{"id":22990,"date":"2025-03-26T15:03:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T21:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pcc-and-csu-to-host-native-american-friday-academy\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:22:07","slug":"pcc-and-csu-to-host-native-american-friday-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pcc-and-csu-to-host-native-american-friday-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"PCC and CSU to host Native American Friday Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ute
Ute Mountain at sunset. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Pueblo Community College Southwest and Colorado State University are launching the Native American Friday Academy on April 11 to enhance educational opportunities for Natives in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

Classes will be held April 18, April 25, and May 2 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and locations will alternate between Mancos and Durango based on the day\u2019s subject matter. Participants will receive a schedule for each class, focusing on career opportunities in health care, environment, and STEM.<\/p>\n

The academy is free and provides materials, snacks, lunch, and a transportation stipend. It is expected to fill up quickly, with a capacity for 10 to 12 students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at it through an Indigenous lens, and want each of the Friday academy sessions to be grounded in our culture and our resilience, connecting and reassuring students and checking on them and supporting them through this,\u201d Sherrell Lang, PCCSW Native American success coach, told The Journal.<\/p>\n

The Economic Achievement for Rural Native Students grant, received by both PCC Southwest and CSU, will fund the academy. The planning involved education stakeholders from the region, who attended a luncheon to provide insight into how the academy should be structured.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had education stakeholders join us for a luncheon to get their thoughts on how we can best support Indigenous and Native students,\u201d Gregory Felsen, CSU accessible education, said.<\/p>\n

Listening sessions will continue in Towaoc, Cortez, Durango, and Ignacio over the next month and a half to two months, Felsen added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking to make these culturally relevant programs with a lens on topics that students can use to explore careers and potentially higher education, either at our local PCC or a four-year institution,\u201d Felsen said.<\/p>\n

The first day, April 11, will be an orientation and a history of Native American education before diving into other classes. The April 18 class will focus on health, followed by environment and STEM.<\/p>\n

The health\/nutrition class will include a cooking class in collaboration with Southwest Area Health Education Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is exciting and it\u2019s a great opportunity, not only for the college communities to learn more about and have a better understanding of our tribal communities, but also for our tribal communities to grow and share the way they see challenges and successes as they\u2019re navigating their higher educational journey,\u201d Lang said.<\/p>\n

May 2, the STEM class day, will also include a graduation, complete with a drum group or honor song.<\/p>\n

Through the academy\u2019s five classes, Lang and Felsen hope students gain confidence in their abilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think building confidence in themselves. Having that confidence to be comfortable in these different types of learning spaces and getting to where they\u2019re like, \u2018I can do this,\u2019\u201d Lang said. \u201cIt\u2019s not scary. \u2026 Whatever their academic skill is like, they\u2019re going to be able to come in and be like, \u2018I can contribute. I can participate and I can learn.\u2019 To me, that is the biggest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For information and registration, contact Lang at sherrell.lang@pueblocc.edu<\/a> or Felsen at gregory.felsen@colostate.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

academy focuses on areas of health care, environment and STEM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[155,28,1097,60,561,29,691,144],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-indigenous-people","tag-montezuma-county","tag-native-american","tag-newsletter","tag-pueblo-community-college-southwest-campus","tag-towaoc"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77934,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22990\/revisions\/77934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22990"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}