BROOKINGS, S.D. — On Nov. 15, the USDA announced an investment of $5 million to support tribal students at 15 different land-grant colleges and universities across the country.
One of the schools chosen for the New Beginning for Tribal Students grant was South Dakota State University. The university has received the grant from the USDA in the past.
“It’s called the Igluwiyeya program, which means to prepare oneself. So, it’s just a continuation essentially of the work that we’ve already been doing,” Keely Eagleshield, program coordinator for the Wokini Initiative at South Dakota State University.
The Igluwiyeya program is used to enhance student success, both at SDSU and other partnering tribal colleges and universities.
One thing they do is hire college access liaisons that are essentially outreach coordinators in tribal communities.
“What they do is help student understand how to apply for college, what programs are a good fit for them and then get them connected with SDSU,” Eagleshield said.
They also put some funding toward summer programming.
“Which is something that we have tried to explore in the past,” Eagleshield said. “This time around we’re really looking forward to enhancing summer programming for visiting students, for high school students and then we are also using the fund for supporting existing students.”
The difference between this new grant and the previous funding is that now it will be used to support high school students and current students looking to achieve higher degrees.
“Before it wasn’t really looking at high degrees, it was just looking at students trying to graduate. But now that we’ve increased our numbers, we’re really trying to see what we can do to support our students that want to pursue a higher degree,” Eagleshield said. “A lot of the Wokini scholars that we have now are looking at doing Ph.D. programs, master’s degrees, so we want to really support that endeavor for them.”
Although this grant is awarded by the USDA, it reaches more degree paths than just students studying agriculture.
“That is a misconception that I think a lot of people do have about the USDA grant opportunities; it isn’t just agriculture in the way that many people think of it. Even though it is agriculturally based, they do support an umbrella of degrees and pathways,” Eagleshield said.
Eagleshield says that while many people think that Native American students struggle with completing higher education degrees because of financial issues, that is just a small part of it.
“The overall issues that students have when they come to college is feeling like they don’t belong, so they lack that sense of belonging,” she said. “So, with this type of grant opportunity, we can support students programming so that they feel more comfortable on campus and then can succeed in that way. Then the financial backing is a small portion that again, every student faces that issue, so we are just making the students a little more comfortable culturally here on campus.”
Eagleshield hopes that with this new funding, they are able to prepare students to reach higher education goals and be able to prepare students to leave a lasting impact on their communities.
“A lot of them want to go back to their communities, they want to help the reservations grow, but they just don’t know how to do that,” she said. “So, with this new granting opportunity, a huge piece of it, I really hope to see what programming and what opportunities the students can build and help Wokini Initiative build with those tribal communities and create partnerships and more long-lasting opportunities for those communities.”
Other area schools that received this funding include Montana State University, Salish Kootenai College and University of Wyoming.
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