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From: News Reports
Date: 10 Jun 2005
Time: 10:01:26 -0400
Remote Name: 68.221.234.229
WEB E-MAIL Home E-mail Site Search Maps Help & Technical Support English En Español Search The Web Yellow Pages Advanced Search Get Listed Here You are currently signed in - Logout Folders Inbox Sent Mail Drafts Trash Create/Edit Folders Options Address Book POP Mail Manage SPAM Preferences E-Mail Help Move To: (Choose Folder) Drafts Sent Mail Trash From: Dial Lana <ltdial@mindspring.com> Add to Address Book Date: 2005/06/10 Fri AM 07:59:38 EDT To: tnasweb@yahoogroups.com Subject: TNASWEB News! Indian Youth Unity Conference - News Article Online partner of the | Jun. 9, 2005 Thursday, June 9, 2005 WFU plays host to gathering of young American Indians, recruits to diversify By Laura Giovanelli JOURNAL REPORTER A teenager strode across campus in moccasins, cow bells ringing on his shins and brilliant orange and blue sparkling on his hand-beaded armbands. The powwow started at 6:30 p.m. He was early, an exotic bird who had landed in the shadow of college spires and academic brick. The Wake Forest University campus is the site this week to 276 American Indian students from middle schools and high schools across North Carolina, some of them from the poorer counties and all affiliated with the state's eight Indian tribes. The 26th annual N.C. Indian Youth Unity Conference includes workshops and a powwow, but yesterday members of Wake Forest's admissions staff made their pitch to a recital hall full of the students before having a cookout on one of the campus' wide green lawns. Some of conference attendees are just entering high school, but Wake Forest staff members say they would like some of them at least to consider WFU when they begin their college search. Like most other universities and colleges, Wake Forest recruits minority students to diversify its campus. "Because the face of the work world is constantly changing," said Barbee Oakes, the director of the university's office of multicultural affairs. "Wake Forest is seen as a global society." In the face of that, admissions officers at Wake Forest and other predominantly white, private schools have an uphill battle. They are fighting against popular myth and stereotypes that Wake Forest is only for white and wealthy students. And then there is the reality that a larger minority student population attracts more minority students, Oakes said. "When you have more, it's easier to get more," she said. "It's just crossing that bridge to get more." The university's freshman class next year will have its largest number of minority students, including nine American Indians. Twenty American Indians will be enrolled at Wake Forest next year in the undergraduate program. About 17 percent of the incoming freshman students are black, Asian, Hispanic or American Indian, Oakes said. It can be a heavy load for a handful of American Indians to represent their entire and diverse cultures, Oakes said. "It's basically easier for them to be seen as just another student." The enrollment of American Indian students in universities is also dependent on the number who graduate high school. North Carolina' is home to 86,695 American Indians, or 1.1 percent of the state's total population, according to 2003 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The state's high-school dropout rate is highest among American Indian boys. Many students who do graduate often choose to stay close to home and attend community colleges or universities where there are large numbers of American Indians because that's what they are comfortable with, said Mickey Locklear, the director of the conference. This is the first time Wake Forest has been the host of the conference, which now moves among North Carolina colleges. It used to be held only at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Locklear said. UNC Pembroke was originally known as the Croatan Normal School and was founded for and by Lumbees in 1887. In 2003, about 20 percent of its student body was American Indian. Statewide, about 1.2 percent of college and graduate students are American Indian. During the presentation yesterday, Wake Forest staff members showed a recruiting video showing mostly students who didn't look like many of the young people filling the seats in front of them. Then they gave the students an overview of the admissions process and financial-aid opportunities. "Even though the cost is a lot higher, many of the private schools including Wake Forest have a lot more scholarships," Milton King Jr., the associate director of financial aid, told the students. "Don't rule out private college based on sticker shock. Just don't write them off because the price of a private school is higher than a public school or a community college," King said. The plea didn't convince Brice Ray, a Lumbee and rising junior from Pembroke who wants to become an anesthesiologist. Ray, 16, wants to go to Pembroke for at least his first year of college. "Then I'll be able to conquer the real world," he says. "You look to your mom and dad for everything." And despite yesterday's sales pitch, he still puts Wake Forest in the same category as Duke University: traditionally strong in NCAA basketball, expensive, and well out of his financial reach. But Ingrid Evans, a rising 10th-grader from Hollister, in Halifax County, and a member of the Haliwa Saponi tribe, plans to apply to the N.C. School of Science and Math this year. She could see herself at Wake Forest, she said, studying psychology, and she's not worried that she may stand out. "Because it's been like that for awhile," she said, adding that her high school is mostly black and she was one of just two Indians through elementary and middle school. "In a way it's hard because there's certain things you know about if you are Indian." As she sat swatting mosquitoes and students ate hamburgers and hotdogs around her, Locklear, a Lumbee, spoke from experience when she said that some American Indians set the bar too low for themselves. They tend to come from rural counties where there is less opportunity for them to take advanced classes, she says. And they are afraid of failing. People at home looked at her a little strangely when she went to Duke in the mid-1970's, the first American Indian freshman there, she said. "If you can be there four days you start to vision yourself there," Locklear said. "Once you get that dream in your head, you can almost live it out." • Laura Giovanelli can be reached at 727-7302 or at lgiovanelli@wsjournal.com