Rebecca Sellars has worked with hundreds of students in her 17 years with New Mexico State University, but she has no problem remembering Don Benn.

“He was an American Indian student who got his Ph.D. in biochemistry,” says Sellars, director of corporate and foundation relations at the NMSU Development Office. “I first knew him when he was an undergrad and I got to see him get his degree and finish his Ph.D. That was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever seen, but it might not have happened without the funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.”

After working with the foundation for more than a decade on the Sloan Minority Ph.D. program, NMSU is again teaming with the foundation to reach out to Native Americans in the state to help them complete their bachelor’s degrees through tribal distance education centers.

“One of Sloan’s primary objectives is to provide educational opportunities,” Sellars says, “particularly in areas where there seems to be a disconnect, a gap, or some type of disadvantage where people are unable to achieve education as readily as others.”

Carmen Gonzales, vice president for student success and dean of the College of Extended Learning, and Don Pepion, director of the American Indian Program, worked together to make the centers a reality through the Digital Pathways and Sloan-funded program.

“The ultimate goal is to provide access to higher education for the tribes,” Gonzales says. “Many of them are not going to come and relocate to NMSU, or UNM, or anywhere because they are settled in their community.”

Sam Suina, director of the New Mexico Tribal Extension Task Force at NMSU and co-director of Digital Pathways, said being part of the project allows him to “give something back to the community.”

“I’m able to do so much more than just working with the students on campus,” says Suina, who is the former director of tribal extension for the Institute of American Indian Arts.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to work directly with tribal communities, especially the young people. Working with them goes hand in hand with the distance education program,” he says.

The Digital Pathways program will offer online programs and classes, and features mentors available at the pueblos to help the students. Several disciplines will be available, including hotel, restaurant and tourism management, criminal justice and health programs, which are creating a lot of interest among the tribes.

“I talked to one of our people out at Cochiti,” Suina says. “She told me the people are excited and are saying this is just what they need.”

“Some of the programs, such as tribal management and HRTM, have tremendous relevance for our communities,” Suina says. “Not only are we helping develop infrastructure and provide opportunities, we’re also filling needs related to careers.”

One of the advantages of the tribal distance education centers is it doesn’t take the people from the pueblo in order to get them a college education.

“A lot of times, when American Indians leave their homes to pursue higher education, they don’t return. So, this is a win-win situation,” Gonzales says. “There are a lot of people out there who started school, but didn’t finish. So, now they have an opportunity to go back to school and not leave home. They’re older and more disciplined now. They have more of a focus than when they were 18 and sort of homesick.”

Suina says that presents its own challenges, as many of the people signing up at the centers are adults who are years removed from being in high school.

“Some people have always wanted a college degree, but never had the opportunity,” he says. “Plus, these people have families or are parents raising children alone. This is their chance, and they don’t have to leave home to get what they’ve always wanted.”

Gonzales says the program is actually aimed at serving nontraditional students, initially offering a bachelor’s completion program.

“There are a lot of people out there in the state, in the tribes who have gone to some college, but they haven’t finished,” she says. “They have a lot of hours, but didn’t get the degree. We’re going to help them finish.”

Distance education is one of the areas of growth for NMSU – the program saw tremendous growth in the fall 2006 semester’s enrollment. Sellars says providing higher education to all of New Mexico is part of the university’s mission.

“The mission of a land-grant institution is to serve the people of the region through education, research, anything that helps better their situation,” she says. “The students will find we have a comfortable environment that is conducive to American Indian culture. If we can recruit those students, provide them not only with an education, but a great experience; if we can help the students feel good about where they are and can be understanding when they need to go back for feast days or different spiritual ceremonies, then we will have fulfilled our mission. We will have truly served the people of our region.”

The centers are being established at six sites, which were picked to be centralized for the people. Gonzales says the success of the program will be determined by pueblo participation.

“If we get 10, 15 people at one of the locations, that would be fine,” she says. “They would probably be going in different directions. Even if we got five people, it’s all about offering opportunities.”