Advancing Tribal Students to College

Indigenous youth ages 18-24 consistently report significantly lower levels of enrollment in higher education than the national average. Current full-time American Indian/Alaskan Natives seeking a bachelor’s degree were the lowest of all ethnic and racial groups in the US. Tribal school dropout rates range from 25-35 percent.

I am proposing a Theory of Change solution for the Cheyenne River Eagle Butte High School, South Dakota involving the following: Tribal secondary students complete an Awato Career Interest Profile which highlights career paths, social /emotional intelligence and skill orientation. This profile guides the mentoring program during the student’s senior year and first year of college.

Current tribal college students at Cheyenne River Community College will serve as “Leader/Mentors” to assist high school students in the college application process. They will continue to mentor these students in their first year of college with specific attention to study skills, assignment completion, and class engagement.

Tribal students face significant barriers in transitioning to college. The current full-time tribal enrollment in four-year colleges of 39 percent is well below the national average. Lower expectations from families and first-generation students, fewer models, lower financial resources, and limited tribal economic growth all present barriers to college matriculation and completion.

In the Cheyenne River Eagle community many adults do not present viable career mobility and may offer limited support for first generation college-age youth. In the absence of peer and family support these students may lack purpose and revert to more immediate and basic needs.

This Leader/Mentor project will initially involve about 15-20 high school seniors (there are a total of 300 students at Cheyenne River Eagle High) and a similar number of college Leader/Mentors. With at least half of the Cheyenne River students not continuing their education the problem of unemployment and low-skill work persists. Going forward, the project can be scaled to at least half of the senior class by the second year and is readily transferable to other tribal schools and colleges.

An increase in the number of college educated youth is a simple but viable step toward improved economic and social outcomes for indigenous communities. 

The solution to advancing Native American youth to successful participation and completion of college includes the following:

1. High School Students complete and interpret the results (profile) of the online Awato career interest and job skill assessment. Awato will be the foundation of a structured mentor relationship with tribal college mentors. The New Hampshire DoE recently adopted Awato made it available for all the state’s secondary school students. Cheyenne River Eagle High School recently equipped all students with Chromebooks making the Awato assessment fully accessible.
2. Tribal college students will be recruited and trained to serve as Leader/Mentors to Cheyenne River Eagle High School seniors. This relationship will include support for college application and class registering throughout students' first year of college. A combination of online coaching and face-to-face meetings will be arranged using the ACE Model (Acknowledgement / Clarity-of-Direction / Expectations). The coaching/mentoring will focus on study skills, assignment completion, and presentation skills.
3. The Awato assessment will be revisited by the student and mentor with a focus on career paths, interest skills, and strengths which impact course selection and choice of major. Writing tutorial can eventually be introduced as a bridge program to strengthen communication skills using online and in-person delivery.

In this Leader/Mentor high school to college project I am reaching out to the Cheyenne River Eagle High School and the local Cheyenne River Community College (Oglala). This program is designed to strengthen the student access to college both in numbers of enrollment and retention and completion of degree programs. Most college-bound students at Cheyenne River Eagle River High enter their local community college. Upon graduation they have the option to proceed to any one of several state and regional four-year colleges in this region of South Dakota. The success rate improves when they move to four-year bachelor’s programs. The  critical access point for college education in this tribal community is the transition from high school to local community college.  This Leader/Mentor program acts to strengthen secondary school students’ access to and completion of four-year degree programs.

The increase in first generation college educated young adults can have an important impact on Native community economy, quality of life and percentage of future generations who pursue higher learning.

The focus on the Cheyenne River High School is both an intervention for the school students/staff and pilot to be refined and adapted by the larger school population.  The combined Awato assessment and Leader/Mentor role are the Fellowship’s design inputs for desired future outcomes (more students  transitioning from high school to college and increasing levels of retention and completion).These outcomes can have a positive impact on the future economic and social development of the indigenous community. Further, this solution can be scaled to other tribal schools and colleges with limited cost and potential for major increases in transitioning and retention.

I am using theory of change platform with online delivery of comprehensive AWOTO Career/Interest Assessment. It combines face to face and online ACE model for mentoring/coaching between college leader/mentor and Cheyenne River Eagle high school seniors. Individual online student profile is the basis of the mentoring relationship. High School students are to be equipped with school’s chrome books.

The core technology in this solution is the online delivery of Awato Assessment Profile, combined with online and face to face mentoring and use of the assessment profile to guide the mentoring relationship and to reinforce the ACE mentoring model (Acknowledgement/Clarity of Direction/ Expectations Defined)

The Awato Career/Interest Assessment has been reviewed and adopted by the New Hampshire Department of Education for all public high schools in the state.  There are currently 20 colleges who have also adopted Awato.

