NEWS
U.S. Department of Defense Awards Equipment Grant
Horsemanship Training Offered At Tribal College
SBC Receives Native American Library Services Enhancement Grant
Standing Rock Public Transportation Staff Achieve National Certification
Like family: Tribal colleges nurture American Indian students
Graduate shares her success story
Sitting Bull College looks to the future
Center focuses on communications skills
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| U.S. Department of Defense Awards Equipment Grant |
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FORT YATES, ND – As Sitting Bull College continues to expand its Bachelor of Science degree programs, the U.S. Department of Defense awards an Equipment grant in the amount of $200,627, with funding earmarked for the purchase of new laboratory equipment in the Sitting Bull College Analytical Chemistry Laboratory.
Dr. Gary Halvorson, the Director of the SBC Laboratory said “this funding will not only help us to enhance our current Bachelor of Science degrees in the Environmental Science discipline, but will also allow us to advance our capability in analyzing water, soil, plant and animal tissue”
Currently, SBC offers Bachelors degrees in Environmental Science and Secondary Science Education, along with an SBC laboratory that includes an atomic absorption spectrophotometer with graphite furnace, UV/VIS spectrophotometer, IR spectrophotometer, HPLC and gas chromatograph.
“With this grant we will be able to purchase a new atomic absorption spectrophotometer, an automated mercury analyzer, and an auto analyzer.” Halvorson said. “This new equipment will help SBC in seeking accreditation from the EPA for analyzing water samples under the Safe Drinking Water Act.”
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| Horsemanship Training Offered At Tribal College |
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FORT YATES, ND - As Sitting Bull College continues to expand its new $40 million campus, students and community members alike are being offered the opportunity to learn about the care and training of horses through a certified Horsemanship program.
The offered training is part of a nine month certificate program, listed under the Animal and Range Science course-Agriculture division, at Sitting Bull College.
Joe Dunn, director of the SBC Horsemanship program said, “students who enroll in the certificate program will be assigned the responsibility of caring for horses, while receiving hands-on training.”
The program also provides classroom instruction and hands-on activities related to the principles of horsemanship, including an opportunity for students to participate in National Inter-Collegiate Rodeo Association events, assisting local area schools in establishing rodeo teams and events, studying Equine management practices, learning about the Agriculture industry and an invitation for students to participate in two annual horse rides, Future Generations Ride and Chiefs Ride, hosted by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Sitting Bull College and local area ranchers along the route.
Program guidelines allow for participants to learn about the spiritual significance of the Lakota/Dakota horse culture, mixed with an opportunity to learn about historical and modern practices in equine management.
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| SBC Receives Native American Library Services Enhancement Grant |
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Standing Rock Sioux Tribe - Fort Yates, ND
Award Amount: $132,604
Contact: Mr. Mark Holman
Library Director
701-854-8024; markh@sbci.edu
Project Title: "Sitting Bull College Library Revitalization and Archives Project"
On behalf of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Sitting Bull College Library, serving also as the community’s public library, will use its grant to purchase furnishings for its new library building, extend hours and service by adding a full-time staff person, pull together a vast number of Standing Rock historical documents, and gather and display 45 unique photographs of Sitting Bull. The various elements of this project are in response to priorities identified by the community, including increased library service and hours. In addition, community members, students, and researchers studying the history of the Standing Rock Sioux will now be able to access primary documents, including Census and agency records, military and church records, newspapers, and personal papers without having to travel to distant archives. And, with the display of Sitting Bull photographs in the new library, community members will be able to reconnect with their revered leader and ancestor.
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| Standing Rock Public Transportation Staff Achieve National Certification |
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FORT YATES – Seven employees of the Standing Rock Public Transportation Program have successfully met certification requirements from the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) and have been recognized for their professional achievements.
