Daniel Monte is cheerful and smart and crazy about computers—a sure bet for success in college. Even so, when Monte began his freshman year, he faced tough odds—a third of Native American university students never make it to their sophomore year. A native of Alamo Navajo Reservation, Monte is one of 450 Native American students at New Mexico State. Since nearly all these students come from small, culturally close-knit towns in northern New Mexico, the transition to college is often bumpy. In an on-going effort to help these students stay in school, New Mexico State offers a host of programs specifically geared to their needs. Monte got his first look at New Mexico State during a summer program geared for Native American high school students interested in computer science. During the three-week session, he lived in a dorm, took field trips and attended classes in math, computer science and Web design. Two years later, when he graduated from Magdalena High School (in a class of 22), he headed south to New Mexico State. “I had my ups and downs at first,” Monte says. “I took too many math classes and had a hard time keeping up.” But with the help of his professors he pulled his grades up, saved his scholarship, and is now in his sophomore year. When he graduates Monte says he’ll be “ready to see the world,” and to work at his dream job—designing video games. Trina Begaye, a Navajo from Shiprock, N.M., came to college with a clear sense of purpose. “I’ve been fascinated by science since I was a little girl,” says the senior microbiology major who eyes medical school as the next step in her career path. Her first step toward college began with Chile Camp, a four-day introduction to college life the summer before her freshman year. Begaye, who is the first in her family to attend college, says Las Cruces felt like home, and that the friends she met that summer kept her from being so homesick. Participation in New Mexico State’s American Indian student organizations also kept her connected to campus life and resulted in her election as this year’s Miss Native American NMSU. As comfortable as she now is away from home, Begaye says her goal always has been to go back to Shiprock to practice medicine in her hometown. In addition to the summer programs for high school students, the university cooperates with the state’s tribal community colleges to encourage students to transfer to New Mexico State. The Bridges Program for American Indians encourages community college students studying social sciences, humanities and life sciences to spend six to nine weeks in the summer working with faculty mentors on research projects. None of these programs were offered in 1973 when Claudia Vigil-Muniz was an incoming freshman at New Mexico State. Back then, Vigil-Muniz, who is from the Jicarilla Apache Reservation on the New Mexico-Colorado border, says she arrived at New Mexico State with no idea of what she wanted to study. “I had a hard time fitting in, in addition to adjusting to school itself,” she says. After three semesters, she went back home. A decade later, Vigil- Muniz, wiser and full of grit, returned to college nearer home and earned a degree in public administration. Today, as president of the 3,300-member Jicarilla Apache Nation, she oversees a tribal economy that includes hunting and fishing, oil and gas, and casino gambling. Vigil-Muniz, whose great-grandfather negotiated the treaty for title to the Jicarilla lands, serves on New Mexico State’s American Indian Program Advisory Council. When asked how students should prepare for college, she ticks off a list that is both admonition and advice: Go to college for the right reasons. Plan your studies for the jobs available at home. Never forget who you are. “Knowledge is our survival,” she says. The university, she says, should be more visible on the reservations and understand that Native American students may get lost in the system. It should also require all university students to take a Native American history class. “We’re part of their history,” she says. “They need to know we’re still here.” The greatest concern for Native American students, however, is financial aid. “There is the illusion that the government is paying for their education,” says Donald Pepion, director of New Mexico State’s American Indian Program. He says that the grants and scholarships tribes provide are only “supplemental to the student’s total financial need.” The cost of one year at college, including living expenses, runs about $8,500, a total greater than the per capita income of many reservations. Pepion, a member of Montana’s Blackfeet tribe, hopes to hire a grant writer to help obtain more funding for scholarships. Also on his wish list is a larger student lounge equipped with more computers. In the meantime, Pepion points to the success of the Peer Mentoring Program as one example of how the university is retaining students. “We know from experience that incoming freshmen and transfer students are more likely to turn to older students for advice,” he says. Peer mentors guide new students through everything from how to get information on financial aid, to where to go for career counseling, to what to do on a Friday night. “Our aim is to make the students comfortable with their peers while helping them integrate into the university as a whole,” he says. As for the students in this year’s freshman class, Pepion aims to up the odds they’ll be back next fall. Linda G. Harris ’80
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