^ The 'Way O See Ot^\ ^ fry Dn Dean Choverw, Albuquerque, New Mexico J Finding Scholarshps for Indian Students (c) Copyright, 2001 Two of the stories about college that have stuck w ith me the most have been about a San Francisco State College student and myself. Let me tell you about them. About 26 years ago, I learned that there is a lot of money available for Indian college students. J. Ben Lucero. who was the EOPS Director at Palomar College at the time, came up to the Indian Center of San Jose to' train my education staff on applying for college, finding scholarships, and the like. ?Ben, who was also the President of the California Indian Fducation Association at the time, told us of an Indian girl who had finished at Palomar the year before. Since Palomar is a two-year college, she had to transfer to San Francisco to complete her four vear degree. She could have gotten the $4,500 she needed to pay for college in federal financial aid..(Everything was cheaper back then.) But Ben told her about private scholarships. She applied to 20 scholarships and won $10,000 a year in scholarship money. With the extra money, she bought herself a new Mustang and went to college in style. (You could buy a new Mustang then for $2,500.) Unfortunately, her story got to me about 15 years too late. When I finished high school as the valedictorian of a small rural high school, I know now I should have had the money to go to college. I should have gotten it from scholarships. But no one at my high school told me about scholarships. So 1 finished high school and started looking for a job. These were Eisenhower days, so it took me almost five months to find a job. Finally, I landed a factory job at Hercules Powder Co. in Hopewell, VA. After working there for 11 months, I had a grubstake and quit to go to college. During that year, Mrs. Collier, a lady in our church, came up to me one Sunday. She had heard I was working and saving money for college. "Son, do you need a scholarship?" she asked me. "Yes, mam," I said. "I'll bring you an application next Sunday," she said. She brought the application, 1 completed it, and got the scholarship for $200. That is the only scholarship I got as an undergraduate. I now resent that no one in my.high school told me about scholarships. The same thing is still happening to Indian students today. High schools are not telling them about scholarships. High school libraries in Indian schools do not have any scholarship directories in their holdings. Everyone- parents, teachers, students, counselors, foundation officials, principals, school board members, superintendents- assumes that Indian students will automatically be eligible for federal financial aid. Not alt of them are. If both parents are working, and the family income is $50,000, an Indian student will not be eligible for any financial aid. One of the foundation presidents told me just two weeks ago, "It has been my experience that money is no object to an Indian student. The money seems to be there for them to attend college." He is half right. But he is also half wrong. Students who qualify for financial aid, which is 90% of Indian students, can get financial aid. But students who do not qualify, because their parents make too much money, can not get any financial aid. Their alternatives are work, parents, loans, and scholarships. What is the big alternative? It is the private sector, specifically the 50,000 or more scholarships that are available. Private scholarships have been in existence almost from the time of the founding of the first college in the U.S. They are funded and overseen by a wide variety of philanthropists, educators, bankers, lawyers, special interest groups, occupational groups, doctors, dentists, and many others The two thingsJ hate hearing the most from scholarship people is; (1) "We could not give away all our money last year," and (2) "Why don't we ever get an application from an Indian student?" Ben showed me how to use the resource 26 years ago, and I have been trying to use it to the maximum extent for Indian students ever since. But sometimes 1 feel like I am swimming in molasses. The pace of change and improvement in our Indian schools is so slow. But 1 found a bright spot recently at the annual meeting of the United South and Eastern Tribes (USET). Sam Lambert, my friend from Quallah, is the Chairman of the Education Committee, and he invited me to talk to the tribal representatives about our program. He also invited a charming and enthusiastic professor from UNC Charlotte to attend. Her name is Dr. Kathryn Johnson. Dr. Johnson has developed the Native American Scholarship Database Project to "enable as mam students as possible to receive a good education," she says. "Educated men and women will be the hope of the Nations in the future." I could not agree with her more. Her goals are laudable. "I hope we can develop a nationwide program that will meet the needs of both young and traditional students" she told me. So far, she has built scholarship databases for Indians in thirteen states; Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina.X)klahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Texas. She is still working on developing databases in the big Indian StatesArizona. New Mexico, California, Washington, Oregon, South Dakota, Minnesota, and so on. These databases are available as CD-ROMs and through her web site (http://www.uncc.edu/kvjohnso/). "Students who visit the Web site will find materials regardless of which state they live in or where they attend school," she says. "However, manuals have not yet been prepared for every state. If a tribal government from a state not listed would like information. I will do the research and get the information out to them as quickly as possible." The funding she has received so far has mc fmm h