St. Joseph’s student receives prominent scholarship

Our student homes are separated according to grades. Grades 1 – 3 live in the same home, and when our Native American students move up to 4^th grade, they will move to a new home, with added privileges and responsibilities. Since the school year ends in a couple of months, our staff is beginning to prepare students for the transition. The children will spend more time visiting the new homes, and getting to know those houseparents.

Today a survey was sent out to the primary grades houseparents. Some of the questions included:

• Do you have a preference as to where this year’s 3rd graders should be placed?  (Please list names and reasons why.)
• Do you feel any children who are 3rd graders this year, should be in separate homes next year?  (yes, sometimes our students don’t get along with each other!)
• Are there any 3^rd graders who will have relatives in the 4^th-5^th grade homes?  Does the student want to be with his/her relative?
• Are there any special needs of the students moving up?

There are a lot of dynamics at play – but our staff tries to place children in homes that respond to their developmental and relational needs.

Erin, one of our seniors in high school, was notified this morning she was one of six students from South Dakota to receive a Davis-Bahcall Scholarship. Erin gets to spend a month studying particle physics at some of the great laboratories in the world. Her first week will be at Sanford Labs in Lead, South Dakota. The next two weeks Erin will visit Fermilab  just outside Chicago, and finish in northern Italy where CERN’s Gran Sasso lab is located.

Allan, the Chamberlain High School principal remarked that this is one of the two highest honors a high school student can earn in the science field.  Way to go Erin!

Author: St. Joseph's Indian School

At St. Joseph's Indian School, our privately-funded programs for Lakota (Sioux) children in need have evolved over 90 years of family partnership, experience and education. Because of generous friends who share tax-deductible donations, Native American youth receive a safe, stable home life; individual counseling and guidance; carefully planned curriculum based on Lakota culture and individual student needs and tools to help build confidence, boost self-esteem and improve cultural awareness. All of this helps children to live a bright, productive, possibility-filled future. View all posts by St. Joseph's Indian School