The inputs for the project’s theory of change include: AWATO online delivery of Assessment, Selection and training of Leader/ Leader/Mentor relationship/ Renew mentor relationship during first year of college for the /Cheyenne River Eagle HS graduate. Outputs include Leader/Mentor assisting in college application process, first year course selection, guidance on first year student study skills (writing resources, completion of assignments, note taking and speaking/listening skills). Outcomes include more students attending and completing local Oglala Lakota Community College and Outputs include enrolling and earning a four year college degree. Additionally, the increased level of education in the tribal community will have economic/social and health benefits for the current and next tribal generation.

This is a pilot program beginning in the fall of 2020 and will serve between 15 and 20 high School students and an equal number of college Leader/mentors. In the second year  the principal expects at least half of the seniors will participate and also engage in a summer bridge tutorial writing program (online and face to face). In five years the program would extend to all upper level students at Cheyenne River Eagle High School and be promoted through the region (South Dakota and Montana) with support from the US Bureau of Indian Education and the Congress of American Indians.

My goals for the coming year are a successful implementation of this pilot Leader/Mentor  program having a direct influence on high school students’ aspirations for a college education.  Within five years I believe the model will be refined to  adapt to additional tribal high schools and colleges in the region. Organizations like the Bureau of Indian Education, American Indian Higher Education Consortium and the Partnership with Native Americans may offer support in promoting the program in the wider northwest region of tribal Communities.

Possible barriers I anticipate during the first year include the impact of COVID 19 on the Cheyenne River Tribal community and the disruption it causes in opening and sustaining educational programs. Recruiting and training college students as Leader/Mentors will require effective support from the school’s guidance personnel and administration. I will also need to communicate by ZOOM or WebEx about the initial stages of using the AWATO Career Assessment.  In the next five years we will need to utilize the performance of the Leader/Mentor program and make program refinements to accommodate new school to college partnerships. Further, financial support from agencies and foundations will be important to support a larger region and  scale of tribal communities. Staffing the larger scale project within the Native populations will be essential to sustaining and expanding the program.

Overcoming the disruption of COVID-19 will require close cooperation with school professional staff (guidance counselors and administrators) We will be sensitive to their strategies for opening schools and insuring health and safety of faculty and students will be their priority. Administering the AWOTO  Assessment will require assistance from the school staff. Recruiting and training of college mentors will require good target marketing some rewards for college Leader/Mentors such as receiving credit for their role and possibly an honorarium.

Three members including one full-time project lead and two supporting consultants/contractors. 

The primary elements of the project including design, relationship-development, application of technology, implementation and monitoring progress are well defined in the Fellowship among the three team members. The team lead has decades of experience in education and consulting in a broad range of communities including working with disadvantaged urban communities and small rural communities.

While I have previous experience with many schools to college partnerships, I do not have formal partners among indigenous communities until the present project. Having recently engaged with the members of the Lakota tribe, I am now well positioned to work in partnership with them and their tribal school system.

My business model is based on design thinking where we continue to assess first generation tribal students’ needs as they explore access to college. Next, we generate ideas among the team members to move from divergent to convergent  thinking and conduct a prototype/pilot project which will provide corrective feedback and action to build to scale the project among tribal communities.

The pilot project can be financed with personal and Fellowship expenses as it represents a sample of one tribal high school. After the first year with successful results I will be able to raise funds and resources through guidance from MIT SOLVE and through Native American Agencies as mentioned in the earlier section of this solution. Also we will consider approaching foundations like Boston Foundation, Kauffman Foundation, Ford Foundation.

I have been following the SOLVE program for the last three years. I submitted a solution to the problem of Disadvantaged Youth and the Job Skills of the Future. I am a member of the Energy Club and attend MIT conferences and meetings on climate change and planetary health. My limited experience with indigenous communities and their problems with health, safety, unemployment, and lower levels of  education represent my concern for this ignored population.

We could use additional support in selection and training of college Leader/Mentors in establishing and implementing the Career/Interest Assessment. 

The selection of Cheyenne River Eagle High School students can effectively be done by the assigned guidance counselor with faculty input. However,  the recruitment and training of college Leader/Mentors will take several college leaders and faculty receiving support from my team about outreach and marketing the mentor roles. Additional

Support from MIT SOLVE projects dealing with education and or job skills would also strengthen the project.

Finally, support in gaining visibility for the project as it progresses would also help legitimize our work and in turn expand the project to other tribal communities.

MIT SOLVE Challenges, American Indian Higher Education Consortium, Partnerships with Native Americans, Oglala Community College, Oglala Lakota Community College of South Dakota. and foundations in support of  Indigenous Communities.