Page 3 - 2020 October Report

Resilience
JSF and “the Plateau of Latent Potential”
I n 2014 Bea and I were in our rookie season as JSF Directors. The Board would visit Northwest Indian College (NWIC) to honor a retiring dear friend and long serving
Indigenous Consultant to JSF, Bob Lorence. This was my first visit to a Tribal College. I remember the emotional reception for Bob and his wife and how it reflected the genuine commitment to his
value of the previous work we have done. This can result in a “Valley of disappointment” where people feel discouraged after putting in weeks or months of hard work without experiencing any results. However, this work was not wasted. It is simply being stored. It is not until much later that the value of previous efforts is revealed.”
Last week I visited NWIC with Rick Williams. I recognized some structures on the campus. I was astonished by the growth. Since 2014, NWIC has constructed classrooms, a President’s suite and a library on their campus. (https://foundation.nwic. edu/capital-campaign/) Currently, they have plans to build a 21,407-square-foot multipurpose space/ gymnasium. We met with students over a ZOOM connection in a classroom equipped with state- of-the-art technology for virtual classes. While
JSF funding has not paid for this infrastructure, our scholarship dollars have proven to be a stabilizing force at NWIC.
We have grantee partners all over James Clear’s graph line of “what actually happens”. Their progress, like ours, is seldom linear. Clear notes that many quit in the “valley of disappointment”. To the contrary, JSF and our partners have demonstrated persistence in our work and the students we aim to serve are better for it. NWIC has made meaningful progress since 2015. Bob Lorence’s sentiments still ring true today. We are both grateful for the progress and equally aware that much is left to be done.
-- Bobby Krause
work. I remember the modest campus and the optimism of NWIC leadership and staff to build on the gains of the past. Bob and others were grateful to be a part of the meaningful growth of NWIC. We were also well aware of the tremendous work left to be done. NWIC, like many Tribal Colleges, had
experienced some success, but also faced some daunting challenges to become the institutions they aspired to be.
In Atomic Habits, James Clear offers an illustration that offers insight to behavior, inputs and results.
James Clear - “We often expect progress to be linear. At the very least, we hope it will come quickly. In reality, the results of our efforts are often delayed. It is not until months or years that we realize the true
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