Pacific Northwest Educator Makes National Plea to Equalize Opportunities for Indigenous Students in Higher Education

BELLINGHAM, Wash., Dec. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, Northwest Indian College Foundation and Dr. Joseph initiated a give-away to send Dr. Joseph's Fingerspelling Book to every Tribal early learning program in the nation. The new learning resource is designed to help young children learn to put letters together and form words as an introduction to reading. Dr. Joseph's gesture to give his new learning materials to all the nation's Tribal early learning programs is his attempt to draw attention to the Foundation's effort to raise $50 million for the Generations Scholarship Fund at Northwest Indian College. 

"This is a challenge to the country to step up and support the NWIC's Generation Fund that provides scholarships to students from 130 different Tribes across the nation," said Dr. Joseph.

Statistics from 2017 show that only 13.4% of Native American students obtained a bachelor's degree, while 23.7% of White students did (source: www.equityinhighered.org). Much of Native students' difficulty in college enrollment and graduation is a lack financial resources. Scholarships are a big part of a solution.

The Northwest Indian College is the only regional accredited Tribal college serving Native communities. It is located in Washington State and was initially established for Native students in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. However, Native students from 130 different Tribes throughout the nation are currently enrolled in online classes. The College is offering a 50% reduction in tuition for the winter quarter–a gesture of leadership among higher education institutions.

Growing the foundation's endowment will assure that these students receive the assistance they need.  "If someone with meager resources like me steps up to help out, then I'm hopeful those with the means to make a greater impact might do their part and support the NWIC endowment," says Dr. Joseph.

About Northwest Indian College Foundation

Northwest Indian College Foundation is dedicated to raising funds to help Northwest Indian College offer Native students throughout the nation more educational opportunities to thrive in a changing world. With the assistance of generous donors, the Northwest Indian College campus continues to grow and bring excellent instructors to its students.  Greg Masten can be reached at [email protected] or (360)739-5800. The foundation's website http://foundation.nwic.edu provides information on fundraising activities. The Northwest Indian College website https://www.nwic.edu shows more about the campus and its students.

About Dr. Joseph

In the early 1980s, Dr. Joseph, known as the Grandfather of Baby Sign Language, developed a program for using sign language to communicate with pre-speech babies. He has also developed a medical sign language program and created Dr. Joseph's Fingerspelling Book.  All of Dr. Joseph's learning resources are available on his website https://drjosephgarcia.com. To schedule an interview with Dr. Joseph, contact him directly at [email protected] or call (360)961-1306.

SOURCE Dr. Joseph Garcia