Biennial Report 2009–2011 TABLE of CONTENTS Table of Contents
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AIGC Scholarships, Making a Difference Across the Country aigcs.org Biennial Report 2009–2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table Of Contents President’s Message 3 About AIGC 4-5 Message from the Director 6 AIGC Board of Directors 7 Scholarships and Fellowships 8-9 Educational Journey 10 Letter from an AIGC Alumnus 11 Student Letters 12-13 2009-2010 Demographic Information 14-15 2010-2011 Demographic Information 16-17 Honoring AIGC’s Generous Donors and Advertisers 18-19 AIGC Unconsolidated Financials Year End 2010 20-21 AIGC Unconsolidated Financials Year End 2011 22-23 AIGC Photo Gallery 24-25 Ways to Give 26 Website Information Inside Back Cover Cover photo courtesy of UNM American Indian Student Services A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT David Mahooty Dear AIGC Friends and Supporters: Each time we reflect on a past year we have a unique opportunity to identify what is working in Native American and Alaska Native education and leadership development, and what requires more focus. As you will note in this report, AIGC has continued to modestly grow the scholarship and fellowship opportunities that we make available to American Indian and Alaska Native students at both the undergraduate and graduate level. To those who have supported AIGC by giving your time, monetary contributions, or other resources this year, thank you. Through your contributions, AIGC continues to build its capacity and assist American Indian and Alaska Native students who are pursuing higher education with scholarships and student services. Indicative of our commitment to the AIGC mission – to build, promote and honor self-sustaining American Indian and Alaska Native communities through education and leadership – our organization is proud to report that more than 96 percent of every contribution goes directly to scholarships and student services. AIGC is proud of its talented staff and board of directors who continue to make our organization a success without increasing annual administrative costs in any significant way. As a leader in Indian educational support, AIGC has a responsibility to understand the disparities that exist within our community. Falling higher education enrollment numbers among Indian males has certainly been an issue of grave concern. With the goal to improve pipeline numbers associated with male enrollment in higher education institutions, AIGC has been seeking information to better understand why enrollment numbers are falling. In the Fall 2008 issue of the American Indian Graduate, AIGC asked the question, “Where are the Native males in colleges and universities today?” While we expected cultural and traditional indicators would help answer the question, AIGC learned that academic success is largely dependent on creating healthy self-esteem in students. With that in mind, it is essential for AIGC to strengthen its student outreach and support services through viable and strategic partnerships. As we move into another year, I encourage you to visit the AIGC website, www.aigcs.org, to stay connected with current events and opportunities, make a donation online and obtain the latest information about American Indian higher education and leadership. Respectfully, David Mahooty (Pueblo of Zuni) President, AIGC Board of Directors AIGC Scholarships, Making a Difference Across the Country 2009-2011 AIGC Biennial Report | 3 ABOUT AGIC About AIGC The founders’ vision of American Indian college graduates pursuing masters, doctoral and professional degrees in all fields of study has yielded over 15,500 graduate level scholarships, totaling nearly $46 million. Every year, AIGC awards over 400 scholarships, totaling more than $2 million, to both graduate and undergraduate students. Today, the AIGC annual scholarship award for a graduate student averages $4,300. These scholarship funds are critical to American Indian and Alaska Native students seeking to advance their education and achieve graduate and other professional degrees. Education is, after all, at the foundation of nearly every success indicator – driving economic development in our communities, providing skilled labor on our projects, tackling local issues with cultural sensitivity and developing an arsenal of positive Indian role models for future generations. At the 2010 National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) annual convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico, one of the sessions moderated by the Executive Director of the National Association of Indian Education (NIEA) addressed the education pipeline and stated: “Indian Country has a powerful incentive to improve the education pipeline: jobs. By the end of 2010, it is anticipated that 67% of new jobs created will demand skills requiring at least some college education. To be competitive and create the conditions for strong economic growth, tribal nations must prepare their citizens, by ensuring their students stay in school and by providing access to training and lifelong learning opportunities…” The founders’ vision of American Indian college graduates pursuing masters, doctoral and professional degrees in all fields of study has yielded over 15,500 graduate level scholarships totaling nearly $46 million . 4 | 2009-2011 AIGC Biennial Report For 41 years, the American Indian Graduate Center (AIGC) has been providing scholarships to American Indian and Alaska Natives pursuing higher education. Through scholarships and student services, AIGC continues to stay true to its mission of building, promoting and honoring self- sustaining American Indian and Alaska Native communities through education and leadership. As a leader in higher education among Native Americans, AIGC identifies and addresses trends in post-secondary education among our people. This year AIGC has taken a serious look at the totals of male Native American students in higher education. Since the early 1980’s, the number of Native American male students has been on the decline. There are a variety of reasons – cultural and otherwise – that Native American females now outnumber males in post-secondary education. AIGC is working diligently to understand and help address declining enrollment rates of male students in higher education, dedicating resources to improve outreach and support to male students. We have furthered our efforts to identify more Native American role models in a variety of education disciplines, and to expand support systems available to young male students. Through scholarships and effective mentorship, AIGC is committed to strategically helping more Native American males to realize a higher education. As AIGC plans for the future, our focus will remain the same – making higher education more attainable for American Indians and Alaska Natives by providing scholarships and support services. Giving Indian students the opportunity to obtain a higher education directly and positively impacts the professional capacity of Indian Country as a whole. In this 2009–2011 Biennial Report, AIGC is pleased to provide a review of our past two years. AIGC has held fast to its commitment to grow scholarship opportunities for American Indians and Alaska Natives, helping make educational advancement a reality for more than 400 individuals each year. The founders’ vision of American Indian college graduates pursuing masters, doctoral and professional degrees in all fields of study has yielded over 15,500 graduate level scholarships totaling nearly $46 million . AIGC Scholarships, Making a Difference Across the Country 2009-2011 AIGC Biennial Report | 5 A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR Sam Deloria In 2010 AIGC celebrated 40 years of providing fellowships to American Indians and Alaska Natives to pursue higher education degrees. While we have had a significant impact on the financial needs of the students we have served, there is much more work to be done toward our mission of building, promoting, and honoring self-sustaining American Indian and Alaska Native communities through education and leadership. “Building self-sustaining communities” will require greater funding for more students and mentoring networks for the young people we serve. With today’s social networks, we are more connected to our students’ lives and their communities, making it easier to get to know about our students, the challenges they face and the goals to which they aspire. This is tremendously helpful in directing our program development and advocating for student support. I have included some geographic dispersion data for you, illustrating where our students come from and where they attend school, to help you see the impact we make in your community. I hope you will realize how nationally diverse AIGC award recipients are; and you can be assured that your investment in AIGC is an investment in your community and its members. I will continue to remind you that American Indian and Alaska Native graduate students experience extremely high unmet financial need, and therefore rely primarily on federal student loans. The burden of repaying these loans often precludes our graduates from accepting employment “back home.” Indian Country cannot afford to continue losing these young people to non-Indian work due simply to affordability of education. We need your help to provide more financial support and develop trained, effective leaders for the next 40 years. On the national front there is a trend in higher education that has received a lot of attention. Men are not enrolling in college and graduate school in the same proportion as women. At AIGC, we have funded more women than men in recent years, which, on the surface,