For several years the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Education Department have been increasing tribal students’ access to the Native Colleges in the New Mexico region, a goal of the Tribe’s Education Director Roxanne Mills Brown. Native students have attended college visits, received application support and financial assistance through the Education Department Career Pathways program that is funded in part by the NYCP Building Pathways for Tribal Youth Grant.
The Career Pathways Program is managed by Cameron Greendeer and John Hanlon who also serves as the PACT Coordinator at Cape Cod Community College.
Now, thanks to the connections that have been made between the Education Department Career Pathways Program with the Native Colleges and Cape Cod Community College, the path to a Native College became much clearer for students in the area.
In a unique collaboration with the Institute of American Indian Arts, Cape Cod Community College has added the tribal college in New Mexico to its list of transfer colleges.
The partnership will allow community college students who have completed their associate degree with a concentration in performing arts to transfer to the institute in Santa Fe as juniors, community college President John Cox said.
The partnership comes as part of an effort to reach out to different communities across the Cape, including the Wampanoag tribes, Cox said.
The hope is that Wampanoag students — and others — will consider transferring from Cape Cod Community College to the institute, President Robert Martin said.
"We hope to recruit those students and bring them to our campus," Martin said. He said he plans to visit Cape Cod this spring to meet with local Wampanoag leaders to discuss opportunities with the institute's accredited programs.
The Institute of American Indian Arts is a congressionally chartered public college on 140 acres in Santa Fe with about 500 students, Martin said.
Funding for the college is included in the federal budget, and the board of trustees — made up mainly of Native Americans — is appointed by the president of the United States.
The institute specializes in indigenous studies and studio, performing and cinematic arts and museum studies, Martin said.
It also has offered a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing since 2013, Martin said, and operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts.
"Everything we offer is from an indigenous perspective," Martin said. He said 75 to 80% of the students are from native American and Alaskan backgrounds, but the college is open to all ethnicities.
So far Martin does not know of any Wampanoag students who have attended, although he said the college has drawn native American students from New York and North Carolina as well as indigenous students from Canada.
Trish Keliinui, spokeswoman for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, said the partnership sounds like a wonderful opportunity, and members of the tribe are eager to learn more during Martin's visit.
Scholarships are available to students, and the annual cost of room and board and tuition comes to about $15,000 a year, Martin said.
"For fine arts, it's a bargain," Martin said.
Cox said he became aware of the institute, which was established in 1962, when working on his doctorate in higher education.
He said the partnership marks a big opportunity for Cape Cod Community College arts students.
To be eligible for the transfer, Cape college students must complete the associate of arts degree with a performing arts concentration with a GPA of 2.0 or higher.
"With this requirement met, transferring students will have their application fees waived by IAIA and will automatically be admitted," a statement from the college says.
Students graduating from the Cape college with a performing arts concentration may transfer to the institute starting in the fall, provided they complete their application by July 27, college officials said.
Cox estimated that 20 to 24 students who are members of the Wampanoag community currently attend the college.
"It's a small but growing number," he said.
The community college has partnered with the Wampanoag community in other ways, employing a success coach to work with Wampanoag students and holding leadership training for the tribe at the Center for Corporate and Professional Education, Cox said.
For information on the college performing arts program or the institute go online to capecod.edu/catalog/2019-2020/programs/aa-performing-arts.html or iaia.edu.
By Cynthia McCormick, Cape Cod Times
