by Clara NiiSka

“Expanding the Circle” (ETC) recently announced its Summer 2001 program, intended to prepare American Indian high school youths for life after high school.  The program is a cooperative effort between the University of Minnesota, tribal colleges, and local Indian education departments, and will be available to Indian high school students residing “on or near” Boise Fort, Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, Red Lake and White Earth reservations.  The program’s $150,000 annual budget is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

A similar program in the Sioux communities is made possible by “Future Bound” grants, also from the Department of Education.  According to Principal Investigator and program grant-writer David R. Johnson at the University of Minnesota, the Future Bound program  also includes the collaborative efforts of the Minnesota Department of Children, Families & Learning.

Leech Lake program administrator Frank Bowstring explained that ETC is designed to help high school students plan for career development and to explore the possibilities of education beyond high school, as well as developing self-awareness and cultural awareness.  The intensive two-week program includes preparation for job interviews and resume-writing, as well as visits to job sites.  At Leech Lake these will include the Leech Lake casinos, Nortech, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and ArticCat in Thief River Falls.  Program participants will also visit the technical college in Thief River Falls, according to Bowstring.  Students who successfully complete the program will be paid a $200 stipend.

David Johnson, at the University of Minnesota, stressed to Press/ON that the ETC program is designed to “work with high school kids who are interested in post-secondary programs,” focusing on technical colleges and community colleges.  In addition to providing students with “good career goal-setting” strategies and fostering “support … from the community, from the school and from the family,” the University of Minnesota facet of the program also provides “information and staff development opportunities” to high school teachers and support staff.

The Department of Education, in its 1999 description of that year’s $5,213,269 granted through the Expanding the Circle program, described it as “a collaborative effort to promote the successful transition of American Indian students with disabilities to postsecondary education setting … this project represents one of the first efforts to merge the concept of transition services with that of cultural traditions of American Indian students.”

When Press/ON asked David Johnson about the Department of Education’s definition of the ETC program as targeted toward students “with disabilities,” Johnson explained that disabilities in the context of ETC are “broadly defined,” and that the University of Minnesota is “more generally looking at the entire high school.”  He acknowledged that although the “source of funds is special education,” the orientation of ETC is “to be inclusive in the model,” and to provide services for all of the “at-risk” students.

ETC is currently serving 25-30 students per year.  Although Johnson did not have outcome statistics available at press time, he assured Press/ON that the “outcomes” of the program were “pretty clear,” and that there was a “marked increase in enrollment and interest” among students who participated in the program.

The program on the Leech Lake Reservation will run from June 4-15 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Leech Lake Tribal College.  For more information about the Leech Lake program, contact Frank Bowstring at (218) 335-2213 or Darlene Enow at (218) 335-2828.  The ETC program director at the University of Minnesota is Jean Ness at (612) 625-5322; Dr. Ness was unavailable for comment at press time.