Red Cloud Hosts Reservation College Fair for Second Year
posted October 21, 2015
Yesterday morning buses full of students from schools across the Pine Ridge Reservation pulled onto Red Cloud Indian School’s campus to participate in the 2015 Pine Ridge Planning Days — part of a national association of college fairs started last year with the Dakota Association for College Admission Counseling (DACAC). Nakina Mills, director of student advancement and alumni support at Red Cloud, helped initiate the planning for the college fair hosted by the school.
Over 40 state and regional colleges and universities from the midwest, as well as military service representatives, filled the Paul “Dizzy” Trout Memorial Fieldhouse ready to engage with students in middle and high schools from across the 3,469 square mile Pine Ridge Reservation. Almost 250 Red Cloud students and an additional 350 from the Pine Ridge and Little Wound schools moved through rows of information tables taking in as much as they could from the only college fair to be held on the reservation each year. With more than 90% of Red Cloud graduating seniors pursuing post-secondary opportunities in the military and at colleges and vocational-technical schools around the country, Red Cloud is a vital stop for colleges recruiting high-performing Native students.
Amanda Carlow, high school counselor and coach, believes a major benefit of the fair is providing the opportunity for students to hear first-hand from post-secondary opportunities in the region. “Some of the kids may not leave [the reservation] very often for things like this. There were colleges from different states that came offering different programs...They were asking [students], ‘What are you interested in?’ and really getting them into conversation about how to go about earning degrees at their school.” Carlow reported that there were also financial aid representatives available to the students - an important resource for students coming from what is arguably the poorest county in the country.
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Photos © 2015 Red Cloud Indian School, Inc.