Short Answer Questions

Tips for The Full Circle and TCU Scholarship applications

The Full Circle and TCU Scholarship applications have an essay style format with three short-answer questions.

These sections are your chance to share your story and give readers an opportunity to see how a scholarship would help you achieve your stated educational and professional goals and require you to discuss three elements: an obstacle that you have overcome in order to get to where you are now; your educational goals and how this scholarship will help you achieve those; and how your education will help your Native community.

We recommend that you type out your responses to the short-answer question in a Word document (like this template) to ensure safe keeping if you need to abandon the application before submission.

To enhance this section, start by creating an outline of your thoughts and initial answers to each question. The outline does not need to look perfect, but it will allow you to start thinking about and organizing these questions and how they relate to each other.

Here are two sample outlines to help get you started:

  • A Visual Outline for those who prefer to see the outline as part of the big picture.
  • A Textual Outline for those who prefer a more linear approach.
  • Whichever outline you choose, remember that they are not meant to be exhaustive. They are designed to help you organize your thoughts and begin planning for writing your final responses.
  • There is no right or wrong answer for these questions, but it is very important that you provide a thorough response to each short-answer question.

As always, don’t forget to check your grammar and spelling!

NOTE: The short-answer section is ONLY available in the application, not in the profile. This means you must have all of your application ready (INCLUDING YOUR TRANSCRIPT READY TO UPLOAD) when you answer these questions; otherwise your answers will not be saved.

News & Events

Empowering Students, Building Nations: Reflections from the 2025 CSSI Convening/CNSS Conference

“Empowering Students, Building Nations–Cokv Hecvlke En Yekcetv, Etvlwv Oh Hayetv”

By AIHEC Member, Student Services, and the American Indian College Fund TCU Student Success teams

Under the warm skies of Oklahoma, nearly 200 participants representing 30 tribal colleges and universities gathered June 10–12  on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation at the stunning campus of the College of the Muscogee Nation (CMN). The 2025 CSSI Convening carried the theme “Empowering Students, Building Nations–Cokv Hecvlke En Yekcetv, Etvlwv Oh Hayetv,” a message that echoed throughout the three-day gathering which celebrated collective wisdom, cross-institutional connection, and Native student success.

This year’s convening was a powerful reminder of what’s possible when partners align with purpose. The American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) and the American Indian College Fund (the College Fund) have long worked in close collaboration to uplift tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), and this joint convening stood as a shining example of that ongoing partnership in action.

The event kicked off with a pre-conference hosted by AIHEC, which centered on communities of practice (CoPs), a key initiative supporting TCU professionals through shared learning and peer exchange. CoP workshops sparked rich conversations around student services, equity-rooted strategies, and data-informed practices. The Four CoP priority areas were Advising, Developmental Education, Distance/Digital Learning, and Institutional Policy.

Service providers from Student Ready Strategies (SRS), Advising Success Network (ASN), Every Learner Everywhere (ELE), and Strong Start to Finish (SStF) were invited to lead sessions. They were supported to intentionally weave in cultural knowledge while fostering strong relationships within each CoP, laying the groundwork for sustainability beyond the convening.

The pre-conference set the tone, but the next two days of the convening came to life like a carefully woven basket.

This Indigenous-centered SEM conference is the first of its kind. It was an opportunity for professional development and peer-learning for TCU leaders to come together to share  knowledge and expertise around Strategic Enrollment Management. SEM is the touch points that a Native Student takes in their journey through higher education that can start at any moment, whether its interacting with the college through marketing at pow wow tabling, through dual enrollment at their high school, participating in career counseling, or enrolling in the GED program that the TCU offers.

All of these are examples of SEM and how TCUs strategically engage Native students with activities to help guide them through their individual journeys to become successful leaders for their communities and in Indian Country. SEM incorporates enrollment, retention and graduation plans in alignment with an institution’s strategic plan.

