Helping Native American children – Page 3 – St. Joseph's Indian School

Guest Blogger: Shana

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!

Guest Blogger: Dixie

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.

View the project scrapbook now!

Guest Blogger: Lori

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.

Guest Blogger: Frank

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!

Thanks for all you do!
Have a great summer.
Frank

Guest Blogger: Julie H.

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!

Have a safe, blessed and great summer!

Julie H. (Family Service Counselor)

Guest Blogger: Delores

I am Delores, a Family Service Counselor (FSC) and have been at St. Joseph’s Indian School for 15 years. I used to work with the middle school girls but, for the last 12 years, have worked with the youngest boys at our school.

Our FSC roles change during the summer. During the school year, we serve as counselors and are the main contact person for the families. Summer gives us a chance to be out of our offices with kids and families. We make home visits to our current students and their families. They are excited to see us as we become their second family while they are here during the school year. We usually find the kids freshly showered with their cleanest clothes on, often waiting for us to drive up.

In July, their attention starts to turn to returning to St. Joseph’s. They are interested in what is going on here, who their houseparents and teachers will be, and if I have visited their friends yet. We get to reconnect, talking about last year and looking forward to the new school year.

We also go to interview children who want to come to school here. It is a time where we get to hear about the child’s life – the good things and the challenges. They are usually very excited about becoming a student at St. Joseph’s. Some are full of questions about what school is like and have a twinkle in their eyes as they imagine experiencing all the things they’ve heard about. It’s always enjoyable for me to meet new kids and their families. At times I am interviewing boys whose mothers used to be my students in middle school! A reminder that we do become their family!

And off I go to plan my visits … I wish you all the best of summer during this July!

Fr. Steve is back

I’m back on campus after two weeks on the road!

I started with a visit to my oncologist at the Mayo Clinic. All the test results looked good, and they told me to keep doing whatever I’ve been doing for the next six months. I was in Rochester on my birthday, and that news was the best birthday present I could have hoped for.

Next I traveled to Oklahoma City for our donor appreciation luncheons. Laura wrote a great summary of that trip in an earlier blog post. I would add that the “celebrity” I was most excited to meet was Savanna, who is a St. Joseph’s alumnae. Savanna just finished up her degree in nursing at Murray State in Oklahoma and joined us at the luncheon. When our students can meet someone who was once in their shoes, and see them succeeding in school, that provides far more inspiration and hope than my words of encouragement can.

I spent a week at home where I had the joy of presiding at my niece’s wedding. Congratulations Allison and Steve and many happy years together! My family is spread far and wide throughout the U.S., and we enjoyed the chance to catch up. I was especially delighted in meeting the three new great nieces that were born since I was home last.

Back on St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus I spent the first day walking around and checking out all that is happening. People often assume the campus is much quieter over the summer, but in June it is actually busier, if that is possible. The dining hall serves more lunches now than in the school year, since we have the Rising Eagle Summer Day Camp going on, the PAWS program from town joining us at meal times, and all our students who are working or taking part in summer school.

Maintenance is crazy busy! The projects I saw in full swing include:

Repaving the Akta Lakota Museum parking lot
Brickwork on Akta Lakota Museum addition
Roofing the boiler-room
Recarpeting the school (after 20 years of heavy wear and tear)
Demolition of William and Summerlee Home interiors in preparation for remodeling
Building shelving to house museum artifacts
Painting Central offices

Several of our high school students are helping on some of the projects. I also saw students working in the kitchen, serving lunch, at the Akta Lakota Museum, running the gift shop cash register, beautifying the grounds and in the print shop boxing up notepads we’ll send our donors. The biggest number are camp counselors, helping younger children in recreational and arts and crafts activities.

Wade graduated here in the class of 1979 and hadn’t been back in over 30 years. I took him on a tour of campus, and he helped me get a better picture of what life was like at St. Joseph’s back in the dorm days, before we added our family home living units. Andy in the Rec Center, and Mary Jane our Alumni Director were staff he remembered well, and visiting them was the definite highlight of his time on campus.

Guest Blogger: Shana

Cante wasteya nape ciyuzapelo – I take your hand in friendship.

This is a common Lakota greeting; the literal meaning is “With a good heart I take your hand.” My name is Shana and I’m the High School Residential Director.

This summer is going by fast as we’ve had four of our five high school homes open and fully operational with 41 high school students on campus! High school students choose to remain on our St. Joseph’s campus so they can either work a summer job, take driver’s education class or participate in our Freshman Transition Summer Program.

Thankfully it’s not all work – students get to relax, take shopping trips, go to the movies or swim at Chamberlain’s city pool or public beach area. Students remain connected with family and sometimes get checked out by their parent or guardian so they can attend family functions or visit a family member in the hospital.

There’s never a dull moment on our campus!

We have 19 upcoming freshmen in our Freshman Transition Summer Program. These students were able to meet their future high school teachers, take a trip to visit Mitchell Vo-Tech, Oglala Lakota Community College and tour the Badlands on their way to visit the Red Cloud Indian School Art Show. This three-week camp is full of both education and transition activities in order to get them prepared for the challenges of their first year in high school – and beyond.

The transition program ends Friday with a Parent Luncheon. Here, we will review the changes the students will face in high school and the differences in our high school residential program from our elementary residential program. Everyone enjoys pizza, and then the students are able to give their parent or guardian a tour of their new St. Joseph’s high school home.

All the students will then return in August, either a week before school starts so they can begin sports practices with their Chamberlain athletic team, or return two days prior to the first day of school for our Student Orientation.

Our high school summer programs don’t end in July; we have three students participating on our Summer Transitional Living Program starting on June 22 through the end of July.

