Over the last few weeks, St. Joseph’s campus has been noisy with construction. But campus has begun to ring with a new and happy noise… The noise of students returning to campus!! I had the opportunity to visit many of the students I work with over the summer and most of them are ready to come back to campus and go back to school. What a great thing to hear! The students are excited to return and staff is just as excited to see them.
I have worked at St. Joseph’s Indian School for close to 11 years. I have often been asked “What brought you to St. Joseph’s Indian School?” or “Why have you stayed at St. Joseph’s Indian School?” The answer is really pretty simple. I came to St. Joseph’s Indian School because I was excited about the opportunity to work with Native American youth. I have worked with kids since I was in college and that is where I found my niche. I love working with kids. So the opportunity to work with Native American youth was something I just could not pass up.
Why have I stayed? Well, that answer is pretty simple too. What brings me back to St. Joseph’s Indian School, as well as most staff you will ask, year after year, is the students and the families I am blessed to have the opportunity to work with. I have the opportunity, each year, to work with some of the greatest kids on the planet. They are creative, fun, out-going, resilient and all around good kids.
I grew up in a wonderful environment and I feel God has called me to help be a part of the great environment we offer the students and families we work with here at St. Joseph’s Indian School. Every day is not great, sometimes our students struggle, but being able to be a positive role model and helper for our students and families, humbles and honors me.
As we come to the close of summer, I would ask for prayers for our students and their families, as well as the staff of St. Joseph’s Indian School, as we return to school. We will all keep you in our thoughts and prayers as well! Have a wonderful rest of the summer and if you are ever in the area, stop by and say hello!
My name is Aaron and I have the most interesting job on campus (in my humble opinion) and if you read this, I feel you will agree by the end. I am the videographer here at St. Joseph’s Indian School. My job is to make short videos that tell the stories of our students and campus events. I consider it an immense privilege and responsibility to be handed the task of telling another’s life story.
The balance of a story involved in this job would surprise most, as even I was unaware that it would become my biggest hurdle. What do I mean? The high-dynamic relationship between such young kids’ trials and their victories propositions me with a critical decision. If the story focuses on the blunt reality of their hardships, I fear coming across exploitive. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, these kids’ stories NEED to be told and people need to realize the truth of just how amazingly difficult their lives are. How disclosing should one be? Long answer made short…I let the kids and families obviously tell the story, not me, and my job then becomes to make sure it is captured and edited in the most honoring way and approved by them before sharing.
An outsider cannot be motivated to help unless a problem is announced…but to obtain the proportionate amount of help needed to match the gravity of the situation requires some very tender information to be publicized. Striking this appropriate balance is a daily decision I do not take lightly. These students have a huge chunk of my heart and I can’t imagine ever doing anything else. Our campus is a family covered by prayer and protected by the help of donors all over the world. It is the most diverse, yet harmonious organization of which I am aware.
Hello! It’s me, Shana, High School Residential Director blogging again. I hope everyone’s summer is going well!
It’s been incredibly hot here at St. Joseph’s Indian School, but our facilities crew is working hard to make sure everything is ready for our students’ return in three weeks. We truly appreciate their hard work during these hot days. We’ve kept busy this summer as our summer program for first through eighth grades ended last week; our High School Summer Transitional Living Program ends next week, July 27.
The high school students have been working at their summer jobs in order to earn extra money. One student even took some time to go with our Transition Specialist to visit the community college she plans to attend next year. The students have also made some time for fun! With the heat, going to the movies has been the entertainment of choice. Our students are very ready to go home and have a few weeks’ vacation before they need to return to campus for our upcoming school year. It doesn’t seem possible that school is right around the corner!
Our Admissions Board met this week to review applications and select new students for our upcoming school year. This is always a time consuming and heartfelt process as we learn about the needs of both the student and their family. It’s difficult to know that we don’t have room for everyone, but we do our best. It’s wonderful to learn that so many students are very eager and excited about the possibility of coming to St. Joseph’s – many have family or friends who are current or former students, and have received great recommendations about our school and home living programs.
