Lewis & Clark receives grant for college-preparation program for Native students

Lewis & Clark received a grant of $100,136 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the Indigenous Ways of Knowing (IWOK) 2011-2012 Summer Academy. The program will bring 25 Native American and Alaskan Native students from the Portland metropolitan area and reservation communities in Oregon and Southwest Washington to campus for two weeks of college-preparation activities grounded in cultural relevance and family engagement.

The 2011-2012 IWOK Summer Academy builds on the success of the 2009 Academy, a week-long pilot program with 16 participants. The 2011-2012 Academy will significantly expand the depth and scope of this program, with more participants, a longer program, and more developed curriculum. This expansion is aligned with the Gates Foundation’s interest in addressing the critical gap in college attainment for Native American and Alaskan Native students.

Housed within the Center for Community Engagement at the Graduate School of Education and Counseling, the IWOK program aims to empower Tribal communities by providing educational experiences through a multi-contextual process rooted in indigenous worldviews.

Learn more about the purpose of the IWOK program in this video with Program Coordinator Se-ah-dom Edmo.