Two of these students are currently in Germany with two St. Joseph’s chaperones and two other St. Joseph’s students as part of our Germany Exchange Program with our sister school in Handrup, Germany. They will spend two and a half weeks learning about the German culture, giving presentations to Handrup students about their Lakota and American culture and, of course, doing some sightseeing. The Handrup students will then take a trip to the USA and come visit us here at St. Joseph’s Indian School in October so they can learn more about American and Lakota culture. It’s been a great learning experience for both staff and students.

These are not the only St. Joseph’s students who are able to travel during their summer vacation. One of our graduating seniors was awarded the Davis-Bahcall scholarship. Erin will spend one week digging deep into the science and engineering that exists at the Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead, South Dakota. She will spend three weeks studying modern physics at Princeton University in New Jersey under world-renowned scholars and researchers. She will also travel to research laboratories in Europe to experience the world of modern scientific research.

We are very proud of Erin’s accomplishments and know she’ll succeed next year as she begins her college career.

One of our upcoming seniors was accepted into College Horizons, this is a six-day “crash course” in preparing for college. Aaron will learn about a broad variety of colleges and universities, and establish personal relationships with admission representatives and college counselors. At each site, 100 students from across the nation work with over 70 expert college counselors and college admission officers to help students learn how to fill out college applications, including essays and prepare for college. We hope Aaron has a great experience – congratulations!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer as much as we are!

Pilamaya – thank you,

Shana

Guest Blogger: Pamela

Hello to everyone out there!

I am Pamela. My position here at St. Joseph’s Indian School is Transition Specialist. So what do I do? I help our eighth grade students transition from St Joseph’s elementary school to Chamberlain High School.

We have a summer program here for our new freshmen, which allows them to take classes in the morning up at the high school with some of the high school teachers. This gives them the opportunity to get to know some teachers and the school before they attend in the fall.

Native American student shopping in a college bookstore. — Danisha shopping for her new school colors!

Another part of my job is to help our high school students transition from high school to the real world of being an adult. I have one senior girl attending the American Indian University at Crazy Horse. This gives her the opportunity to take college classes from the University of South Dakota and work at the Crazy Horse monument. Danisha has the opportunity to earn 12 college credits before starting her college years at Dakota State University.

Erin is another graduate who is making great use of her summer. She is working now and will be attending the Davis-Bahcall summer program. She will study physics for two weeks here in South Dakota at the Homestake mine and then go on to Chicago and finish the experience in Italy. Another one of our graduates is attending INMED at the University of North Dakota. INMED is a program for Native American students interested in a career in the medical field.

Four Lakota graduates. — St. Joseph’s Indian School high school graduates.

I also work with our high school students in the world of employment. We have students working on campus learning about careers. We have day camp counselors, janitors, maintenance workers, museum workers and students working in the dining hall. This gives our students a chance to earn some money over the summer and learn about the responsibility of having a job.

Summers can be as busy as the school year around here! It is nice to see our American Indian students doing things that will help them prepare for their future.

Wishing you all a great summer!

Guest Blogger: Laura

Hi, I am Laura from the Development office. Some of you may have talked with me over the phone or even met me while attending a Donor Luncheon! Part of my job is to set up and organize these events.

I just got back from a luncheon in Oklahoma City. Dean and RJ were able to talk to donors who attended and tell them what life is like here at St. Joseph’s Indian School.

Dean and RJ were with donors of St. Joseph's Indian School. — Pilamaya – thank you for your generous contributions!

We had a wonderful time and met some very special benefactors while we were there! This couple has been donating for over 50 years. What a joy it was to meet them!

The highlight of the trip was all the famous sports people we saw. These two high school boys were in heaven.

While checking into our hotel we saw the Oklahoma University girls’ fast-pitch softball team. They played great while we were there and were going to be in the championships games. RJ, who is going to be a sophomore in the fall, has an interest in being a NBA referee someday. He was thrilled when we saw that Ken Mauer, Ed Malloy and James Capers were also staying at our hotel. They were there to officiate the Thunder and Spurs game.

While greeting our wonderful guests for the luncheon, Stephan A. Smith from ESPN asked me for directions. Little did I know who he was until Fr. Steve and the boys told me!

The luncheon was a great time and the boys did really well talking in front of a group of people.

Later that evening, on our way back from church, we saw a group of people in a crowd and went to check it out. We found that it was the San Antonio Spurs getting ready to board the bus for the game! We added several more basketball stars to our list of celebrity sightings, including Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Boris Diaw to name a few.

After dinner we went and walked around the Chesapeake Energy Arena where the Thunder and Spurs would play their game. We saw Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson shooting TNT’s “Live in the NBA.”

We all got to shake their hands as they went into the stadium.

I better not forget to mention the Thunder cheerleaders.

Boys with the Thunder cheerleaders. — The boys were happy to smile for a picture with the Thunder cheerleaders!

Sunday we spent time at the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, Oklahoma, which is a beautiful place. The boys enjoyed learning about a different tribe. On the way back from the Cultural Center we stopped by Oklahoma University and showed the two boys around the campus. What a huge place it is. Our last stop was the football field, where we happened to run into Bob Stoops – the head football coach! He offered to take a picture with the boys.

This is a weekend these two young men will never forget and I am so happy to have been able to share it with them. It really was an amazing time with good friends and good luck!

We hope to get to meet you at a luncheon in the near future to thank you for all you make possible!

Bob Stoops stopped for a picture with the boys. — Bob Stoops and the boys.

Please check our luncheon schedule at www.stjo.org/luncheon to see if we will be in your area to make more wonderful memories for the Lakota boys and girls of St. Joseph’s Indian School.

Thanks!

Laura H.

Donor Relations Assistant