A keynote address from Dr. Amanda R. Tachine (Diné) and Jameson D. Lopez, Ph.D. (Quechan) ignited participants to think through how decolonial data leads to liberated futures while advocating for Indigenous data sovereignty in the important work and collective rights of TCUs. They asked participants to think deeply about the values they seek to pass down to future generations and strategies they can commit to moving forward that are integrated into Indigenous Data Sovereignty work.

A panel on CoPs showcased TCU representatives from enrollment managers, the National Alliance on Concurrent Enrollment TCU Chapter, first-year experience and mentorship programs, career readiness, and the transfer advisory committee. Panel representatives spoke about their CNSS funding, their vision for the CNSS program, and how they hope the program will be sustained after the grant period has ended.

The TCU administrators and staff leaders led 24 breakout sessions as an opportunity for participants to learn from one another and share practices from their respective institutions. TCU volunteers from the Enrollment Manager CoP organized breakout sessions through several tracks such as academic advising models and practices, professional development and campus community, pathways and structured degree planning, and new student welcome and engagement events.

A highlight included a session on navigating tribal college transfer, a session led by the transfer advisory committee at the College Fund that provided practices for developing a cohesive transfer system for institutions and introduced the work and progress of the committee’s transfer course. A session about student success through dual credit initiatives spoke to how the CNSS funded program reduced barriers to high school students receiving college education.

The conference also included cultural exchange opportunities. Representatives from Dine College led a live demonstration of making Chííł Chin or sumac berry pudding. Their presentation included sharing the cultural significance, tools involved, ingredients, and ended with a tasting.

With the TCUs leading sessions, volunteering their time to help create the breakout schedule, serving as representatives on the panel, The College Fund hopes to continue fostering opportunities for TCUs to share the vision of the CNSS program of fostering collaboration and peer learning to make it sustainable after the grant period ends. To learn more about the CNSS program visit our website here: https://collegefund.org/cultivating-native-student-success/

The full article can be found at the Tribal College Journal.

 

 

Scroll through photographs from the conference:

We’re Still Here: Culture, Community, and College at the Heart of Native Resilience 

Cheryl Crazy Bull - headshot

Cheryl Crazy Bull, President and CEO of the American Indian College Fund

We know the news media and now, social media influencers, don’t intentionally give positive free “advertising,” and it is often very hard to have positive outcomes from remarkably ignorant and dangerous comments. But this week tribal colleges and universities and Native students received a bit of free advertising after a Fox News commentator made a genocidal remark on her social media account (in response to a college professor’s presentation about Native sovereignty) that “we didn’t kill enough Indians.” That remark unwittingly underscored the importance of tribal colleges and universities. 

Make no mistake. The post is both hate speech and a thinly veiled threat, and the comment has no place in public discourse. The individual who made the comment is known for the hatred she regularly spews, but that isn’t the point I wish to make here.  

Instead, I wish to explain how comments like these demonstrate the importance of tribal colleges and universities. 

Imagine if your children heard comments like this in the classroom, in the media, or in their communities. Imagine if your children were discouraged from pursuing a higher education, were bullied, or were told they shouldn’t even be alive. Someone made a comment like this about a Native college professor who has, despite the odds facing Native people, entered college, persisted, graduated, and is now teaching Native students and others about our histories, our cultures, and our legal rights as Indigenous people—all subjects that were denied to our people for generations. 

That’s right. Our children and grandchildren are learning in tribal college classrooms about their legal rights as citizens of sovereign nations. They are learning about our ties to our land. They are learning about the trust and treaty rights inherent in these legal agreements with the U.S. federal government to provide our people with education, health care, housing, the right to practice our spiritual and traditional practices, along with the right to our land itself. 

Native students and graduates are revitalizing our languages, our communal values, and our science that helped us, for centuries, be proud stewards of the land and its inhabitants—all its inhabitants. 

Native students, like any student, have the right to learn about their proud backgrounds. Our children are the descendants of people who know how to survive. They have the right to celebrate their cultures and histories without mockery, bullying, or threats to their existence. 

