Page 25 - 2022 June Report

Resilience
Site visit report from Aaniiih Nakoda College (2)
The good news is beginning this semester they will have a new faculty position. Laurie Owens was hired this semester and will be taking over some of the work. Laurie graduated from ANC and has lived in the community for the past 14 years where she worked for the Indian Health Service and was most recently the Business Manager for the schools.
ANC currently has 12 students in the business program. Two of the students are part-time and the remaining students are working full-time. This number includes students who have transferred to a four- year institution to continue pursuing their business degrees. It costs $1,800 per semester to attend ANC, and the JSF scholarships provide approximately $2,000 per semester for each student. Generally, the students are older and have families. There are no dormitories for on campus housing for students. Some of the students commute daily from a remote community that is 40 miles away. This means that they are spending approximately $120 per week just to attend classes. In some cases, the transportation costs exceed the cost of tuition.
We had a brief discussion about what was their greatest current need. They are seeking ways to extend the business program offerings to their agribusiness students. In order to do this effectively they would need at least an additional halftime faculty person that would cost approximately $20,000 per year.
We met two students. One had just graduated with a 2-year Business tech degree. The delightful young man expressed his gratitude for having received a scholarship from JSF. The other student we briefly met as we were leaving and we did not get very much information about her.
We discussed our need for information about data on graduates, and Kristi showed us a list of every student who had received JSF funding and their current status. She said she would be updating it for her next report.
Rick completed a desk audit and there were no issues.
It has been a number of years since JSF has visited ANC. The college’s needs are still extraordinarily challenging. That has not changed during our years of helping this small underfunded rural college. Perhaps their greatest need is for a Development Director or a full-time grant writer. The concept of a development person seems far-fetched when there is little or no opportunities for accessing financial support from the community or in the surrounding area.
Survival is the hallmark of this precious little institution. The demonstrated commitment of the people who work at ANC is beyond noteworthy. We briefly met with the new President, Dr. Sean Chandler. Sean’s mother, Carole Falcon Chandler, was the former President. To an outsider this may seem inappropriate but to the informed, this is a blessing and a demonstration of one family’s dedicated commitment to preserving and perpetuating their culture, language, college and community by keeping it stable and vibrant. The visit left us with the gratification of knowing that our small contribution to this institution perhaps may be the most significant gift we can ever give – the gift of hope.
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