NATIVE STUDENT RETENTION THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AND CULTURALLY COMPETENT MENTORING PROGRAM

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: ACTIVE
• Funding Source: OTHER GRANTS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1026819
• Grant No.: 2021-70411-35216
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $366,668.00
• Proposal No.: 2021-04754
• Project Start Date: Aug 1, 2021
• Project End Date: Apr 30, 2026
• Grant Year: 2023
• Program Code: [NBTS]- New Beginning for Tribal Students

Recipient Organization
VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
(N/A)
BLACKSBURG,VA 24061

Performing Department
Agricultural & Extension Ed

Non Technical Summary
For Tribal students, the route from high school to college graduation can be unclearly marked and full of unexpected obstacles and detours. Once at Virginia Tech, as a part of a very small identity group, Tribal students find themselves isolated from one another across a geographically and academically large land grant institution. Native students engaged with our Indigenous Center often report financial insecurity, cultural insensitivity and microaggressions, and academic challenges (AIICC Student Survey).The Student Retention Through Experiential Learning and Culturally Competent Mentoring Program willmeet the challenge of increasing the number of Indigenous students graduating with a Bachelor ofScience degree from Virginia Tech with an engaging and comprehensive retention program for our increasing number of enrolled Tribal students. The long-term goal of the project is to ensureenrolled Tribal students access a developed and sustainable network of supportive campus communitymembers who provide the guidance and allyships crucial to academic success and completion of theprograms in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Natural Resources andEnvironment. The overall objective of this project is to increase support for Tribal students in developing theskills necessary for entry and mid-level employment or entering graduate programs in food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences (FANH).The program will accomplish its overall objective through the implementation of several key programming components. First will be the development ofa team of undergraduate near-peer mentors for incoming Tribal students. Near-peers are individuals who have a common set of identities and experiences.Near-peers will pair with first-year students to provide mentoring and assist in navigation obstacles and often-siloed resources on campus. Another important component is to formalize a partnership between the Virginia Tech American Indianand Indigenous Cultural Centerwith the academic support services of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciencesand College of Natural Resources and Environment. This partnership will improve access to tutoring and educational success programs for Tribal students in their respective colleges. The third component is the implementation ofunique experiential learning opportunities for enrolled Tribal students. These experiences could include laboratory research projects, field-based research projects, skill-development field trips, or assisting in developing extension educational programs. The students will be paired with a faculty mentor to provide guidance, networking, and learning opportunities. Finally, the project team will create and implement a faculty mentor community of practice (CoP) to support Tribal students engaged in experiential learning opportunities. The CoP programming will be organized by a team of Indigenous faculty members, faculty members teaching equity and inclusion in FANH courses, members of the V.T. Office of Inclusion and Diversity, the Assistant Dean of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity for CALS, and the CNRE Director of Inclusion and Diversity.

Animal Health Component

50%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

0%

Applied

50%

Developmental

50%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
806	6010	3020	100%

Knowledge Area
806 - Youth Development;

Subject Of Investigation
6010 - Individuals;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;

Keywords

tribal

indigenous

mentor

retention

Goals / Objectives
1. Create a team of undergraduate near-peer mentors for incoming Tribal students. Near-peers are individuals who have a common set of identities and experiences. The near-peers in this program will be sophomore, junior, and senior students currently engaged in the Native@VT student organization and the American Indian and Indigenous Community Center (AIICC) programming. Near-peers will pair with first-year students to provide mentoring and assist in navigation obstacles and often-siloed resources on campus.2. Formalize a partnership between the AIICC and the academic support services of CALS and CNRE. This partnership will improve access to tutoring and educational success programs for Tribal students in their respective colleges. Understanding how CALS and CNRE foundational courses fit into the curriculum and prepare students for graduate courses or their first jobs, academic support personnel and student tutors are positioned to assist Native students' academic growth.3. Implement unique experiential learning opportunities for enrolled Tribal students. These experiences could include laboratory research projects, field-based research projects, skill-development field trips, or assisting in developing extension educational programs. The students will be paired with a faculty mentor to provide guidance, networking, and learning opportunities.4. Create and implement a faculty mentor community of practice (CoP) to support Tribal students engaged in experiential learning opportunities. The CoP programming will be organized by a team of Indigenous faculty members, faculty members teaching equity and inclusion in FANH courses, members of the V.T. Office of Inclusion and Diversity, the Assistant Dean of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity for CALS, and the CNRE Director of Inclusion and Diversity.

