Twenty-five attend
three-day summer camp
A CMU 2010-funded summer camp is helping Native American high school students experience CMU and understand how indigenous heritage and cultures relate to higher education.
The North American Indigenous Summer Enrichment Camp (NAISEC) is designed for eighth- to 12th-grade Native American students, primarily Michigan residents representing the Anishinabe nations of Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi. This year’s session was held July 20-23 and involved 25 students.
The inaugural session was held last summer, and another already is planned for next summer.
The three-day event offers workshops on Native American cultures and history, critical thinking, CMU programs, and college academic preparation, admissions process, and financial aid opportunities.
NAISEC goals include introducing participants to CMU and making them comfortable with the idea of attending a university after graduating from high school.
Matt Van Alstine, director of CMU Native American Programs, said the hope is that each participant will leave the camp knowing their academic, professional, cultural, and personal goals and will feel empowered to achieve them.
“It’s important for them to know their history, their way of knowing, and their beliefs,” he said. “The more the students know about their culture and language, the more confident they are about themselves.”
The $36,355 CMU 2010 award supports NAISEC in FY07 and FY08.
During the July 2006 session, Shelby Stockwell, an eighth grader at Beal City Junior High School, and Jon Two Crow, a freshman at Suttons Bay High School, were among the 25 camp participants.
Stockwell, who is from the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, and Two Crow, who is from the Grand Traverse Bay Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, both said the NAISEC helped them to meet other Native American students and to discover more about their indigenous culture.
“I wanted to learn more about my culture and why it’s important to be Native American,” Stockwell said.
Two Crow said, “I enjoyed learning more about our native names and what they mean.”
While it will take a few years to determine whether the CMU 2010-funded NAISEC will increase Native American student enrollment at CMU, there is an encouraging number from the first-ever NAISEC held in 2005. Of the two high school seniors who attended the camp, one of them will begin attending CMU this fall.
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Camp leader Daisy Kostus directs a drumming session with Native American student Katie Kloha and CMU camp counselor Colleen Green.
Twenty-five students attended the second annual NAISEC.
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