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College journey begins

Native American students receive orientation at FLC

Fort Lewis College began the 2015-16 school year Friday with its Convocation, officially bringing freshmen and transfer students into the collegiate fold.

“I hope you make the next four years the most exciting of your life,” associate philosophy professor Dugald Owen said in his greeting at the ceremony in a packed Whalen Gymnasium. “You’re already discovering the magnificent mountains and deserts that surround the college. With luck, you’ll get out in rainstorms, stuck on mountain passes, encounter a bear, capsize on the Animas (River). But don’t swallow.”

Incoming students had already had a couple of busy days, with a wide variety of special activities for Native American, Hispanic, transfer and international students, along with the regular new-to-college orientation.

On Thursday, the Native American Center held a full morning session for the incoming students and parents, with more than 325 parents and students attending.

“We broke the students into 10 groups, with two upperclassmen per group,” said Yvonne Bilinski, director of the center. “We wanted them to interact with each other and start forming bonds and a sense of community.”

The upperclassmen took the students on tours, showing them the buildings where their potential majors are taught and the upperclassmen’s favorite spots, which ranged from Whalen Gym to the rim overlooking Durango.

“I was surprised when I came to Fort Lewis,” said senior Trevor Gomez, 24, who has a Chippewa-Cree heritage and helped with the tours, “because I only expected tribes from the Southwest, the Navajo, the Utes, the Hopi, the Pueblos. It can be uncomfortable to be around different tribes, which have different practices for students who haven’t been around this kind of tribal diversity before.”

Two statistics stuck with him from the session, he said.

“They think that as of this freshman class, 33 to 34 percent of the Fort Lewis student body will self-identify as Native American,” Gomez said. “And nationwide, only 0.7 percent of Native Americans graduate from college.”

Some of those students may not qualify for the tuition waiver, which is a big draw for many Native American students and is a complicated formula. FLC is only one of two institutions of higher learning in the country offering the waiver along with Minnesota State University Moorhead. During the last school year, 25 percent of the student body was attending through the tuition waiver.

“This is one of the treaties the government hasn’t broken,” Gomez said. “The language of the treaty says something like the waivers will last ‘as long as the water flows and the grass grows.’”

Parents, students adjust

While the students were out getting to know their new homes, parents raised a number of concerns with a panel including Bilinski, faculty members and students.

“The top three concerns were money, communications and (marijuana) dispensaries,” Bilinski said, adding that marijuana is forbidden everywhere on campus.

For Patrick Quick Bear, whose daughter Brittany is planning to study education, the worry is having her six hours away by car.

“The rest of our children are going to school near us in Colorado Springs, only two, three hours away,” his wife, Shelly, said. “He worries about what will happen if she gets sick or breaks a leg.”

The Quick Bears hail from the Lakota Sioux tribe, and the tuition waiver was one of the reasons Brittany Quick Bear came to FLC, along with the reputation of its education program as top-notch. She’s planning to teach math, but will also be involved in a work-study program with the theater department, which is one of her passions.

“I’m thinking about minoring in theater,” she said, “but most schools have 10 math teachers and one theater teacher.”

In the meantime, she’s focusing on adjusting to college, she said.

Incoming freshman Sabrina Quarzza, who hails from Southern California, is a member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe.

“It’s nice to be identified as Native American instead of Hispanic,” she said. “People are asking me ‘What tribe are you from?’ instead of saying ‘Hola. ¿Cómo estás?’”

Qualifying for the tuition waiver has been a challenge, her mother, Jennifer Quarzza, said.

“I was adopted, and the records are closed,” she said. “We had to get an attorney, and we’re still working on it.”

Supporting student success

The days have been just as busy for faculty and staff, President Dene Kay Thomas said.

“Every time I get a break, I’ve been going over to the residence halls,” she said Thursday afternoon, while students were moving in. “If there’s a door open, I stick my head in, introduce myself, and say ‘We’re so glad you chose to come here.’”

FLC, like most public colleges, often has students coming and going, transferring and working their way through school, she said.

“We’re working hard on the concept of ‘Finish in Four’” she said, “and we’re unfurling a banner for the Class of 2019 at Convocation. As our costs go up, it will be more important to move students through, so the price of their college education isn’t insurmountable.”

As part of the initiative, FLC is building up its support for students, she said.

“We’ve hired several more student-success coaches,” she said. “We’re going to be much more intrusive in advising and intervening, trying to catch students early when they’re struggling.”

Faculty will be on the lookout for students who are missing classes or not turning in assignments, she said.

Gomez said catching it early will make a big difference.

“My one piece of academic advice is: ‘Do not fall behind in classes, especially upper-division classes,’” he said. “It is so hard to catch up.”

abutler@durangoherald.com

Jan 16, 2016
Fort Lewis College: Nonresidents catching up with Coloradans
Aug 28, 2015
At Convocation, a ‘charge’ to incoming FLC students


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