QuickSearchSubscribe To NewsGet all of your Black Hills news from your favorite RSS Reader.  |
Black Hills News StoriesGo back to News ArticlesNew USD Classes at Crazy Horse Graduate First StudentsStudents say ‘unforgettable summer' had lessons beyond classroomMEDIA: A full listing of program graduates follows this release. CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL (8/16/10) -- Mostly strangers, the would-be college students began the first Summer University Program at Crazy Horse Memorial in June with simple hopes of earning course credits and paychecks from seasonal jobs. In collecting their completion certificates on Friday, Aug. 13, several said they had attained those goals and much more over 10 weeks. Lynette Francis of Fairbanks, Alaska, and Santana Fuentes of Eagle Butte, SD, garnered inner strength. Dylan Tymes of Pine Ridge, SD, and Jordan June of Farmington, New Mexico, discovered "the big man upstairs" could help their fishing and writing. David Estes of Lower Brule, SD, and Carly Randall of Kyle, SD, gained a second family and John Little Bald Eagle of Rosebud, SD, found a purpose. In the process, they were among 18 students making history by finishing the first University of South Dakota courses at the Crazy Horse University Student Living and Learning Center. The unique academic partnership - a public school working with a privately funded nonprofit organization - passed its inaugural test, said program emcee Jack Marsh of Sioux Falls. He is the president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute and recent winner of the international fraternity Pi Lamda Phi's lifetime achievement award for fighting prejudice. "In the end, lives were enriched, meaningful relationships were born, and men and women from different cultures, different age groups, different backgrounds and different experiences became an extended family." USD began the classes on June 7 for the nonprofit Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, drawing students from Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico and Oklahoma. "You came together to form a talented, diverse and powerful inaugural class," USD President James Abbott said in congratulating the group at the completion ceremony. "You could have spent your summer doing other things. Many kids did. You chose to spend time making an investment in yourself. You changed yourselves and you changed the people around you." Autumn Sanderson of Conde counts herself among the changed. She was one of three non-Native Americans among the students completing the program. "I'd like to thank all the students for accepting us ... letting us into your culture and kind of teaching us what you are all about," she said. "We've all grown closer than we ever thought possible - and within a blink of an eye," said an emotional David Estes, 17, a Sicangu Lakota. "Whatever path it is we decide to create for ourselves, and wherever it takes us, all of us will always have the memories we formed here." Santana Fuentes, an 18-year-old Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribal member, said she remembered being shy and uncertain in coming to Crazy Horse. Over the summer, she acquired the confidence to speak to the dormitory's designer and construction superintendent, collecting reinforcement for her decision to become an architect. "This is a great program, giving Native Americans a chance. Where and when has someone given Native Americans such a chance?" Fuentes asked. "Today marks the beginning of the end of stereotypes, silencing those who say Native people cannot succeed." Carly Randall, 18, an Oglala Lakota from Kyle, said her memories of "an unforgettable summer" include how the students bonded in helping each other pass tests beyond the exams in English, algebra and American Indian Studies. She said most of her classmates, just recent high school graduates, were away from their families and communities for the first time and forced to face issues as emerging adults. "We've been tested with ... time management, school, the balance between school and work and trying to fit everything together in one piece. There were times when things became a little too much to handle. Well, lo and behold, we found out that's life." The farthest from home, Lynnette Francis said she suffered dark bouts of homesickness for her family and Gwich'in tribal community in Alaska. But learning about and talking with 84-year-old Ruth Ziolkowski inspired her. "She gives me so much courage." Francis and other students noted the constant support they received from Crazy Horse sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski's family and Memorial staffers. The students especially lauded faculty members John Lofberg, Jason Murray and Marie Balsley Taylor, and gave standing ovations to dormitory parents Colleen and David Jensen and internship coordinators Don Gifford and Cleve Janis. Murray, a 37-year-old Choctaw-Chickasaw from Oklahoma, taught English, drove student shuttles and led recreational outings, including fishing trips to nearby Custer State Park. He lived on the center's second floor, earning the "big man upstairs" nickname. He said the students' achievements fulfilled Korczak's dream for the Indian University of North America at Crazy Horse. Murray said the first class also expanded the mountain carving's story in stone and the quotation of the legendary Lakota leader, shown pointing to his peoples' ancestral lands "where my dead lie buried." "Crazy Horse is now going to say, ‘My lands are where my children go to school, where they become doctors and lawyers and teachers and business men and women," Murray said. He added that these students will help many non-Indian people to change their views of Native Americans. "You are more than beads and feathers and braids. You are the future, and brothers and sisters, the future is beautiful." Sioux Falls business-philanthropist T. Denny Sanford gave the $2.5 million Living and Learning Center complex. The educational program's costs will be paid from revenues generated by the $5 million open endowment that retired Huron bankers Donna "Muffy" and Paul Christen established with the South Dakota Community Foundation. The students' families were equal partners in developing the university by entrusting the care and education of their children to the Memorial, said Ruth Ziolkowski, Korczak's wife. "I hope that this has turned out so that they will make you very proud and that you are very happy that it came about," she told the nearly 70 relatives attending the invitation-only ceremony. Mrs. Ziolkowski said the students showed they have a dream by coming to the Crazy Horse school. "You proved that you have something to do because you stuck with it. Now you need to do it. ... remember, there is only one answer when someone asks you, ‘did you do the job?' The answer is, ‘yes, I did.'" John Little Bald Eagle, an 18-year-old Rosebud Sioux Tribe member, arrived at Crazy Horse guessing he would volunteer for military service instead of heading to college. He still plans to become a Marine, but for now he is Colorado bound for veterinarian schooling. "I'm doing it so one day my kids will have the childhood I couldn't have," he said. "I want to make their lives easier." By virtue of the alphabet, 18-year-old Georgia Baker of McLaughlin, SD, received the first University of South Dakota certificate for completing college-level courses at the Summer University Program at Crazy Horse Memorial. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe member has not declared her study major but plans to attend USD. -30- CONTACT: Others completing the program and their college plans are:
|
