She wants to restart the American Indian Student Alliance Club and will host an open house for Native American students and their families later this month.
Helping the students already here will double as a recruiting tool, she said.
"If you have students who are graduating or students who are going home on break saying, 'This is a great college,'? that word of mouth and advertisement is going to increase the enrollment," she said.
A member of the Blackfeet and Bloodband tribes with citizenship in Canada and the United States, Melting Tallow moved to Spokane nearly two decades ago and earned degrees from Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University.
She has worked as a tutor and culture specialist in the Central Valley School District and an employment specialist and counselor to disadvantaged youth in Spokane's Educational Service District. She has also helped Native Americans secure home loans as a mortgage lender for AmericanWest Bank.
Though she didn't study education in college, she said her work always seems to lead her back to students. Her new position combines the academic and social work she's done in the past.
"Academics is a big part of it, but you have to realize that everybody has families that are working plus going to school at the same time," she said. "Everybody wants to be part of the community and not be a number."
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