The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community has announced 52 new recipients of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Endowed Scholarship for the 2012-2013 school year. Three Grand Portage residents are among them.
This is the fourth group of students to receive the scholarship at the University of Minnesota. Forty-five of the first three groups of 59 students will continue to receive the scholarships they were originally awarded for the 2009-2010, 2010-2011, and 2011-2012 school years; four students have graduated thus far.
Local recipients include William J. Blackwell, April McCormick and William G. Myers. All are graduate students enrolled in the Masters of Tribal Administration and Governance Program at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
“We want Indian kids to further their education so that they can go back to their reservations and help their people. We want to help them as they are developing into the next generation of leaders,” said SMSC Chairman Charlie Vig.
The SMSC Endowed Scholarship was established in 2008 through a $2.5 million gift from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community into an endowment fund which earns interest which the University of Minnesota then matches to provide scholarships for American Indian students.
The 52 scholarship recipients come from across the United States and from a number of different tribes. Nineteen of the students are from Minnesota tribes. Twenty-five are graduate students; 27 are undergraduates. Thirty-one are female; 21 are male. Twenty-seven attend the University of Minnesota, Duluth Campus; 14, the Twin Cities Campus; and 11, the Morris Campus. Twenty of the scholars are in the Master of Tribal Administration and Governance Program at Duluth. Majors for the scholars range from biology to education to architecture and include chemistry, art, history, social work, criminology, psychology, and medicine.
For more information go to www.shakopeedakota.org/scholarships. html.
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