PRESQUE ISLE – About 40 people gathered on Monday, Jan. 28, at the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Campus Center to take part in an all-day meeting that focused on ways to better understand and meaningfully engage Native American students in learning.
Campus and community officials met with officials from the Mi’kmaq-Maliseet Institute at the University of New Brunswick to discuss the strategies the Canadian institute has implemented to help improve college retention and graduate rates among its Native American population.
The meeting was held as part of the University’s involvement in Project Compass. The University received a $100,000 grant from the Nellie Mae Foundation last October aimed at increasing academic success for minority and low-income undergraduate students. The funding supports a year of planning and capacity building. If the University has a successful planning year and is invited to move into the next phase of Project Compass, it could receive nearly $1 million over the course of four years to implement its plans.
At the Jan. 28 meeting, four officials from the Mi’kmaq-Maliseet Institute led an interactive Power-Point presentation about the institute, which was established in 1981. Officials included Director Dr. Lynda A. Doige; Dr. Andrea Belczewski, bridging year coordinator; Tina Nicholas-Bernard, First Nations Business Administration certificate coordinator; and Gail L. Tucker, oral and written communications instructor.
This is the Institute’s mission statement: “The goal of the Mi’kmaq-Maliseet Institute is to maintain the high quality of UNB programs for First Nations students and to continue to broaden the First Nations cultural content and perspectives in these programs. MMI also expands UNB offerings by developing new programs which meet the stated needs of the First Nations communities of the region and contribute to their educational and professional growth.”
Dr. Doige said that, for the institute, the highest priority is to offer a high-caliber, quality education to the students they serve.
“We offer support services, we make sure students are adequately prepared for the transition to college and that their cultural context is embedded in the curriculum,” Doige said.
In the afternoon, meeting participants took part in one of two breakout sessions. MMI officials facilitated one session on best practices in teaching and learning, and another on best practices in student support.
“This meeting was an opportunity for the entire UMPI campus – faculty, staff and students – to learn more about teaching, learning and support services for Native American students,” Professor Clare Exner, one of the Project Compass leaders on campus, said. “Drawing on the experience and expertise of colleagues at the University of New Brunswick’s Mi’kmaq Maliseet Institute, we were able to engage in a daylong exploration of Native American ways of knowing as well as strategies for improving retention and success at the University.”
Photo courtesy of UMPI
Dr. Andrea Belczewski reads “Two Pairs of Shoes” during a recent Project Compass meeting at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. University officials received a presentation by the Mi’kmaq-Maliseet Institute at the University of New Brunswick on the strategies the institute has implemented to improve college retention and graduation rates among its Native American population.