Currently we’re busy getting things ready for both our houseparents and students. New Staff Orientation is less than two weeks away! We have some great new staff coming to our St. Joseph’s family.
We’re also getting our homes ready for students; our High School Program offers a ‘Sports Home’ for those students who need to return before school begins in order to start their fall sports practices. We have several boys and girls involved in football and volleyball and a few who run cross country. We have a home for the boys and one for the girls – it’s a relaxing week for the students before they have to get back to the ‘grind’ and start doing homework again.
I hope everyone is keeping cool and enjoying their summer!
Ahh, the Dog Days of Summer are here! The heat does not seem to be slowing progress on the construction of the new Historical & Alumni Center at the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center.
Architect rendering of St. Joseph’s Indian School’s Historical & Alumni Center – outside view
For those not familiar with the project we broke ground in October of 2011 on the new Tokéya uŋkí nájiŋpi – We Stood Here in the Beginning – Historical and Alumni Center. The Historical Center will preserve the memories of St. Joseph’s Indian School and share accomplishments of the students, religious staff and benefactors. The center will house historical and contemporary artifacts from St. Joseph’s past and present, and serve as a place where alumni can share their stories and stay involved with programs.
Other aspects of the project include an outdoor Medicine Wheel Garden of Healing. This space is intended to positively impact the well-being of St. Joseph’s students and alumni by integrating sculpture, with its healing and spiritual qualities, into the heart of the St. Joseph’s Indian School. The garden will also give students, alumni and visitors a peaceful and inspirational respite from their daily routines.
Architect rendering of St. Joseph’s Indian School’s Historical & Alumni Center – floor plan
The final portion of the project is a new storage facility for the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center’s fine art and historical artifact collection. The climate-controlled storage facility will house portions of the permanent collection when not on display, ensuring their preservation for future generations.
All three projects are an expansion of our current Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, which has been preserving the rich Lakota (Sioux) culture for students, visitors and staff of St. Joseph’s Indian School since 1991.
Phase 2 of the project includes installation of the Tokéya uŋkí nájiŋpi Historical Center exhibits, updating the Akta Lakota Museum’s existing exhibits and the installation of an energy efficient LED lighting system, as well as updates to our gift shop and parking lot areas. Work in these areas will not begin until fall 2012, with all project work scheduled for completion in May 2013.
As construction progresses, we will continue to maintain regular museum hours as much as possible. However there will be brief periods of time that require us to be closed as we strive to be good stewards of our collections and ensure a safe and comfortable viewing environment for our visitors.
Greetings to everyone from St. Joseph’s Indian School! The technology department has a very busy schedule during the summer months. Many hours are spent setting up and installing new computers, rebuilding older computers and making sure everything will work when the students and staff return for the new school year.
The ever-changing world of technology can be very exciting but it can also be very frustrating. There is always new software that needs to be learned and integrated into our network. Working through “kinks,” “bugs,” and the like can take many complex hours of intricate design and development. It’s very important to us that everything works well once it gets to our end users (students and staff), and we work diligently to make sure this happens.
Along with computer changes, there are many software changes that need to be made over the summer. We write a lot of our own computer programs here at St. Joseph’s Indian School. The programs range from keeping information on each student to tracking their educational progress. Creating our own computer programs enables us to tweak the program to our exact needs. The summer is the time to make these changes. The list seems to grow each year with minor changes to some programs, adding a few reports to other programs or creating a whole new application for staff to use in the fall.
Don’t forget the training on these new programs – we’ll be preparing for that as well!
We have been putting off moving to Windows 7 but now seems to be the time. Windows XP has been a great operating system for us and we stuck with it a long time. We are just starting to rotate out XP and move in Windows 7. With this change will also come additional support. We provide technical support for the entire campus, which means days filled with nothing else.
This can make our days very interesting and also very satisfying – we enjoy it very much! We strive to be a very user-friendly technology department.
My name is Frank and I am the Residential Coordinator for the sixth, seventh and eighth grade community, which means I supervise the houseparents who work in those homes. I have worked with the Native American students here at St Joseph’s for the last four years.