Pamela Ternes, Director of the Transportation Program has been approved by CTAA’s National Certification Council to be awarded the designation Certified Community Transit Manager (CCTM). The CCTM Program recognizes community transit managers for specific skills they have acquired through experience, education and professional development and a passing score on the certification exam that demonstrates proficiency in human resources, finance, operations, and development of transit programs. An announcement will be published in the next issue of Community Transportation Magazine to recognize Mrs. Ternes’ membership as a CCTM.
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| Like family: Tribal colleges nurture American Indian students |
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This story originally appeared in the Bismarck Tribune.
By SARA KINCAID
Bismarck Tribune
When Jan Janecek-Hartman says she wants her students in class she's not kidding. She will find them.
Once, she went to a student's dorm room and caught him watching cartoons when he should have been in class.
She is one of many faculty members at United Tribes Technical College who will do the same thing. Partly, it's a strict attendance policy, but it's something more that has instructors checking on their students. They want their students to succeed.
"I honest to God don't believe it's not for trying, but access and opportunity," Janecek-Hartman said.
American Indian students represent about 1 percent of students enrolled in higher education, according to a National Center for Education Statistics report on fall 2006 enrollment. White students, by comparison, represent 59 percent of students in higher education. Other ethnicities make up the remainder of students.
Some students, however, are choosing tribally-owned colleges and universities over other institutions because of the services they provide and the smaller atmosphere.
"The college environment makes me feel welcome, like family," said Keshia Kills Small, a student at Sitting Bull College on the Standing Rock reservation.
Small lives in family housing with her husband and young son. She came to Sitting Bull College from the Navajo reservation. Her mother is a member of the Standing Rock Tribe.
She's studying nursing because she wants to help people. When she's done she'd like to get a job in the Southwest, preferably on the Navajo reservation.
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| Graduate shares her success story |
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This story originally appeared in the Bismarck Tribune.
By SARA KINCAID
Bismarck Tribune
FORT YATES - A man called out bingonumbers and music played from a nearby booth.
Tami Bird Horse sat in a folding chair, bingo card on the table in front of her, talking with two young girls.
The weather cooperated for the Sitting Bull College Fun in the Sun event put on by Student Services. Bird Horse graduated from the college in 2000 and wanted the girls to see the campus and meet some of her former professors.
"I encourage my students to get an education ... when education is right here, take advantage of it," she said.
She took advantage of the education in Fort Yates later in life. She already had two children, and gave birth to another child near graduation.
The college didn't offer day care then, and she recalls one of her professors holding her baby on an occasion when she couldn't find a sitter and she had a test.
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| Sitting Bull College looks to the future |
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This story originally appeared in the Bismarck Tribune.
By SARA KINCAID
Bismarck Tribune
FORT YATES - A highway divides Sitting Bull College from the past and its future.
In Fort Yates is the old campus, a series of flat-roofed, rectangular buildings. One has the nickname "Bucket Hall" because of the containers that line the hallway when it rains.
On the edge of Fort Yates, tucked into the bluffs along Highway 1806, are the rosy brick and metal buildings of the new campus. The hallways are dry when it rains.
The dichotomy of the Sitting Bull campuses reflects that of the American Indian student. They come from poor, rural reservation communities with hopes to create a better life for their family and community. But the odds are sometimes against them succeeding because of inadequate schooling and poverty.
"It all stems from economics. Every characteristic that is identified with American Indians … that's not Indian, that's poverty," said Greg Gagnon, Indian studies professor at the University of North Dakota.
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| Center focuses on communications skills |
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FORT YATES - In the spring of 2007, The American Indian College Fund, based in Denver, announced a $17.5 million, historic grant initiative from the Lilly Endowment Inc.
The program, named Woksape Oyate, Lakota for "Wisdom of the People," aims to build the intellectual capital at many of the federally recognized tribal colleges.
In November 2007, Sitting Bull College was awarded $700,000 of the $17.5 million Lily Endowment and has used the initial funding to establish a 7th Generation Academic Excellence Center in hopes of enhancing the intellectual capital of its students and future leaders on the Standing Rock Reservation.
Sitting Bull College received its first installment in November 2007, with four additional payments of $140,000 each scheduled over the next four years.
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