WEBVTT 00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:08.097 I wanted to uh finish out and this uh talk on the meaning of self 00:00:08.130 --> 00:00:15.806 determination. I use the example of basketball success to the city and 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:22.387 other schools throughout the Navajo. And then I also use the success uh of 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:25.107 the spelling bee 00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:32.307 contestant from Chin lee public school person that went all the way to the 00:00:32.340 --> 00:00:36.107 national uh 00:00:36.140 --> 00:00:42.807 contest in Washington D. C. and I want to add the 3rd 1 and which is that 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:48.637 we are now beginning to see more and more Navajo students come into 00:00:48.670 --> 00:00:53.656 colleges and university and I'll use what has happened here at A. S. U. 00:00:53.689 --> 00:01:00.207 Just as an example, a shining example of what could be. And that is that 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:04.406 in 19 1995 00:01:04.439 --> 00:01:10.747 96 when I enrolled here at A. S. U. We had something like 672 Native 00:01:10.780 --> 00:01:15.417 American students and the president of the university, Larry Corey was 00:01:15.450 --> 00:01:18.986 telling me that we're stuck at that number. We could never go higher than 00:01:19.019 --> 00:01:24.807 that. We did everything we can under the sun to try to recruit more people. 00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:29.936 But we're just failing or doing something wrong and we can't seem to add 00:01:29.969 --> 00:01:34.607 any more to. And he just gave me the instruction that, let that be your 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:41.096 concern. I can't tell you how you should resolve that. But but let that be 00:01:41.129 --> 00:01:46.147 your concern worry about it and see how we can improve. Well. I got 00:01:46.180 --> 00:01:51.596 involved in recruitment and using completely different models, different 00:01:51.629 --> 00:01:56.477 tactics, different ways of recruiting and going to these high schools on 00:01:56.510 --> 00:02:02.016 the Navajo nation, getting on the radio and saying things publicly in the 00:02:02.049 --> 00:02:07.736 newspaper and then actually going into the classroom to talk to the 00:02:07.769 --> 00:02:12.186 students, those made a big difference. And then on occasion, I would get 00:02:12.219 --> 00:02:17.906 on the radio to talk to the Navajo parents about how important education 00:02:17.939 --> 00:02:25.207 is as a result of all of that. After something like 10 years later, we now 00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:31.606 have approximately, mhm 15:00, 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:39.297 Native American students at the 10, ASU, that's almost tripling. What was 00:02:39.330 --> 00:02:47.147 the situation in the case Back in the 1995, year? And uh, and I believe 00:02:47.180 --> 00:02:50.356 that we're not going to stop there. We're going to keep on going, we're 00:02:50.389 --> 00:02:54.416 gonna keep on recruiting more native American students. And my personal 00:02:54.449 --> 00:02:59.967 goal is to get to 2000 And uh, and once we get to 2000, that's still not 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:07.846 going to be enough. And so someone has to uh continue doing what we 00:03:07.879 --> 00:03:12.737 started here. And I see a lot of young Navajo people that are going to 00:03:12.770 --> 00:03:17.406 school the recent graduate, the issue that are kind of following suit, uh 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:23.457 , that I'm working with that are fully committed to this. Uh and uh, those 00:03:23.490 --> 00:03:29.027 , those young people, they really make me happy because I know at some 00:03:29.060 --> 00:03:34.856 point I'm going to be uh, perhaps uh things start thinking about 00:03:34.889 --> 00:03:40.497 retirement and it's good to look back and see that these young people are 00:03:40.530 --> 00:03:46.566 really, really serious about continuation of uh getting more native 00:03:46.599 --> 00:03:50.946 american students more Navajo students to come into these colleges 00:03:50.979 --> 00:03:57.707 University. And my prejudices, not only to ASU. I always told people that 00:03:57.740 --> 00:04:03.217 any university whether it's N. A. U. U. Of a community college BYU and 00:04:03.250 --> 00:04:09.316 Utah Oklahoma. You I see it doesn't matter uh as long as they get the 00:04:09.349 --> 00:04:15.606 experience and that's what we're looking for. So that was something that 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:20.106 is also I think in line with these self determination movement exhibited 00:04:20.139 --> 00:04:25.067 by the indian students and more particularly the neighborhood students. 