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Scholarship, Practice, and Philanthropy to Support Indigenous Students in Minnesota: An ASHE Institute with Minnesota Tribal College Leaders
Presented by Ascendium

Leadership

The project is being led by Project Chair(s), Natalie Youngbull (University of Oklahoma) and Roberto C. Orozco (University of Minnesota–Twin Cities) and ASHE Executive Director Jason Guilbeau.

About the Institute

Building upon the tremendous success of the Institute in 2021 in Puerto Rico and Institute in 2022 in Las Vegas, the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) is once again seeking to engage with local higher education leaders in our 2024 conference location, Minnesota. For this year’s Institute, we aim to engage with Tribal Colleges, namely Red Lake Nation College (Red Lake, Minnesota and Minneapolis, Minnesota) and Leech Lake Tribal College (Cass Lake, Minnesota). We will also incorporate into our discussion two other tribal colleges: Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (Cloquet, Minnesota) and White Earth Tribal and Community College (Mahnomen, Minnesota), broadly. 

Based on the experience of the past two years, we have found the discussions with institutional leaders to be the most pivotal part of the process. As such, we are proposing to refocus our efforts on developing deeper relationships and instead of a final report, a future focused agenda that will be shared via a webinar in early 2025. The project will focus on listening to institutional leaders and then facilitating discussions on how scholarship, practice, and philanthropy can inform their work and vice versa.

We will once again aim to align key areas of this project to the key areas of Ascendium:
  1. Removing Structural Barriers to Success, engaging with effective practices as well as identifying misaligned policies and practices to student access into Tribal Colleges.
  2. Streamlining Key Learner Transitions, engaging with transitions between Tribal Colleges and state or private institutions.
  3. Supporting Rural Postsecondary Education and Workforce Training, engaging with connections between Tribal Colleges and Rural Colleges.

 We are grateful to Ascendium for their continued support of this event once again this year.

The Institute will aim to bridge connections amongst Institute attendees to expand access to higher education as well as a college students’ success. The outcomes of the Institute will occur in four phases:

  1. Part One: Identification and Understanding. Part One of the project focuses on identifying leaders from each institution. As of August 2024, the Co-Chairs have worked to identify who our partners are for each institution. The TCU Leaders will participate in listening and discussion sessions with Project Co-Chairs to understand how this project can best support their work.
  2. Part Two: Relationships and Research. The second part of the project will identify ASHE members who have scholarly expertise in the key areas identified. A Call for Participants will be based on what is learned in Phase One. Once identified, team members will work with Project Co-Chairs and TCU leaders to develop relationships and understand the institutions. Teams will be identified by September 9, 2024. Three team meetings will be held leading to the November 2024 gathering
    1. September 16, 2024: Introduction to the project; Review of the Truth Report
    2. September 30, 2024: Introduction to Red Lake Nation College and Leech Lake Tribal College
    3. October 28, 2024: Identify Agenda Items for Site Visit to RLNC
  3. Part Three: Part Three will be at the ASHE 2024 General Conference where a full-day session will be held with TCU leaders and ASHE team members. The day will focus on creating an Agenda for Scholarship, Practice, and Philanthropy to Support Indigenous Students in Minnesota. The session will be facilitated by the Project Co-Chairs. The date of the institute will be Wednesday, November 20, 2024 and will be hosted by Red Lake Nation College (Minneapolis campus).
  4. Part Four: ASHE will coordinate a webinar in early 2025 to share the agenda and invite TCU campus leaders, ASHE members, and Ascendium partners to attend.

Thank You

Thank you to the Tribal College Leaders who engaged with us through this Institute:

  • Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
    • Anita Hanson, President
    • Damien Paulson, Interim VP Student Services and Enrollment Managment
    • Roxanne Delille, Dean of Indigenous and Academic Affairs
    • Sara Montgomery, Dean of Education
    • Courtney Kowalczak, Environmental Institute Director
  • White Earth Tribal and Community College                
    • Anna Sheppard, President
    • Tracy Diefenbach, Dean of Academics and Student Services
  • Red Lake Nation College        
    • Nadine King, Executive Director of Minneapolis Site
    • Jeff Jones, Faculty–Math and Technology
    • Tami Nendick, Dean of Academics      
  • Leech Lake Tribal College      
    • Helen Zaikina-Montgomery, President

Thank you to the Red Lake Nation College students who joined us for a lunch time panel:

  • Alyssa Fisher-Vizenor, Liberation Education
  • Ron Cloud, Liberation Education
  • Summer May, Environmental Science
  • Scott Lehn, Liberal Education

Research Teams

The three teams of ASHE members and Minnesota Tribal College leaders would address various streams of student success and its intersections with institutional, state, and federal policy. 

  1. Removing Structural Barriers to Success, engaging with effective practices as well as identifying misaligned policies and practices to student access into Tribal Colleges.

  2. Streamlining Key Learner Transitions, engaging with transitions between Tribal Colleges and state or private institutions.

  3. Supporting Rural Postsecondary Education and Workforce Training,engaging with connections between Tribal Colleges and Rural Colleges.

The goal is to learn from Tribal Colleges about the work that they are doing in the context of Minnesota Higher Education. We will host listening and planning sessions in September and October. From this, we will host an All-Day Institute to develop an Agenda for Scholarship, Practice, and Philanthropy to Support Indigenous Students in Minnesota. Each team will work collaboratively with Tribal College leaders to develop the agenda for our webinar in Spring 2025, presented by ASHE and Ascendium.