Student-Centered
College
P e athw v i t a N ays HELPS STUDENTS START
By Amy Stix
Walking onto a campus of 13,000 new faces for the first time can be intimidating for any freshman, but particularly for those incoming students who must travel far from family, friends and cultural ties. That’s one reason that in August 2010, the Native American Education Advisory Board initiated “Native Pathways to Success,” a targeted orientation program focusing on entering American Indian/Alaska Native freshmen. According to NAS Student Advisor, Jim Burns, who coordinated and led the Native Pathways to Success orientation, the program “was a great success.” Twenty-seven Native freshmen participated in the two-day orientation, as did seven families of incoming Native students. Burns noted that the program “came with great support from Dean Paula Lutz.” He also stressed that the new orientation for Native students was not designed to replace MSU’s orientation for all incoming freshmen. Rather, Native Pathways to Success, which occurred just prior to the all-student school introduction, “was a supplement” program, geared “to have a more focused effort on reaching out to Native students.” Burns said that for many Native American students, “There is such a strong connection with family and extended family. It’s such a fabric of their life.” Leaving those connections behind, especially for a young person who may be the only member of his or her tribe at MSU, “can be very intimidating.” Participants in the 2010 Native Pathways to Success Program. Photo by Kelly Gorham.
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SCHOOL ON SOLID FOOTING
Thus one of the goals of Native Pathways to Success was to “give (Native) students time at the university before the rush,” said Burns and make them aware that “they’re not in it alone. There are a lot of people on this campus that care about them.” That message of care and support came from a variety of MSU faculty, staff and students. Incoming freshmen and their families, who traveled from across Montana, and states including Colorado, Washington, New Mexico and Maryland, not only toured the campus and student housing arrangements, but also learned about MSU’s career services, financial aid and budgeting tools, extracurricular activities and student groups, as well as time management and study skills. After an opening prayer by Dr. David Yarlott, president of Little Big Horn College, MSU President, Waded Cruzado, welcomed incoming freshmen. They later heard from a panel of upper classmen Native students, who shared their own experiences and insights on adjusting to student life at MSU, through what Burns called an “open conversation” about the transition from high school to college. Perhaps most important, incoming Native students were provided the opportunity to meet one another in a social setting, which helped ease feelings of intimidation and loneliness in new surroundings. Current students joined freshmen and MSU staff for a barbecue, campfire and “sharing circle” at Langhor campground, followed by a sunrise hike the following morning up to the “M.” “The most important thing they take away is connecting to a community,” said Sheree Watson, who oversees MSU’s “Designing our Community” program, which recruits and retains Native American students in the College of Engineering.