It is summer and, in between new carpet and paint in the school and the rest of construction going on around campus, my coworkers and I made good progress getting prepared for the next school year, which is fast approaching! The other coordinators and I have worked this summer updating the rules, mapping out enrichment lessons for the year and doing some general long-term planning for the residential department here at St. Joseph’s.
Today, I have been working on a slide show for the All Staff Meeting in August, which shows all we have done in the last year. “All Staff” refers to the date all the staff come back from summer and get ready for the school year with meetings and prep time in the homes or classrooms. As I browse our photos, I am amazed by how much we accomplished in the last year. From powwow to graduation, there is much that fills the year!
Summer isn’t dull by any means, but is not as fast paced as the regular school year. This summer I have been supervising the summer home for the last three weeks. Boy have they been busy!
The home has been fishing in the river, taking hikes, bike riding and going to school half days. They have also taken a few trips around the state to see the sites of South Dakota. One of the bigger trips has been to the Black Hills. Houseparents took students all over the Hills! They were able to visit Custer State Park and go swimming at Evan’s Plunge in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Over the 4th of July, students spent the day along the Missouri river fishing, cooking out and enjoying the water.
The students’ smiles are big and broad when we talk about the trips and other things they have done over the summer. Those smiles make planning a trip worth it for the houseparents. It can be a challenge to travel with so many kids, and expenses are always a concern.
But, the most important outcome for the students after these trips is they learn about the world around them by experiencing it firsthand. Trips away from St. Joseph’s campus also give them a chance to practice their social skills. This is the best learning opportunity we can provide to them, and we’re so grateful to be able to do it.
The summer home closes this week, and students will return to their families for the remainder of the summer. School starts again on August 13!
I am often asked why I work at St. Joseph’s. The easy answer is that I believe in the mission of the school. The long answer is I am from the Indian reservation and I have seen firsthand how tough life can be for the youth and families there.
St. Joseph’s provides hope to the families that their children will have a better outcome in adulthood than they did. Helping families work toward achieving this is an honor; I am privileged to have the opportunity to help in some small way. I am always thankful to our tiyospaye – extended family – who supports our mission in so many ways and want to take this opportunity to say thanks. Without your support we couldn’t affect change in the ways we do for the students and their families!
A Circle of Courage School works to meet the belonging, mastery, independence and generosity needs of the students.
Research shows that the quality of human relationships in schools may be more influential than the specific techniques or interventions employed. Every child needs at least one adult who is irrationally crazy about him or her!
St. Joseph’s provides a summer home to approximately 13 students (in grades 1-8). Summer home acceptance is based on family need. While students attend school each weekday morning (approximately 2.5 hours), they are provided with many opportunities for social and emotional growth through the program as well.
The local swimming pool and beach have provided hours of fun and social interaction with peers from St. Joseph’s and the local community. Students have additional opportunities for one-on-one time with staff, assisting with home chores, such as cooking or just visiting. Given the varied ages of students in the home, natural opportunities for mentoring and role modeling have been captured as well.
We’ve been blessed with another wonderful summer! As the program concludes on July 11, the students look forward to returning home for a few weeks before the school year begins. Many memories have been made, leaving unforgettable smiles … but most of all, these students have been provided with a safe environment with numerous opportunities for academic, social and emotional growth because of your support – thank you!
Greetings from warm and sunny Chamberlain, South Dakota! St. Joseph’s Indian School sends warm regards and blessings to all of you!
My name is Julie H. and I have been with St. Joseph’s Indian School for almost 11 years. What a great 11 years it has been! I am currently a Family Service Counselor and work with girls in grades 6-12. I work under the umbrella of the Clinical Services Department. The Clinical Services Department is currently made up of 13 staff. We have nine Family Service Counselors, a Drug and Alcohol Prevention Specialist, a Family Liaison and Clinical Support staff, all led by our fearless Clinical Director. What does the Clinical Services Department do? Well, we do a little bit of everything!
Our nine Family Service Counselors work with all students in grades 1-12. We offer weekly individual counseling, group counseling, and enrichment activities. We also serve as a contact and liaison with our students’ families.
