Page 19 - November report 2023

DINÉ COLLEGE SITE VISIT
OCTOBER 5, 2023
Diné College Meeting Participants
Sharonna Yazzie-John - Financial Aid Manager Maria Thomas - Financial Aid Office
JSF Meeting Participants
Rick Williams - Indigenous Consultant John Glover - Indigenous Consultant
We started with introductions as there were new staff members at Diné College representing the financial aid office. Sharonna said that everything was going well. I was very impressed with their preparation. The only challenge was we had to view the files online. Other than that, they were well-prepared for the meeting.
Diné College has 565 Business and Entrepreneur students enrolled this fall. They have the most American Indian business students of all higher education institutions in the United States. They are currently receiving $125,000 a year for JSF scholarships. The average award for students at Diné College receiving the JSF scholarship was $1,800. They provided a list of all of the students that had been funded for the spring semester.
They are in their first year of their Masters in Business program. They said Diné College was pursuing accreditation to offer a Ph.D. in Diné studies.
Nolan Begay, our former JSF contact, stopped by to say hello. He is supervising all of Student Services. I thanked him for his service and said he had always done an excellent job. I also gave him a bolo that I was wearing that had Diné College on it.
Desk Audit
I reviewed the files for all students, and everything is OK with the transcripts. However, they have been funding some students who are not eligible for financial aid. They interpreted the language in the agreement to mean that the student was eligible if they had applied for financial aid. This will be corrected in the future.
We thanked them, and they said they would see us in Scottsdale.
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