows receive between $3,000 and $12,500 for one year. Funding must be used to cover expenses associated with degree attainment such as tuition, fees, and books.
About the American Indian College Fund — The American Indian College Fund has been the nation’s largest charity supporting Native higher education for 37 years. The College Fund believes “Education is the answer” and provided more than $23 million in scholarships and other student support for higher education in 2024-25. Since its founding in 1989 the College Fund has provided more than $391 million in scholarships, programs, community, and tribal college support. The College Fund also supports a variety of programs at the nation’s 35 accredited tribal colleges and universities, which are located on or near Indian reservations, ensuring students have the tools to graduate and succeed in their careers. The College Fund consistently receives top ratings from independent charity evaluators. It earned a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, a Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid (Guidestar), and the “Best in America Seal of Excellence” from the Independent Charities of America. The College Fund was also named as one of the nation’s top 100 charities to the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance. For more information about the American Indian College Fund, please visit collegefund.org.
Journalists — The American Indian College Fund does not use the acronym AICF. On second reference, please use the College Fund.