Bay Mills Community College Aaron Tadgerson Recruitment/Retention and Land Grant Development Coordinator

Student Research Mission Driven As a tribally controlled community college and land grant institution, the mission of Bay Mills Community College is to provide quality educational opportunities, promote research and facilitate individual development in an accessible, community-based, and culturally diverse environment that supports and maintains the Anishinaabek culture and language.

The following is a snapshot of student recruitment effort results. The project instituted the process components during the fall 2005 and spring Year Native part time Native full time Native campus total Native male total Native male part time Native male full time Native female total Native female part time Native female full time Total campus pop

The purpose of the project is to enhance educational opportunities for Native Americans by strengthening instructional programs in the food and agricultural sciences. In addition, the proposed project addresses, in part, the vision of tribally controlled land grant schools by focusing on “Tribal colleges have a dual mission of rebuilding and reinforcing traditional tribal cultures while also providing standard disciplinary courses that are transferable to four-year colleges.” Recognizing that strengthening instructional programs is a long-term ongoing process, the program is focused to expand purpose to include urban and rural Native American populations. Previously funded ideas were restricted to rural reservation populations. The expanded and purposeful targeting has aided to strengthen institutional capacity and encourage cooperation that builds on newly created community long-range planning efforts. The program is designed to strengthen student recruitment and retention programs in order to secure the future strength of the Nation's scientific and professional work force by attracting and preparing academically outstanding students for careers as food and agricultural scientists and professionals. It is particularly important to augment the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of students in the food and agricultural sciences in order to achieve more effective use of the Nation's intellectual resources. The project has the potential to generate a critical mass of expertise and activity and promote coalition building that could lead to future ventures. The benefits of the recruitment and retention project has transcend Bay Mills Community College as a resource partner with Native American Communities to address issues collaboratively and expanded discussion content beyond problem identification and into steps of resolution process. The project will continue to expand coalition building and assist the College in the development of unique venture project processes.

Asset Based Model The project is designed to continue the efforts of nurturing existing relationships and network into new ones. The program will continue the plan to assist the Native programs in development based on their strengths rather than focusing exclusively on deficits. The program will incorporate many of the steps identified by John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight (1993), in their book entitled, Building Communities From the Inside Out. Kretzmann and McKnight have identified a series of steps in the process of community development. The steps are: a.Identify strengths of the individual communities, schools, and their capabilities. b.Become involved with the community and their development of strategies to build upon their problem solving capacities; do not focus on minimizing the role outside forces contributed in helping to create the current circumstances of education, nor promote the idea that only outside resources are sufficient to fix their situation, but to foster investment, creativity, control, and hope among the members of the community. c.Always attend to the mission of relationship building and rebuilding among communities, individuals, and the college.