{"id":36478,"date":"2022-11-27T14:11:58","date_gmt":"2022-11-27T14:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/whats-stopping-more-native-americans-from-graduating-college-the-cost-a-landmark-study-finds\/"},"modified":"2022-11-27T14:11:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T14:11:58","slug":"whats-stopping-more-native-americans-from-graduating-college-the-cost-a-landmark-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/whats-stopping-more-native-americans-from-graduating-college-the-cost-a-landmark-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s stopping more Native Americans from graduating college? The cost, a landmark study finds."},"content":{"rendered":"

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This story was originally published by <\/i>The 19th<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

As a teenager, Greta Gustafson was sure that she wanted to be a veterinarian. But when the time came to choose a college, she didn\u2019t have the financial means to simply apply to the higher education institutions with the best veterinary degree programs. She could only afford to apply to a few universities, ultimately enrolling in Montana State University, which stood out for its relatively inexpensive tuition, said Gustafson, who grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana, and is enrolled in the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons I stayed in state was strictly due to financial constraints,\u201d Gustafson said. \u201cAnd if that hadn\u2019t been a factor, I do think I would have probably gone elsewhere just for professional growth and life experience. I\u2019m happy with where I did go to school. It turned out to be very beneficial, but [finances] were a limiting factor in my application process.\u201d<\/p>\n

A national study on college affordability for Indigenous students<\/a> found that financial barriers often dictate where Native Americans apply for college and whether they graduate, once they enroll. Released as the 2022-23 school year began, the landmark study of nearly 2,800 Indigenous current and former college students found that half of participants chose their higher education institution based on the cost of attendance. Women are overrepresented among the Indigenous student population, making up 63 percent of current college students and 58 percent of former students surveyed for the report by the National Native Scholarship Providers (NNSP) \u2014 which consists of the Cobell Scholarship Program, American Indian College Fund, American Indian Science and Engineering Society and the Native Forward Scholars Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe it\u2019s the largest data set of its kind and one of the first of its kind,\u201d said Angelique Albert, CEO of Native Forward Scholars Fund. \u201cA lot of times, we as Native people are the asterisk. There\u2019s no data. There\u2019s limited data. We\u2019re statistically insignificant and all that, so it\u2019s nice to have a baseline of data for people to use.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study found that 72 percent of students reported running out of money at least once in the last six months, while more than a quarter experienced food insecurity and 16 percent experienced homelessness as they pursued a higher education. More than 30 percent of former Native students named the first year of college as the most difficult financially. A plurality of current and former students come from households with annual incomes of under $20,000 and struggled to manage unanticipated expenses related to health care, transportation, housing, technology and books during college.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main obstacle to college completion for our Native students is affordability,\u201d Albert said. \u201cAnd that is something that we as scholarship providers know and see every day. We talk to students who call in and are requesting emergency funding. I\u2019ve also spoken to students who have had to make a decision between having a house and going to school, and they made this decision to live out of their car so that they could go to school. That shows dedication to their education, but at the same time, their basic needs are not being met.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funding for the college affordability study was made possible by a 30-month grant that the American Indian College Fund received from the Lumina Foundation, which works to make higher education access more equitable. Terri Taylor, Lumina\u2019s strategy director for innovation and discovery, said that it\u2019s important to uncover the specific challenges of Indigenous students because they differ from other groups, including other students of color.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just affordability in a vacuum,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIt\u2019s understanding the unique experiences that these students bring. A lot of them go to college so they can bring back new knowledge, experiences, connections and resources to their tribal communities. If affordability barriers are too high, it blocks Native students\u2019 ability to bring all that back to their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that Native American women have higher representation in college than Native men is particularly significant. When women obtain credentials, Taylor said, they typically empower their whole family. \u201cIt immediately increases the likelihood of their own children going to college and having a financially stable future,\u201d she noted. \u201cOftentimes, women are taking care of parents or other family members. They are in the workforce at higher levels now, and so part of this is Native women accessing college partly to serve their communities and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Native Forward has supported more than 20,000 scholars throughout its 53-year history, and between 60 and 70 percent of its funding goes to women, Albert said. The organization has made a point to provide wraparound services during the COVID-19 pandemic, launching an emergency fund to help students pay for food, housing, gas, transportation and other living expenses to keep them in school. According to the college affordability study, just 36.2 percent of Indigenous students entering four-year colleges in 2014 completed their degree program in six years compared to 60.1 percent of all students.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe main obstacle to college completion for our Native students is affordability.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n