Student Development
Explore Development Opportunities
Study Skills
No matter what your grades are, everyone needs some guidance to find success in the classroom. Here are some resources to help you develop the best study habits and skills you’ll need to get your degree:
What are Office Hours? – by Andrew Ishak
Time Management: TCU Video Project Series
Focus 2 Self-Assessment
Many people struggle with choosing an academic major during school, or job industry after graduation, but choosing a path is important when choosing your classes, internships and other career opportunities.
Focus 2 combines self-assessment, career and major exploration, decision-making and planning in one place. By matching your assessment results to career options and majors/programs for your consideration, FOCUS 2 guides you through a career and education decision-making model to help you make informed career decisions and take action in planning your future.
To use this free service, register to create an account with the access code collegefund. From there, you can take each test- personality, interests, values, and skills- to build your academic and career planning profile. Print your profile to share with an academic or career counselor or mentor to discuss your career plan or transition to a new profession.
Money Management
It is also important to understand budgeting, credit, and debt management – to help you to make responsible decisions in school, and prepare for your financial life after school. Learn about the following topics in related posts — your financial future depends on it.
- Money Management — Developing Common Cents (College Fund)
- Per Cap (First Nations Development Institute)
- Financial Skills for Families (First Nations Development Institute)
- Developing Your Vision: Managing Your Money
- Your First Bank Account
- Childcare Costs (and Ways to Reduce Them)
- When Your Child Has Special Needs
- Caring For Aging Parents
- Children and Family Considerations
Student Ambassador Program
The American Indian College Fund Ambassador Program was established in 2015 to strengthen students’ and alumni personal and professional skills and to represent the College Fund.
Our Blogs
American Indian College Fund Receives Unrestricted Gift from MacKenzie Scott Foundation
The College Fund learned the MacKenzie Scott Foundation, headed by the billionaire novelist and philanthropist of the same name and her husband Dan Jewett, selected it to receive an unrestricted gift. Cheryl Crazy Bull, President and CEO of the American Indian College Fund said, “This gift is timely and pivotal because, in combination with the generosity of our network of current and future supporters, we now have the capacity to grow greater opportunities for American Indian and Alaska Native communities and to create lasting change. MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett’s acknowledgement of our work is a testament to the important role of education to transform the lives of our students, their families, and communities.”
The College Fund is committed to eliminating the college attainment gap among Indigenous people and continues to appreciate and rely upon the support of every one of its current and future supporters to meet its goals to transform the lives of Indigenous students, their families, and their communities through a higher education.
Shaping the Future as We Move Forward
| 2021 E-NEWSLETTER | VOLUME 21, ISSUE 2 |Circle of Hope Shaping the Future as We Move Forward Today I write to you as someone who has been fully vaccinated, with hope and optimism that the worst of the COVID pandemic is finally behind us. While I know we’ve been...
Statement from Cheryl Crazy Bull About Mass Grave at Kamloops Indian Residential School
June 8, 2021, Denver, Colo.—The discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of 215 Indigenous children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada has, once again, ignited the trauma of Indigenous people across North America.
Congratulations to Our Graduates
On behalf of the American Indian College Fund, we congratulate American Indian and Alaska Native college graduates. Your persistence while confronting a year that was like no other demonstrated your strength and will to succeed. Your commitment is an inspiration to your families, your communities, and all of us. Your ancestors are proud of you. We see you, we honor your achievements, and we wish you the best of everything in the futures that await you. Cheryl Crazy Bull, President and CEO, American Indian College Fund
Spring Resurgence: GED classrooms open to students
The Oglala Lakota College Community Continuing Education/GED department is slowly transitioning out of online-only programming as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic lessen. Now more than one GED student at a time can be in the college centers, as long as there is still only one student and tutor per classroom.
College Fund and Its Scholars Share How—and Why—to Make Higher Ed More Accessible for Native Students
American Indian College Fund scholars Samantha Maltais, Tori McConnell, and other Native American college students and alumni weigh in on what mainstream higher education institutions can do to make reparations for taking Native land.