Project Methods
Methodology & Plan of operation. Dr. Westfall-Rudd will lead the management of the project in the Department of Agriculture, Leadership, and Community Education. The project team will meet monthly to develop ideas, establish plans, and determine deadlines to complete the project activities. All human subjects related activities will be conducted under the approval of the Virginia Tech IRB office. Once each academic semester, the project team will meet virtually with the advisory committee to receive feedback and recommendations on project activities. All project materials will be maintained in a Google Team Drive for easy collaborations. To accomplish the project objectives, team members will complete the following:Objective 1: Create a team of undergraduate near-peer mentors for incoming Tribal students. Management: Faircloth, Taylor, Westfall-Rudd, Petrie; support from GRA. Activities: The AIICC campus space will be used to provide a space for mentorship and academic assistance to first- and second-year students acclimating to college life away from family members and home. Specific activities will include the development of a near-peer job description, recruit near-peer students, develop a training program to prepare students to be effective near-peers, create a system to match mentees with near-peer mentors of similar interests and backgrounds, establish programming to encourage mentees and near-peer mentors to interact in social, educational, and recreational activities, and design a system to evaluate the effectiveness of the near-peer mentor program. At the beginning of each school year, near-peer mentors will be recruited and matched with incoming Tribal students. The formal mentee and near-peer mentor activities will occur over one academic year. After the one-year program, mentees and mentors will be encouraged to sustain their academic relationships informally.Objective 2: Formalize a partnership between the AIICC and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), and the College of Natural Resources and Environment (CNRE). Management: Westfall-Rudd, Faircloth, Cook. Activities: Work with the CALS and CRNE academic programs offices to design a collaborative program to connect the undergraduate tutors funded through the respective colleges with Tribal students, provide equity and inclusion training for the undergraduate tutors, and arrange a plan to host the undergraduate tutors in the AIICC for tutoring sessions and social interactions during AIICC activities.Objective 3: Implement unique experiential learning opportunities for enrolled Tribal students. Management: Bowers, Westfall-Rudd, Galbraith; support from GRA. Activities: Develop a guide for experiential learning activities for Tribal students that will include affiliated faculty and a brief description of their research to help students identify an area that is most relevant and interesting to them; conduct informal group conversations with new and current Tribal students along with the potential faculty mentors to identify their FANH interest areas; recruit interested FANH associated faculty members to serve as Tribal student mentors for experiential learning opportunities; initiate a series of seminars to introduce Tribal students to the experiential learning options available for their engagement; assist Tribal students in identifying a faculty mentor associated with their experiential learning interests, and develop a set of assessments to evaluate the quality and success of the experiential learning initiatives. The experiential learning activities will be one year in duration with the option of an extended continuation of research projects.Objective 4: Create and implement a faculty mentor community of practice (CoP) to support Tribal students engaged in experiential learning opportunities. Management: Westfall-Rudd, Bowers, Faircloth, Galbraith, Cook, Galbraith, Petrie; support from GRA. Activities: Once faculty mentors are identified for the experiential learning experiences, they will be invited to participate in bimonthly CoP sessions to assist the faculty in developing effective mentor/mentee relationships with the Tribal students. Topics for the CoP sessions will include Culturally Responsive pedagogy (Paris, 2012) multicultural education (Banks, 2010) effective communication practices, and topics requested by the participating faculty.

