The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and Fort Lewis College
(FLC) in Durango, Colo., have entered into an affiliation agreement that
will enhance health science research and career opportunities for more
Native American and Hispanic students.
UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., and FLC President Kendall Blanchard,
Ph.D., signed a formal statement of affiliation in February.
This is the first formal agreement that we have with a college representing
a significant number of Native Americans, said John McClain, Ph.D., UNMC
associate vice chancellor for academic affairs. Dean Flechs, former director
of the Office of Student Equity and Multicultural Affairs, began the Fort
Lewis College initiative in 2001. We hope this affiliation will just be
the first of several that focuses on drawing more Native Americans to UNMC.
We currently are exploring an affiliation with the University of North
Dakota, another institution with a significant population of Native American
students.
FLC is a public liberal arts college — one of the 16 member institutions
in the National Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Named for a military
fort near Pagosa Springs, Colo., in 1878, the post was moved near Hesperus,
Colo., in the 1890s where it became an Indian school. The school
was created as part of a treaty agreement in which the regions tribes
ceded land to the federal government. In 1925, the school began to offer
college-level courses. It became a junior college in 1948 and moved to
its present location in Durango in 1956. It became a four-year liberal
arts college in 1962 and graduated its first baccalaureate class in 1964.
Today, FLC is one of only two schools in the United States that offers
tuition waivers for all Native American students of federally recognized
tribes who meet admission standards. With more than 4,000
students, FLC has a Native American population of 700 students who represent
106 tribes from throughout the nation.
The following are key components of the UNMC/FLC agreement:
· Selected FLC students, in their sophomore year, will participate
in a semester course that will introduce them to health careers and scientific
investigation. A number of the lectures for this course will be taught
via satellite by UNMC faculty members Jorge Rodriguez-Sierra, Ph.D., professor
of cell biology and anatomy, and Jose Romero, M.D., associate professor
of pediatrics-infectious disease.
· During the summer of their sophomore year, the students will
conduct scientific investigations on the FLC campus guided by FLC faculty.
Following this, three to five students will visit UNMC during the spring
break of their junior year. During the summer of their junior year, the
students will be brought to UNMC for a summer research internship opportunity.
· A faculty exchange program will be developed between UNMC
and FLC. Major considerations will be the scholarly interests of Fort Lewis
College basic science faculty and their integration with ongoing or proposed
scientific investigations at UNMC. Fort Lewis College junior faculty will
be brought to UNMC for eight weeks during the summer. Hopefully, the faculty
exchange program will coincide with the Summer Visiting Student Program.
We are very pleased to be able to develop this partnership agreement
between UNMC and Fort Lewis College, said Stephen Roderick, FLC vice president
of academic affairs. This will provide an opportunity to support selected
Fort Lewis College students and faculty in laboratory work and research
in the health sciences. The results will benefit both institutions and
will focus qualified undergraduate students towards high needs professions.
This is an exciting opportunity for our institutions, students, and faculties.
FLC has highly active chapters of both the American Indian Science and
Engineering Society and the Colorado Alliance for Minority Participation
— a partnership between the states 12 community, junior, four-year colleges
and universities, several corporations, government agencies and professional
membership organizations, and four tribal nations the Jicarilla Apache,
the Navajo, the Southern Ute Indian, and the Ute Mountain Utes. Since
1990, Fort Lewis College also hosts an annual two-week Middle School Summer
Science Camp, the only science camp geared toward underrepresented minority
students from the fifth, six and seventh grades in the Four Corners area
(crossroads for state borders of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona).
Im not sure why more Native Americans are not in health careers,
said Phyllis Wallace, a 1999 graduate of UNMCs College of Nursing and
a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Perhaps its because
the American health system has been in conflict with traditional Native
American beliefs about health and illness.
I think the Fort Lewis College agreement will expose and inspire young
Native Americans to want to pursue a health science career. I think many
young Native Americans have not received the message that they are capable
and can succeed in this kind of educational and professional career. The
affiliation program can provide role models, perhaps even mentoring relationships,
and a tangible goal.
Ryon Parker, is a 2002 graduate of Hastings College in Hastings, Neb.,
and the son a Lakota Sioux. In 2001, Parker was a summer research intern
at UNMC. He appreciated the learning opportunities that will now also be
available to selected students from FLC.
Neither of my parents has a college education, but they both always
motivated me to pursue an advanced degree, Parker said. As I grew up,
I saw the lack of health professionals among the Lakota tribe and I wanted
to contribute and make a difference.
My parents never had the options available to many Native Americans
today. I want to help improve the image of our people and break down the
stereotypes and barriers that stop us from pursuing health science careers.
My goal now is to be accepted to one of UNMCs advanced health science
programs and return to practice in the Valentine area and on the reservation.