We know weakness and fear hide beneath such hateful words. We’ve been here before. 

After generations of Native students endured abuse in boarding schools, tribal nations revolutionized education for their people by creating tribal colleges and universities. These remarkable institutions are the perfect places for Native students to study. Chartered by their tribes while serving entire rural communities in the spirit of kinship, tribal colleges build strong community members and even stronger communities, teaching their students that every one of us, and each and every one of our gifts, is needed to build a stronger community and nation. And they do this while providing all students with an affordable, relevant higher education steeped in Native traditions and cultures.  

Tribal colleges and universities are not just educating individuals. They are building strong communities where all our children in rural communities can be seen, heard, and respected for their contributions. 

Many elected officials and pundits advocate cutting funding for these remarkable institutions the Carnegie Foundation called “underfunded miracles,” as they are making significant, even unprecedented, contributions to their communities, regions, and states.  

But these people don’t understand what they are up against: generations of resilient people from resilient nations. We’ve seen and heard far worse. Such ugliness and short-sightedness are not a surprise to us. 

What might be a surprise to them, however, is the number of decent people who share our communities’ values, rooted in the belief that education is the answer—not just to our communities’ issues and to making our children’s dreams reality—but also to the challenge of creating a stronger, more beautiful nation where all of our children can bloom.  

Whether Native or non-Native, students who study ranchland management at a tribal college in the Great Plains, the arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts, nursing in rural Montana where health care worker shortages are threatening the longevity of its citizens, these students and others who become electricians, social workers, and entrepreneurs are the key to our communities’ prosperity. 

Tribal colleges and universities, our students, and graduates are working to develop stronger, more vibrant communities nationwide. There is nothing to fear about that, no matter what the pundits and fearmongers might say. 

We thank you for joining us and honoring us with your support as we speak the truth about our Native histories and identities as we work to fulfill our commitment to create stronger Native communities and a stronger nation for a better America—where we can all thrive as committed and respectful neighbors. 

Please continue to follow this blog, where we will be sharing our vision for how we can make that happen together, ensuring the tribal colleges continue their remarkable work serving their communities, and that we ensure every Native student who wants an education has the resources to do so. 

 

Our Work Is Not Finished

As we learned last week, the nation’s legislators passed the Trump Administration’s reconciliation bill that included significant budget changes for many programs including many that serve Indian Country.

In spite of the outcome, we want to thank you for your calls and emails to your elected officials on behalf of Native students and Native higher education. You showed up for what is right: the future of our communities.

As you know from our advocacy, we opposed the reconciliation bill because of those budget changes and how they impacted education, health care, and safety. At the College Fund and throughout Indian Country, we are deeply worried about the cuts in funding and the changes in programs.

The future for all of our communities is intertwined with EVERY ONE of OUR shared communities. Our nation’s future depends on the future of every one of us. It is more critical than ever that we work together to educate the doctors, teachers, scientists and leaders of tomorrow.

The federal budget will have a profound impact on education, not just for Native communities, but for everyone. And although much was lost, we want to take time and remember our work together culminated in a few wins, too. For example, Pell Grants remain intact, ensuring the nation’s low- to middle-income students can study and enter the careers of their choice. In addition, “Workforce Pell Grants” were added for qualifying students enrolled in accredited workforce programs in high-skill, high-wage areas, even if the programs were short-term.

Know that our work is not finished. In Native cultures, we believe we cannot afford to throw away a single person’s gifts. Every individual has something to contribute, and every talent must be fostered for us all to flourish. To that end, we invite you to continue to walk beside us as we work to ensure Native students can further their education to give back to their communities—and that the remarkable tribal colleges and universities who serve Native and rural communities keep their doors open to graduate the skilled and talented workers we need.

We will be sharing our initiatives on our web site and social media regularly and we look forward to working alongside you as we work together to build a better future for our children, grandchildren, and generations to come.