Carmelita
Lamb and Michael D. Tosee are the new 2008-09 fellows under The
Andrew W. Mellon Career Enhancement Program. Fellows receive a $30,000
sabbatical fellowship with additional funding for research-related
travel, with the purpose of increasing the intellectual capital
among faculty at the 32 accredited tribal colleges and universities.
In existence since 2004, the program has funded 15 Ph.D. candidates
to date.
Carmelita
Lamb (Lipan Apache) has resided in North Dakota for 29 years and
teaches in various disciplines at the Turtle Mountain Community
College. She is the project director for Native Ways of Knowing
Secondary Science Teacher Education, a program sponsored by
the National Science Foundation. Lamb is a doctoral candidate in
education at North Dakota State University. Her dissertation is
about the cohort model learning community and how to implement best
practices in teacher education student retention in tribal colleges,
focusing on Native American student retention in professional degree
programs offered in a tribal institution of higher education. She
has three children: Dr. Lauren Dean Lamb, a practicing veterinarian;
Felicia Marie Lamb, a zoology graduate from North Dakota State University;
and Bianca Irene, a sophomore at Texas A & M University.
Lamb
says, "Tribal colleges and universities have been contributing
to the higher education needs of Native American students for over
30 years, yet very little is actually known about these culturally
rich learning environments in mainstream institutions of higher
education. Preliminary findings from this study describe a remarkable
similarity between TCUs and mainstream institutions of higher education
in their approach to knowledge building constructs like learning
communities. Of even greater interest is the crucial role that student
cultural identity plays in the overall theme of the cohort model
learning community in a tribal college." She says her study
may be useful for those tribal institutions who seek to develop
four-year professional degree programs like teacher education while
including a cohort model learning community to foster Native American
student success. Other applications of Lamb's findings could be
in future tribal college funding proposals targeted to agencies
that direct a chain of accountability linked to empirical research.
Michael
D. Tosee (Comanche) has taught at Haskell Indian Nations University,
Lawrence, Kansas for the past 17 years. In 1994 Haskell began a
four-year degree program by offering American Indian Studies as
one of four baccalaureate degree programs. Tosee has been a member
of the American Indian Studies program since that time, where he
also teaches a History of American Indian Leaders, Past and Present
and the American Indian Experience: A Twentieth Century History.
In 1995 Tosee began to acquire American Indian elder interviews
to complement his research. Since 1995 he has compiled 250 interviews
about various 20th century American history topics, which he will
use in his dissertation giving a 20th century historical review
of the Comanche and Crow tribes.
I
have such a keen interest in discussing, teaching, and writing about
the role American Indians played in 20th century American History,
but what keeps me motivated to work in this area, interviewing elders,
reading, writing, and researching this period of history is because
of my appreciation for my grandparents. It is from the relationship
with my grandparents that I have shaped my life, to value one's
existence as if it were a gift. My effort to develop a 20th century
American Indian History is an effort to give something back for
the generosity and kindness my grandparents showed me, Tosee
says.
Media
Contact: Dina Horwedel, Public Education Director, 303-426-8900
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