Volunteers of the New Year
Posted August 29, 2007

Eleven college graduates from across the country have moved onto the Red Cloud Indian School campus as part of the school’s volunteer program. The 11 graduates join three returnees, Erin Anderson, Mike Sunderland and Jessica Keating.

Originally started in the 1960s, the Red Cloud Volunteer Program invites men and women to serve the Oglala Lakota people of the Pine Ridge Reservation through work in Jesuit schools and parishes on the reservation. Red Cloud volunteers work with students of all ages at each of the three Red Cloud Schools.

Ian Mitchell, director of the volunteer program, says the volunteers learn of the “four pillars”: service, simple living, sharing faith and community. 

“We hope to instill with them the desire to live by the values of the program,” he says. “To live by them is growth, because the values are challenging and to live by one can be a real challenge, let alone all four. I also expect them to have a loving attitude, not only towards those they teach but the ones they live with and work with also. Sometimes this can mean just listening rather than speaking.”

In the volunteers, Ian sees idealism. “Some people think that is a bad thing, but I do not. I believe people need to dream of a better world or at least of the possibility that there can be a better world,” he says. “Most of our volunteers are people who are very enthusiastic and have hope. They believe not only that they can give but they can learn much here at Red Cloud in the search for a richer life, whether through faith, service or community.”

This year is the first Red Cloud has had graduates from Creighton University on the reservation to volunteer, says Mitchell. The two graduates are on MAGIS, which is a program that assisted them in coming to the school, and enables them to teach while working on their masters’ degree.

New to campus is student activities director Emily Fischer, a South Dakota-native who comes to Red Cloud with the hope of understanding more about the Lakota culture, as well as herself. “I wanted to take some time off school to understand better how I might be able to serve the state that I grew up in,” Emily says. “I admit that I know little about Lakota history, and being someone from the state, I think I should know more. Living on the reservation will help in my personal education.”

As the student activities director, Emily seeks to integrate the Lakota heritage into the programs that come from her office. In particular, she looks forward to working with the Student Council, and getting full participation in student activities.

With the start of the new school year, Mitchell hopes the Red Cloud community will keep the volunteers, staff, students and people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in their hearts, minds and prayers, “as too often the people of America’s reservations seem to feel forgotten. The people of Red Cloud School are a sign that reconciliation and hope, is a path to greater life.”

Learn more about the Volunteer Program at Red Cloud Indian School by visiting their website.

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