Richard DeCelles could hardly believe his eyes. The Fort Peck Community College teacher was driving at night and spotted one of his students hitchhiking in a snowstorm.
It was after 10 p.m. The woman was trying to get home following DeCelles’ class on educational psychology, held at night to accommodate working people. On this night in rural Montana, temperatures were bone-chilling.
DeCelles learned the student had been hitchhiking to class since her car broke down. Public transportation stopped at 5 p.m.
“That just shows the determination of some of our students to get an education,” marvels DeCelles, now the tribal college’s retention coordinator.
There are 37 tribal colleges in the country, which tend to be in remote locations and serve poor populations. Many of the students stick with their education, sometimes despite great odds, to get their degrees and certificates. But too many drop out, the colleges say, due to a long list of reasons: financial difficulties, family responsibilities, a poor high-school education, lack of self-confidence, ignorance about how college works, doubting that a degree can help get a job or even the people they associate with.
Officials with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium say their data on the colleges’ retention rates is unreliable because the schools use varying criteria. The consortium should have more meaningful, consistent data by this spring, they say.
In any case, tribal colleges say they can do a better job of retaining students and are exploring various approaches, such as using grants to fund their efforts in some cases.