Progress 08/01/23 to 07/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences included: * Native and Indigenous self-identifying undergraduate students. This group one ofthe primary focus of the programming of this project. We are working to support initiatives that can help retain current Native and Indigenous students in our undergraduate programs. * Native and Indigenous self-identifying graduate students. The graduate student position for this project is held by a Native-identifying person. Including a person with this background in the project team provides an important perspective as we consider the anticipated and potential responses and engagement of undergraduate Native/Indigenous students. * Native and Indigenous self-identifying secondary students. This is a new primary target audience for the new summer programming initiative. * Native and Indigenous self-identifying faculty and staff members. The project team includes members of the Native community and the current on-campus Native and Indigenous faculty and staff are invited to participate in program events to socialize with and support the participating students. * Representatives of the state and federally recognized Tribes of Virginia. All Tribal communities of the commonwealthare invited to have representation on the project advisory committee. A representative of the Virginia Tribal Education Consortium (VTEC) is also a member of the committee. * Members of the Virginia Tech campus administration. The following people serve on the project advisory committee: Assist. Provost for Diversity Education Office for Inclusion and Diversity; Dir. of Inclusion & Diversity, College of Natural Resources & Environment; Assoc. Dean & Dir. of Academic Programs in CALS; Assist. Dean of Inclusion & Diversity in CALS. Representatives of this group can guide the project team in planning the project initiatives. Changes/Problems:We continue to struggle to engage Indigenous students in the fellowships for internships. As a result, we are also not engaging faculty mentors because the students are not pursuing the internship opportunities. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The current results have been disseminated to the Virginia Tech Tribal students through the program website. Current results have been disseminated to Tribal communities through theVirginia Indigenous Nations in Higher Education Collective annual summit of Tribal Leaders and its monthly meetings with Tribal representatives.The Virginia Trial Education Consortium (VTEC) promotes our project activities and opportunities in its monthly newsletter, distributed to all of the Federally recognized Tribes, and posts our program activities on its website, www.vtecinc.org. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will host an Elder/Indigenous Fellow in March 2025. We will conduct a Horse Leadership program for the Indigenous-identifying students and faculty in May of 2025. We will conduct our second Indigenous Student Summer program in June 2025. We are continuing to encourage Indigenous students to apply for our internship fellowships.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1. One near-peer served as a staff person for the Indigenous Student Summer Program. Goal 2. The project leadership team partnered with the AIICC and CALS faculty and support services to provide workshops during the Indigenous Student Summer Program. Goal 3. One of our Tribal students was hired as an intern for the Yesa:sahi Language summer program. In this role, she served as an educator for the youth portion of the program. Goal 3. A Tribal undergraduate student was also hired to serve as a youth counselor for the Indigenous Student Summer program. Goal 3. Two Tribal graduate students were hired to serve as (1) director of the Indigenous Student Summer program and (1) as a workshop facilitator.? Additional Goal with Supplemental Funding. Hosted Marcus Briggs-Cloud of the Maskoke Tribe as an Indigenous Fellow in Residence in April 2024.https://ccc.vt.edu/content/ccc_vt_edu/en/index/aiicc/agency-education/elder-in-residence.html Additional Goal with Supplemental Funding. Conducted our first Indigenous Student Summer program in June 2024.https://ccc.vt.edu/index/aiicc/agency-education/summerhigheredprogram.html