00:04:25.100 --> 00:04:31.437 And the second point I wanted to make under that is this where when I came 00:04:31.470 --> 00:04:38.236 on campus the retention rate of native american students were so low. And 00:04:38.269 --> 00:04:43.767 I remember the president telling me that For every 100 students we get one 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:51.717 year, The following year we lose 1/2 We only have 50%,, About 50% 00:04:51.750 --> 00:04:57.707 retention rate. And he was saying that on a bad year we lose 60 00:04:57.740 --> 00:05:04.027 of the students that that we gained the year prior. And so that that's a 00:05:04.060 --> 00:05:12.060 big concern. And so then uh not necessarily using any new monies uh but 00:05:13.129 --> 00:05:19.567 just uh reprogramming some of the existing staff here at a. S. U. We began 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:26.207 uh a native american achievement program and uh and then started uh 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:32.306 working with students in a different way providing a different attitude 00:05:32.339 --> 00:05:38.967 and then doing a lot of work not with so much with the students but with 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:45.687 our faculty with our staff and professors in having them understand the 00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:50.437 american indian students here. And that added tremendously to the 00:05:50.470 --> 00:05:55.087 retention rate of the american indian students and then with a native 00:05:55.120 --> 00:06:01.556 american achievement program, getting more mentors and getting more help 00:06:01.589 --> 00:06:06.556 indian american indian graduate student happened. The undergraduate, those 00:06:06.589 --> 00:06:12.546 kinds of activities are of necessity in having your program succeed in 00:06:12.579 --> 00:06:18.496 terms of retaining your indian students or that they end up receiving 00:06:18.529 --> 00:06:24.596 their degree and graduating uh huh With in many cases with honors. And 00:06:24.629 --> 00:06:30.046 then they are very, very happy to Come back to their reservation to help 00:06:30.079 --> 00:06:37.147 out their own people. And so uh on some years during the last 10 years We 00:06:37.180 --> 00:06:43.767 got the retention rate all the way up to 78% from 50%. So that's a huge 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:51.046 increase. Unfortunately that 78 goes up and down Some year. We may have 00:06:51.079 --> 00:06:55.846 70%. Some years we may go back down to 68, but then some years it goes 00:06:55.879 --> 00:07:03.346 back up to 77 and so and we're trying to evaluate a program and what we do 00:07:03.379 --> 00:07:09.447 from year to year and why that why that uh numbers goes up and down and at 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:14.246 some point will come up with an answer. And the last thing, the third 00:07:14.279 --> 00:07:19.996 thing that I wanted to say under this uh scenario and under this project 00:07:20.029 --> 00:07:26.507 is this, I believe it was in 1990, 00:07:26.540 --> 00:07:30.406 1996 or 1997 00:07:30.439 --> 00:07:35.007 Or it may even have been in 1998 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:42.637 and I'll come back with more specific numbers on this point. But the point 00:07:42.670 --> 00:07:50.106 was that we asked for all those Navajo students who made 00:07:50.139 --> 00:07:58.139 3.00 or above. Uh During that year after we put the native american 00:07:58.670 --> 00:08:05.866 achievement program uh into practice the year that it was starting are a 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:11.416 number of Navajo students that were doing very well. was somewhere in the 00:08:11.449 --> 00:08:19.449 20s. It may have it may even be below 20 that was making Above 3.00 Grade 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:30.160 Point Average. And somewhere alone 2003 we asked for the same number from 00:08:32.090 --> 00:08:37.246 the department that deals with those issues here on campus. And they gave 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:45.279 us a An increase of American Indian students who are making 3.00 and above. 