(This is similar to my high school experience, where I attended a predominantly white school and felt isolated from my own people throughout my high school learning.) To thrive, I am finding and creating spaces for indigenous people on campus. I feel disconnected because I do not relate to other students culturally. In my own experience attending a non-tribal college, I have faced an intense lack of Native representation. Each of these gaps diminishes the safety of Native identities in higher-education institutions. Because of our histories of loss of language, distance from traditional practices and distrust of outside communities, we may feel alienated in academic settings.

There are often cultural distances and language barriers between Native students and non-Native students and faculty. There is a severe lack of educational funding in tribal communities, and a lack of connection with other educational opportunities geographically.Īnd even Natives who overcome these barriers and make it to an institution of higher education still face obstacles and may have a more difficult time than their white counterparts. Colleges and universities need to remove barriers that prevent Native students from thriving in college.Īccording to Partnership with Native Americans, “only 17 percent of American Indian students are able to continue their education after high school, facing a number of challenges the average student does not encounter.” Native youth are much more likely to attend high-poverty schools than their white peers, leading them to be underprepared for college. In pursuing my degree, I am weaponizing my knowledge so that I can fight a world that my people have been left out of for centuries.īut in order for more Native youth like me to be able to access college, institutions of higher learning need to address their ignorance of the realities, histories and cultures of Native communities.

Higher education has always represented a significant milestone for me - my heart is with my people, and I know that I can serve Indian Country better by expanding my mind. That’s why I am pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. But regardless of my dream career, as an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, I’ve always known I want a job that allows me to give back to my tribal community. As a kid, I changed my mind a few times about what I wanted to be when I grew up: first an anthropologist, then a doctor, and now a psychologist.

Remove native access