A Dream Coming True

It's good to be a part of something good, even if you're only a bit player.

Northwest Indian College opened the doors in 1983 on a campus on the Lummi Reservation west of Bellingham, Washington, its mission to promote "indigenous self determination and knowledge" on reservations throughout the Northwest.

Over the years, HUD has partnered with the College in helping it develop the campus infrastructure necessary to earn accreditation as a four-year college. Indian Community Development Block Grant funds have helped build student housing. A Tribal Colleges grant will help build a new student center and install new roofs, doors, windows and HVAC systems into its existing buildings.

But HUD's work is just a bit part of a much larger story at the College, a story of a dream coming true. Since its founding some 25 years ago, one of the College's main goals has been to confer four-year degrees. The dream finally came true this June, with the award of a degree in Native Environmental Science to Jessica Urbanec, a 57-year-old Lummi elder.

Dreams accomplished, of course, beget other dreams to achieve, lots of them.

After trying a "mainstream college," Jessica came to Northwest because its "traditional," she told KUOW public radio's Liz Jones. "It has my cultural values, my cultural beliefs which I grew up with."

"My dream job would be to be able to travel between the tribes and bring the knowledge that one has to the next one, or the experience of one to another and put it in a science context so that everybody understands everybody's coastal experience. We used to do that."

And it needs to be done again, adds the College's non-Native Director of Science Dan Burns. "There is a dire need for Native graduates who are good scientists, to know their community, know their culture and who they are. I've always thought my ultimate job is to replace myself," he says. "The reality though is especially in the sciences there is not a lot of Native people with advanced degrees. So that's our mission."

The good news is that Urbanec was the first to advance that mission. The even better news is that there are 30 other students enrolled in the program behind her.

Twenty-five years is a long time for a dream to come true. But now that it has for Jessie Urbanec and Northwest Indian College, may many more follow in its path.