We are available to assist houseparents with questions and concerns they may have regarding student issues. We run a group for our high school students called Sons and Daughters of Tradition. The focus of this group is to help the students get back to their Native roots, while working on Drug and Alcohol Prevention. Family Service Counselors are also available to help in the school should a student have difficulties throughout the day. Family Service Counselors wear many hats, but our main priority is being here to help the students and their families with anything they need.
Our Drug and Alcohol Prevention Specialist works with the students on drug and alcohol prevention, helping students learn to say NO to substance abuse. Our Prevention Specialist runs a group called Red Path, coordinates activities for Red Ribbon Week and our other Sobriety Celebrations.
Our Clinical Support Specialist is truly a jack of all trades! She works on admissions, sets up travel plans for our students who participate in donor luncheons and helps out the department in any way she can. She is a great support to all of us!
The Family Liaison coordinates and recruits families for our FAST (Families and Schools Together) program. She works hard to get everything ready for our programs, helps transports families to the program and is an integral staff person in the program itself. After the program concludes, she also continues to meet with the families that have graduated from the program.
Our Clinical Director keeps us all in line! She is a great supervisor and is available to assist any of us when we have questions or concerns regarding our students and families. Our Clinical Director oversees all of the programs of the department and is a great support and resource.
That is just a quick overview of what the Clinical Services Department does. There is a great deal we do, but with limited blog space, I just wanted to offer you the highlights!
If you are ever in Chamberlain, at St. Joseph’s Indian School and you want a greater overview of all of the great work the Clinical Services Department does, please stop by! Any of the departments would be happy to sit down with you and answer questions you may have!
Hello again! Only a few short weeks ago, I was writing about the upcoming Cultural Trip with the incoming eighth-grade girls. I was very excited, because we had been planning for months, and I was eager to get on the road!
As the saying goes, if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans. The morning we left, we experienced a change in staff, kids, itinerary and vehicles. Yikes! We repacked our gear, reprinted our route, piled onto the mini-bus and headed out for a week of winging it. This turned out to be a blessing.
Uncertainty is a great prioritizer. Instead of focusing on where we were going to be and when, we shifted more towards how we were going to be and why. Our first evening together, we did not do anything on our itinerary. The world did not come to an end.
Instead of hurrying to get somewhere, we stopped to celebrate Cassidy’s birthday at the Golden Corral. As luck would have it, Fr. Steve was able to join us. Of course, we waited until he left the table to practice a Pinger Home birthday tradition: whipped cream in the face. What, who, us?
We got to our campsite early, and spent the evening making prayer ties/prayer flags. April guided the girls through the process, explaining the use of sage and tobacco and the connections between colors and directions. Since Fr. Steve wasn’t able to join is for this, the girls decided they would each make him a prayer flag, that way he would have prayers for climbing Bear Butte too. Praying together in this way built a sense of belonging, both to each other and to something bigger. This was a very positive way to start of our journey together, talking about hopes and dreams, prayers and intentions.
“We made it to the top!”
Letting go of expectations and just being in the moment was an ongoing theme for the week. The morning we met Fr. Steve at Bear Butte, it was so foggy that we actually drove past the mountain without seeing it. The trails were wet and visibility was low, and we weren’t sure if we should attempt the climb in these conditions.
We just decided to carry our prayer ties and hike for however long we needed to. Some of the girls got as far as the third switchback and had enough. A few more kept on for quite a ways longer and then headed back as well. Some girls just kept going. A little further. And then a little further. Finally, we just committed to making it to the top. There wasn’t much to see in the fog—no scenic overlooks, no way to trace the path ahead or behind. What seemed disappointing at first turned out to be a gift. The fog actually made it easier to stay in the moment. Having to focus on each step along the way meant not being distracted by what was “way over there.” Not “having to” make it to the summit made it easier to enjoy the process of getting there.
We had similar experiences the following day at Mato Tipila, more commonly known as Devil’s Tower. The girls said “Let’s walk the long trail!” (Is this ever a good idea?) But it was sunny and bright, and it seemed like a lovely day to take the long road. So off we went, pausing every so often to pose for pictures, pick sage or sniff the trees. (The pine trees smell like cinnamon rolls. I kid you not.)
