Invited to State of the Union Address, Two Navajo Tribal College Students Honored for Commitment to Teaching & Community Service

American Indian College Fund
Friday, 28 January 2000

American Indian College Fund has supported these future Navajo teachers who also were able to meet President Clinton at a White House reception

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 28, 2000) -Two sisters from the Navajo Reservation were invited to attend this week's State of the Union Address and represent the nation's tribal colleges. Christina and Justina Jones, students at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona, were recognized for their commitment to teaching and community service.

Christina, 23, sat in the gallery next to the First Lady. After the speech, she and Justina were invited to the White House to meet President Clinton.

"It's an honor," said Christina, 23, who lives in Round Rock, Arizona. "This shows the importance of tribal colleges and how important it is to have more Indian teachers."

Christina and Justina, 25, are third-year teacher students at their tribe's own fully-accredited college, where Navajo language and philosophy are part of their studies. Diné College--the oldest and largest of 31 tribal colleges in the United States--has graduated more than 20 teachers since 1998. (Diné is the Navajo word for the tribe.)

"They will be fantastic teachers," Ben Barney, director of the Diné Teacher Education Program, said of the Jones sisters. "They will serve their community's children as positive role models for the rest of their lives. This a guaranteed 30- to 40-year investment."

As part of his initiative to create 100,000 American teachers, President Clinton recommended the establishment of a new American Indian Corps of Teachers--to create 1,000 Indian teachers over five years. This year, Diné and other tribal colleges are first in line for $10 million in support of programs and scholarships. In next year's budget, the President is expected to recommend full renewal of the program, while seeking another $5 million for development of Indian school administrators.

The corps will address a critical shortage of certified Indian instructors. Of 2.5 million teachers in the U.S., about 18,000 are Indian. Also, Indians have some of the nation's lowest educational attainment rates, including drop-out rates estimated at 36-50 percent.

Christina and Justina Jones are fluent Navajo speakers who plan to teach tribal language in a reservation public school that currently has only one culturally-relevant course. Educators say addressing Indian students' cultural identity is key to building the self-esteem that is critical to academic success.

"Some of our students come in and they really don't know their language, their culture, who they are," said Christina. "With a Navajo teacher, they will learn more about themselves and learn more in school."

The Jones sisters also have served in the AmeriCorps national service program. They tutored fourth-grade students and helped build reservation housing in Round Rock, where half the homes have no indoor plumbing and unemployment is 65 percent.

"The community these students come from is somewhat forgotten in terms of education," said Barney. "Elementary students are bused in to the public school and the teachers and the system providing their education don't necessarily know or relate to their needs. It's important they see someone in the classroom who relates and who will fight for them."

The American Indian College Fund has supported Indian teacher development through the Tribal College Teacher Training Initiative. With the aid of funders such as the Philip Morris Companies and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, this Initiative directly aids college programs and student scholarships. Diné College used Initiative monies to purchase Navajo cultural curricula for use by students like Christina and Justina. Justina also has twice received a general College Fund scholarship.

For more information, or to contact American Indian College Fund, see their website at: www.collegefund.org