ACT Center for Equity to Host Free Webinar June 3 on Using American Indian College Fund’s College-Going Student Guidebook for Native Americans

Published May 24, 2019

DENVER — Education professionals working with Native American high school students can attend a free webinar on Monday, June 3 at 2 p.m. EDT, introducing Native Pathways: A College-Going Guidebook, a new, culturally relevant guidebook for college-going Native students published by the American Indian College Fund.

The webinar, hosted by the College Fund and ACT’s Center for Equity in Learning, will:

• describe the need for a guidebook tailored to Native students;
• provide an overview of guidebook content related to how to get into college, choose a school, pay for it, and what to expect the first year in a way that speaks to Native cultures;
• demonstrate how practitioners can use the guidebook in daily work with students.

Practitioners can register for the event on the ACT’s web site, Students, school counselors, and others can download a free copy of the Native Pathways: A College-Going Guidebook on the College Fund’s web site.. Hard copies may be available for some high schools. Please send an email to nativepathways@collegefund.org for more information.

The guidebook was created as part of the Native Pathways to College Program, also funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The College Fund launched the program to meet the needs of tribal communities and in response to the college-going and completion crisis amongst Native American and Alaska Native students. Research shows the national rate of all students going to college within six months of graduating from high school is 70%. For Native American and Alaska Native students, those numbers are closer to 20%.

The College Fund knows that education improves the lives of individuals, their families, and entire communities, yet merely providing scholarships to help students pay for college is not enough for Native students to succeed. It is critical to include Native students in conversations regarding educational equity. This new Native Pathways guidebook is a great starting point to guide practitioners in their conversations. The College Fund initiated the program to create a college-going culture, working with high school students, first-year, students, and two-year college students seeking to continue their education at a four-year school. With a $2.5 million grant renewal from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the College Fund will continue to increase college access and success.