ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

Native American students often struggle academically at colleges and universities nationwide because the institutions are virtually foreign environments. As a result, says Pam Agoyo, director of the National Institute for Native Leadership in Higher Education, half of the first-year Native American students who start college leave by the end of their first year.

To deal with this issue, representatives from almost fifty colleges and universities, including several from Canada, have been coming together since 1993 to share information and strategies on how to increase the number of Native Americans graduating from college. And Agoyo's institute, which is located at the University of New Mexico, has now been awarded a two-year, $350,000 grant to continue its work.

Because there are approximately 500 tribes in the country, Mary Belgarde, a professor at UNM, says that it is impossible to generalize about Native Americans in higher education.

One characteristic that is applicable to Native American students, however, is that many leave and return to college several times. While many institutions and administrators refer to this practice as "dropping out," some researchers say that is an inaccurate description. According to Belgarde, many Native American students don't see college as something you do for four to five years. Instead, they see it as a lifelong commitment.

Mary McAfee, whose dissertation research at the University of Colorado looked into the college-going patterns of Native Americans pursuing degrees in science, math, engineering and business, says she refers to that practice as "stepping out."

"American Indian students tend to go to school by stepping in and out more than once before receiving their baccalaureate degree," says McAfee. "This has lots of implications for students and institutions, particularly when it comes to financial aid."

Cultural Identity

McAfee has found that cultural identity is the key to students stepping in and out of college. Although the assumption may be that the students who are more culturally traditional have more trouble in school, she says: "However, my research shows that the more grounded a student is in [their] traditions, the greater the chance of graduating. Those torn between two worlds have more trouble staying in school. Many of those who are [culturally] traditional have ceremonies in their village before they go off to college. It's such an honored thing to go to college."