The Navajo Nation is a 27,000-square-mile stretch of Navajo tribal land covering Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. According to Greg Jackson, the director of development of grants in Student Affairs at Utah Valley State College, it is about the size of West Virginia.

While it is a sovereign nation within the nation of the United States, Jackson pointed out that this has not always been to their benefit.

UVSC has helped the Navajo Nation's residents educationally. The latest effort started when UVSC president William Sederberg, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and others signed an agreement with the tribe. Now, UVSC has helped to set up centers of learning and technology, called chapter houses, in 110 different locations within the Navajo Nation.

The grant came from the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program and totaled just under $1 million. The money went toward equipment sets bought by UVSC to video communicate with the chapter houses on the Navajo Nation.

The school is looking to offer courses, for college credit and non-credit, in areas such as basic computer literacy, health and medicine, as well as Navajo culture. Jackson said the new technology is vital because these areas are so rural.

"Only 28 percent of the Navajo Nation have telephones," Jackson said. "Many don't have running water."

With this technology, UVSC will be able to have synchronized and pre-taped videoconferences with students on the reservation. Jackson said UVSC is the only institution in Utah that helps the Navajo Nation in this aspect. He said the school wants to use this program as a pilot to help other tribes as well.

Jackson also said UVSC has one of the largest number of Native American students in the state of Utah, 240 as of Fall Semester 2006.

This number is a great achievement considering that 46 percent of all Navajo Nation students do not finish high school.

In response to that statistic, Monte Georgi, the UVSC director of operations for Distance Education, said a charter high school could be in the plans as well. However, he also said there is not a single purpose to this collaboration.

"The needs are many," Georgi said. "We are trying to raise the quality of life and give them [Navajo Nation] opportunities for jobs."

He said all the technology should be up and running by the beginning of summer 2008 and that training has already started on how to use the videoconferencing technology.

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. praised UVSC for this effort in a recent news release.

"If we can't afford to send our children to the best schools, then we must bring the best education to our children," he said. "This program brings hope to our people and helps our children learn to stand on their own two feet without having to leave our sacred lands."



Copyright Brigham Young University 15 Nov 2007