00:08:46.039 --> 00:08:49.907 And that number that they gave us 144. 00:08:49.940 --> 00:08:54.967 So that's a tremendous increase. That means that the american indian 00:08:55.000 --> 00:09:00.606 students that are on campus here by and large we're doing very very well. 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:05.957 And uh 140 for I don't know how much it represents in terms of the 00:09:05.990 --> 00:09:11.197 percentage of increase uh students that are doing better. But just looking 00:09:11.230 --> 00:09:16.396 at that number 144 that's a that's a tremendous progress for the american 00:09:16.429 --> 00:09:21.327 indian students. And when I look at when I look at these three points 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:29.116 working here at a. S. U. The future just looks bright and if we can Do 00:09:29.149 --> 00:09:34.817 that for the next 10 years. uh the real progress is going to start 00:09:34.850 --> 00:09:39.376 happening an american indian reservation here throughout, throughout the 00:09:39.409 --> 00:09:44.307 southwest and more particularly the neighborhood because we have so many 00:09:44.340 --> 00:09:49.207 neighborhoods students that come to this institution and when I look at 00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:56.506 and talk with the faculty and staff at U. Of A. And and there you 00:09:56.539 --> 00:10:00.337 essentially they may not be that high in numbers but they're also 00:10:00.370 --> 00:10:04.707 experiencing the same thing. So 00:10:04.740 --> 00:10:10.136 this whole thing about self determination about having your local schools 00:10:10.169 --> 00:10:14.427 back and your home community on your reservation and having the indian 00:10:14.460 --> 00:10:20.636 people come back into those classroom as teachers as model teachers as a 00:10:20.669 --> 00:10:27.797 mentor enroll model. Those seems to be working very, very well. And by 00:10:27.830 --> 00:10:33.266 having people that all of a sudden prop up with uh let's say championship 00:10:33.299 --> 00:10:38.557 basketball team from Ganado high school or from Monument valley or window 00:10:38.590 --> 00:10:43.986 rock high or tuba city high and how the students are, look at that and 00:10:44.019 --> 00:10:49.417 they mirror themselves in those kinds of accomplishments and lately by 00:10:49.450 --> 00:10:53.827 what guarantee as he was able to do and many of these students that I 00:10:53.860 --> 00:10:59.837 talked to, even what happened opinion students are really, really thinking 00:10:59.870 --> 00:11:04.606 to themselves. No, well if that person can do that, I'm pretty sure that I 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:11.136 can do likewise, but only in other matters and other fields. And so I see 00:11:11.169 --> 00:11:16.126 those bright eyes every time I go into a classroom and I always think to 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:21.346 myself, my God these are the students that are so smart, there are going 00:11:21.379 --> 00:11:25.146 to go back to those Navajo Nation, They're going to be more equipped, 00:11:25.179 --> 00:11:32.937 fully equipped than I ever was. And and when I went back to the, to the 00:11:32.970 --> 00:11:37.547 Navajo nation, I wasn't, I wasn't fully prepared, I was not ready. I 00:11:37.580 --> 00:11:42.187 didn't have the ammunition that they now have. And so these kids that are 00:11:42.220 --> 00:11:47.226 going back onto the reservation or even that are going to be here in the 00:11:47.259 --> 00:11:51.687 city, they're, they're fully equipped and they're going to have a 00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:57.766 wonderful life. And as a grandfather that really encourages me and it's an 00:11:57.799 --> 00:12:02.986 inspiration and uh, you know, energy that I looked towards from, from day 00:12:03.019 --> 00:12:07.827 to day, uh, coming from the young people and that's what really makes my 00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:12.016 job interesting and you just wanted to do more. It's the inspiration that 00:12:12.049 --> 00:12:15.606 I get from the young people, 00:12:15.639 --> 00:12:19.707 very good, 00:12:19.740 --> 00:12:21.990 who else?