Publications

Progress 08/01/22 to 07/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audiences for the first year of our project included: Tribal leaders representing the Nansemond Indian Nation, Pamunkey Indian Tribe, Chickahominy Indian Tribe, Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe, Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, Rappahannock Tribe, and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe serving on our advisory committee. Secondary Tribal students and their families interested in learning about post-secondary opportunities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We had nine students and their families register for our first Native Education Opportunity Summit. Native students enrolled at Virginia Tech who participate in the Native@VT student organization and engage in the Virginia Tech American Indian and Indigenous Cultural Center. A total of sixstudents engaged in different programs and activities we offered. Virginia Tech administrators and faculty (seven) who served on our advisory committee. Changes/Problems:We had very limited attendance at our Native Education Opportunities Summit due to transportation/travel limitations faced by the families who registered for the program. To address this challenge, we are partnering with the Virginia Tribal Education Consortium to conduct on-site programs to assist youth seeking post-secondary opportunities at locations near or on Tribal lands. We continue to face challenges in attracting large numbers of Native youth to engage in our on-campus programs. This student reluctance to engage is evident in programs beyond our project. We continue to work with the Indigenous Student Center and American Indian and Indigenous Alliance to develop strategies to address these challenges. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In March, Westfall-Rudd and Faircloth attended theVirginia Native Nations Higher Education Summit to share the program's activities and listento Tribal leaders share their educational priorities for consideration as we work on plans for future project initiatives. As a result of this meeting and the interest of an Indigenous faculty member, we pursued and received supplemental funding to host a week-long summer program to introduce Native youth to the Virginia Tech campus and post-secondary programs. The project advisory committee receives an update on the project activities and initiatives that they are encouraged to share with their community members. We have partnered with the Virginia Tribal Education Consortium, and they share our program updates in their newsletter, which is distributed tothe federally recognized Tribal Nations in Virginia. Regular updates to students through the Native@VT listserve. Regular updates to American Indian and Indigenous Caucus members through the caucus listserve. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Seek additional experiential learning opportunities from Native communities and faculty. Provide opportunities for students to develop their own experiences for fellowships. Host a Native Fellow in the spring of 2024. We are hosting a younger Native community leader who does not identify as an Elder. Implement tutoring resources for Native students seeking academic support. Introduce the near-peer program to the incoming students who self-identify as a Native person. Implement the faculty community of practice professional development group to support faculty in providing experiential earning opportunities to Native students. Conduct the week-long summer program for Native youth.https://ccc.vt.edu/index/aiicc/agency-education/summerhigheredprogram.html

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Impact. For Tribal students, the route from high school to college graduation can be unclearly marked and full of unexpected obstacles and detours. Once at Virginia Tech, as a part of a very small identity group, Tribal students find themselves isolated from one another across a geographically and academically large land grant institution. Native students new to the Virginia Tech campus can access a network of support from near-peers as they navigate their paths through academic support programs, experiential learning opportunities, career exploration, and degree completion. Year two results. Hosted two Eldersin Residence:Mark Parman (Cherokee Nation) in October 2022 and Bertie Branham (Monacan Nation) in March 2023.https://ccc.vt.edu/content/ccc_vt_edu/en/index/aiicc/agency-education/elder-in-residence.html. Each Elder stayed on campus at The Inn at Virginia Tech, ate most meals with our Native students and faculty, led educational programs daily, visited relevant college classrooms as guest speakers, and led creative arts workshops. Continuation of the Near-Peer Mentoring Program. With a smaller Native student enrollment, it was not necessary for our near-peers to work one-on-one with new students. Instead, we had the group host two gatherings during the fall semester. One was focused on developing leadership abilities based on Indigenous leadership practices. The other was an informal gathering of students for socializing in the Indigenous Student Center. Throughout the spring semester, the near-peers made themselves available to new students informally during their Native@VT club meetings and invited the new students to go to Pow Wows with their student group. Continuation of the promotion of Experiential Learning opportunities for Fellowship awards. We continue seeking internship opportunities from communities to promote our students. We keep a list of these on our project web page that is connected to our Indigenous Student Center. Two students received fellowships this year, and others will beeligible to receive fellowships in the coming months. Implemented the first Native Education Opportunities Summit in March 2023.https://ccc.vt.edu/index/aiicc/agency-education/Events.html. This day-long program was host to Native students and families seeking information about post-secondary programs and institutions. The program topics included selecting a college program to meet individual needs (keynote), applying for financial aid, writing college application essays, opportunities at community colleges, and opportunities to meet recruiters from nine colleges and programs.

