{"id":7528,"date":"2023-12-11T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/?p=7528"},"modified":"2024-01-12T09:42:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T15:42:15","slug":"equity-and-inclusion-at-heart-of-interns-research-on-tribal-colleges-and-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/es\/blog\/equity-and-inclusion-at-heart-of-interns-research-on-tribal-colleges-and-universities\/","title":{"rendered":"Equity and Inclusion at Heart of Intern\u2019s Research on Tribal Colleges and Universities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following his time as an intern with Every Learner Everywhere\u00ae, Joe Rendon, a senior at Fort Lewis College in Colorado, would like to work with faculty helping to design courses that are more equitable, including for the 65 percent of its students who are Indigenous.<\/p>\n

For example, he\u2019d like to design a course for students whose first language isn\u2019t English, \u201cmaybe by taking academic language down a notch so students have a better opportunity to understand what is being taught to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says equity depends on closing the disconnect the institution or instructors may have with students. One particular disconnect he notes is the impact on Indigenous students when every syllabus at Fort Lewis acknowledges that the institution used to be an Indian Boarding School.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile that might be interesting for students from Denver who don\u2019t know that history,\u201d Rendon says, \u201cthere isn\u2019t a need to recollect that trauma and continuously bring it into the classroom for the Native students. They want to focus on where they are now, as individuals and as a people. Focusing on that trauma isn\u2019t equitable and doesn\u2019t provide a safe space for those Native students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fort Lewis is one of the 37 Native-American Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTI)<\/a> that, along with Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU), are an important part of the college experience for Indigenous students. Rendon\u2019s experience at Fort Lewis has been informing his research project during his Every Learner internship in fall 2023 on what NASNTIs and historically white institutions can learn from TCUs about creating equitable learning environments.<\/p>\n