Alan Sorensen Havre Daily News asorensen@havredailynews.com
Rewards for Stone Child College grant writers and RJS and Associates Inc. of Rocky Boy efforts totaled $6,256,183 in grants this year, some of which started producing funds on Oct. 1. “We’re very excited here at Stone Child College,” President Melody Henry said. The tribal college at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation won’t receive all of the money this year because many of the grants come in two- to five-year disbursements. All are first-year grants that account for $1,880,131 this year. The grants written by SCC staff total $513,586 this year, and those written by RJS total $1,366,545. The total lifetime value of the SCC-written grants is $2,511,790, and the RJS grants’ lifetime value is $3,744,393. The college has many existing multi-year grants that also account for millions of dollars more this year and over subsequent years. The largest of grants is a five-year funding program from the US. Department of Education for $2,490,929. The Native American Career Technical Education Program grant was written by Neal Rosette. “For NACTEP, there were 58 applications received, 30 were funded, 28 were not funded,” said Ed Stamper, director of foundations and research at SCC. “Stone Child College’s application ranked No. 1 in the nation. We scored, out of a possible 150 points (in each of three categories), 150, 150, and 149. “The Demonstration Grant written by RJS and Associates also scored No. 1 in the nation,” he added. Henry was very pleased with the NACTEP grant because it is the primary source of funding for many SCC students. “It has stipends and scholarships for 50 students per semester for each of five years here at Stone Child,” she said. “That’s a real good program.” She had high praise for the other grants, too. “It’s wonderful that we got these funding opportunities this year,” Henry said. “We have a lot of things we have planned out that we’re going to do with the range of grants we got.” One of the grants will be used for tribal members to further their educations, including advanced degrees at other colleges and universities. “Hopefully, they can come back and work at the tribal college some day when they finish their master’s degree,” she said. Approved one-year grants, their dollar amount and their author are: Basic Library, $6,000, Tracy Jilot; Recruitment, retention and development grant through the American Indian College Fund/Lilly Endowment, $10,000, Melody Henry; All Nations AMP, $4,861, SKC; American Indian Higher Educat ion Consortium-National Aeronautical Space Administration, $60,000, RJS; Department of Defense Tribal College and University Program, $163,955, RJS; USDA Rural Development Agency, $350,000. The approved multi-year grants written by RJS, their dollar amounts for the first year and their total dollar amounts are: E n g l i s h L a n g u a g e Acquisition Program, $251,838, $1,275,762; Demonstration Grant, $159,599, $712,906; Administration for Native Americans, $149,912, $331,779; Library Enhancement, $92,044, $150,000; American Indian College Fund Project, $140,000, $700.000. “There’s really a wide range of things these grants will do for the community,” Stamper said. “They go anywhere from teaching and preserving the Cree language to assisting students financially in getting their education; equipping the college and the library with the latest technology and providing the community with a teaching force within the local schools, plus a whole lot more.”
