BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – For the last ten years, the North Dakota American Indian Summit has provided information and resources about Native American culture and history for the classroom.
It has also discussed ways to help Native American students work on healing any trauma or improving their mental health to aid their academic success.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the Native American graduation rate ten years ago was 60 percent. That year, the North Dakota American Indian Summit was organized by the Department of Public Instruction. The event’s purpose was to educate teachers on how to lead their Native American students to success in school.
”It became obvious that it was critical, for the success of our state, and for the ability for us to fully thrive to our fullest potential as a state, we needed to make sure that every single student in our school system was meeting their fullest potential,” said Kirsten Baesler, state superintendent.
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This year Derrick Boles, a motivational speaker, was invited to be one of the keynote speakers at the summit. Boles’ message was about mental health and taking charge of your life. He said he sees similarities between challenges in the Black community to the ones the Native American community faces.
”There’s so much growth that can happen if we can connect people together, from multiple backgrounds,” said Boles. “So having different experiences, different perspectives and just having everybody thinking the same thing is the issue.”
Over the last 10 years, the Native American student graduation rates have increased, from 60 percent in 2014 to 77 percent in 2023.
”Right before the pandemic, our Native American students were graduating at the same rate as all of our overall graduation rate, and so they were in the upper eighties, lower nineties graduation rate,” said Baesler.
The rates decreased again during the COVID-19 lockdown, but Baesler said they have been on the rise.
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This year’s summit was focused on strengthening Native American education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Montana Lady Griz (1-5) at North Dakota Fighting Hawks (1-7)
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Grand Forks, North Dakota; Wednesday, 8 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Montana aims to end its five-game slide with a victory over North Dakota.
The Fighting Hawks have gone 1-2 in home games. North Dakota is second in the Summit in rebounding with 35.4 rebounds. Walker Demers leads the Fighting Hawks with 9.8 boards.
The Lady Griz have gone 0-2 away from home. Montana is 1-5 against opponents over .500.
North Dakota scores 53.4 points per game, 23.9 fewer points than the 77.3 Montana gives up. Montana averages 10.0 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.7 more made shots on average than the 7.3 per game North Dakota allows.
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TOP PERFORMERS: Mackenzie Hughes is scoring 11.6 points per game and averaging 3.0 rebounds for the Fighting Hawks. Demers is averaging 10.6 points and 9.8 rebounds while shooting 47.8%.
Mack Konig is averaging 15.2 points and 3.7 assists for the Lady Griz. Avery Waddington is averaging 12.5 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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