We had a beautiful day at Devil’s Tower.
After about two hours, I admit I started to get a bit nervous. It was hot, we hadn’t seen any other hikers for quite some time, and it seemed like we were not anywhere close to being done. Ellie and I had just crested ANOTHER long hill, when a soft breeze picked up. Ellie looked at me and said, “I think Grandfather is looking out for us.” A minute later, two hikers passed us going in the opposite direction and assured us cheerfully that we were “almost there.” Bless you, Ellie.
Sometimes setbacks opened up into opportunities: our dinner plans with friends of April’s fell through. Instead, we were invited to aninipi – sweat lodge. Three girls who were nervous about trying something new decided to take a leap of faith and take part in the ceremony.
Other times, opportunities for learning and sharing arose spontaneously. While out walking, several of the girls started to ask about Lakota/Dakota names for the animals. They shared phrases that they had learned from their grandmothers, or asked April, “How do you say….”
While touring United Tribes Technical College, one girl said,
“I hadn’t even thought about college before, but I can really see myself going here.”
Although we had times of being prayerful and serious, we rarely missed an opportunity to get silly—lip-syncing at passing traffic on the bus, setting marshmallows on fire, falling down on the trails, incessantly shouting “Inkpaduta!!” Inkpaduta is the name of one of the quarries at Pipestone National Monument. It really caught on.
I asked the girls what their favorite moments on the trip were. Several responses involved someone falling on their behinds while hiking – they are eighth graders, after all. Other girls mentioned that they liked having a chance to participate in ceremony (inipi, prayer ties, sacred pipe). Others liked seeing new places, especially Devil’s Tower.
For me, I needed the reminder that it was ok to let go and trust. I could have faith that God would guide April and I, and that everything would work out the way it needed to. I also needed to be reminded that we weren’t going this alone, that we had support from staff, family, friends and donors. I’m already planning on going again next year … knock on wood!
Happy 4th of July!! I hope everyone had a safe and fun-filled holiday. With the summer being in full swing, we are also at full speed with all our projects on campus. This summer seems to have an even busier schedule than we have in the past.
Here is a summary of some of the projects that have been started at St. Joseph’s Indian School:
Drainage Project:
This week the company we’re working with pulled onto campus with their big equipment and began removing the concrete in front of the Benedictine and Kateri Buildings. First, second and third grade students have their homes in the Benedictine Building, while the Kateri Building houses high school girls.
Mathias Remodel:
We are finishing up with the Mathias Remodel. Right now the guys are working on their punch list to get the final details finished up just in time for the houseparents to arrive on campus in the next couple of weeks. The junior high girls who live in the Mathias Home will return to campus on August 12 for school to begin Monday morning, August 13.
School Painting and Carpeting:
St. Joseph’s Elementary School is getting a little touch up this summer also. We are re-painting all the classrooms and laying new carpet.
Summerlee and William Remodel:
We have kicked off the next round of home remodels with the Summerlee and William Homes, where our fourth and fifth-grade girls live. The Summerlee Home has most of the demolition work complete. We have started framing up the new walls, which will reposition some of the rooms to give the houseparents a better view of kids during activities taking place in the home.
The William Home is in the demolition process. This home will be extended a few feet to give the girls who live there more room in their living and play spaces.
The projects listed above are some of the bigger projects we have going on around campus. We also have the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center expansion, which will add an alumni center, historical center and storage for the museum’s collection of art and artifacts.
Some of our daily work activities going on around campus include:
Grounds:
Irrigation and mowing at Fisher Field, where our junior high students spend time playing after school and on weekends.
Plumbing:
Plumbing in the Summerlee Home is roughed in and the Mathias Home plumbing completed. The plumbing that has been inspected has passed both inspections.
Painting:
Crew member Jeff is painting the Giles Home and should be finished this week.
Electrical:
Finish wiring the Mathias Home, demo of electrical in Summerlee. Wiring new equipment at Tipi Press Printing and Development rooftop AC unit.
Mechanics:
Annual vehicle inspections and daily maintenance. St. Joseph’s fleet has 22 vehicles that insurance company totaled due to a recent hail storm.