Publications

Progress 08/01/21 to 07/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences included: * Native and Indigenous self-identifying undergraduate students. This group is the primary focus of the programming of this project. We are working to support initiatives that can help retain current Native and Indigenous students in our undergraduate programs. * Native and Indigenous self-identifying graduate students. The graduate student position for this project is held by a Native-identifying person. Including a person with this background in the project team provides an important perspective as we think through the anticipated and potential responses and engagement of undergraduate Native/Indigenous students. * Native and Indigenous self-identifying faculty and staff members. The project team includes members of the Native community and the current on-campus Native and Indigenous faculty and staff are invited to program events to socialize with and support the participating students. * Representatives of the state and federally recognized Tribes of Virginia. All Tribal communities of the commonwealth are invited to have representation on the project advisory committee. A representative of the Virginia Tribal Education Consortium (VTEC) is also a member of the committee. * Members of the Virginia Tech campus administration. The following people serve on the project advisory committee: Assist. Provost for Diversity Education Office for Inclusion and Diversity; Dir. of Inclusion & Diversity, College of Natural Resources & Environment; Assoc. Dean & Dir. of Academic Programs in CALS; Assist. Dean of Inclusion & Diversity in CALS. Representatives of this group are able to provide guidance to the project team in planning the project initiatives. Changes/Problems:We began implementing the components of the project as our university started to open up afterthe campus shut down because of the Covid pandemic. Once students returned to campus, it took time for them to feel comfortable coming together for meetings and gatherings. Additionally, students were reluctant to engage in virtual meetings. This inactivity and reluctance to engage slowed our project team's ability to work collaboratively with students to develop the programs associated with this project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Project team members Faircloth, Westfall-Rudd, and Rudd worked in partnership with volunteer Cherokee leader Parman to provide learning experiences for the three Native student volunteers for the near-peer program. This learning experience focused on exploring Indigenous Leadership. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated through: Regular updates to students through the Native@VT listserve. Regular updates to American Indian and Indigenous Caucus members through the caucus listserve. Regular updates to the project advisory committee members (including the Tribal leaders from six Native communities. Inclusion of project activities in the monthly newsletter of the Virginia Tribal Education Consortium that serves the six federally recognized Tribes in the Commonwealth of Virginia Inclusion of upcoming events and project resources on the project webpagehttps://ccc.vt.edu/index/aiicc/agency-education.html What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Seek additional experiential learning opportunities from Native communities and faculty. Provide opportunities for students to develop their own experiences for fellowships. Identify an Elder to serve as an Elder in Residence in the fall of 2022 to meet the additionalobjective supported by the 2021 supplemental funds. Implement tutoring resources for Native students seeking academic support. Introduce the near-peer program to the incoming students who self-identify as a Native person. Implement the faculty community of practice professional development group to support faculty in providing experiential learning opportunities to Native students.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Impact.For Tribal students, the route from high school to college graduation can be unclearly marked and full of unexpected obstacles and detours. Once at Virginia Tech, as a part of a very small identity group, Tribal students find themselves isolated from one another across a geographically and academically large land grant institution. Nativestudents new to the Virginia Tech campus can access a network of support from near-peersas they navigate their paths through academic support programs, experiential learning opportunities, career exploration, and degree completion. Year one results.(1) The successful recruitment of three junior, senior, and graduate student near-peers. This first group of near-peers worked with the project team to develop the content and implementation ofthe near-peer training program and the collection of resources the near-peers can use to provide mentoring and support to thenew studentsseeking to have a near-peer. The near-peer training program included the engagement of co-PI Rudd and a volunteer Cherokee Elder who facilitated the teaching of Indigenous Leadership as a component of the near-peer program. Established the Near-Peer mentoring program. During this reporting period, we worked with a team of Native students to establish the near-peer program objectives, develop and implement a promotional plan, recruited our first three near-peers, and created and implemented a draft training program for the near-peers. Formalize a partnership between the AIICC and the academicsupport services of CALS and CNRE.To establish these relationships, the academic leaders in each college serve on the project's advisory committee. A preliminary plan is in placeto include cultural competency training in the preparation programming for student tutors in each college. Implement unique experiential learning opportunities for enrolled Tribal students. Through the project advisory committee and the Virginia Tech American Indian and Indigenous Alliance, the project team has established a system to collect experiential learning opportunities from Tribal communities and campus-based programs. Four opportunities were offered during this first year of the project. In tandem, the project team created a system to encourage Native students to create their own opportunities in partnership with a faculty member or a member of a Tribal community. Two student-created experiences were proposed and approved for the next school year.

Publications