What does it mean to pursue a quality education and be successful as a student?

by Shana Hormann, Associate Academic Dean and Dean of Students

(Muckleshoot Monthly, Sept. 17, 2009)

There are many answers to this question. Our individual answers grow out of our life experiences with learning and the experiences of education among our family and community members. My mother has an eighth grade education. She supported my father who completed his B.A. degree. Since 1975 I have been blessed to work in high schools, colleges and universities across the country facilitating classes and workshops on leadership, communication skills, group facilitation, organizational trauma and healing, and culturally appropriate responses to sexual assault and domestic violence. I have observed that when anxiety is high, listening is low. The higher the anxiety, the lower the listening until communication stops altogether. Therefore, from my experience, quality education and success as a student requires an environment in which students are accepted for who they are and are challenged to learn in a respectful manner. "Acceptance and challenge in an environment of respect" describes the Muckleshoot Tribal College (MTC). Antioch University is proud to be a part of MTC.

In my role this past year as the lead faculty for the First Peoples' program in Creative Change I've experienced exhilarating moments such as when graduate students presented on social change. Topics included: housing for Elders, gang intervention and education as a social justice mandate. However, learning does not occur mainly in classrooms. The First Peoples' students chose to work on topics that were already grounded in their own life experiences. In addition, students were passionate about topics that would benefit their tribal community. Pursuing quality education helps adult learners, who already have a wealth of life experiences, gain additional breadth and depth in competence and confidence. During and after their degree program successful students take their passion, knowledge and skills and apply them to their lives, to relevant situations on behalf of their families and communities.

I asked three of my colleagues at the MTC to briefly share their thoughts about quality education:

According to Todd Johnson, GED/ABE instructor, "Quality of education is just having the tools and resources to pursue options and dreams." Todd went on to say that a part of the MTC mission is to train the new leaders in the community by providing the best services, resources and atmosphere to allow students to meet and exceed their goals. The community determines the goals as well as the perceptions and definitions of quality education—providers are here to facilitate the learning process. 

Denise Bill, MOST program manager, spoke about the Medicine Wheel and the importance of caring about the whole person. She shared: "I have two teenagers and spent much of my career in the K-12 system; I believe there has to be respect for students. The staff and faculty must have high expectations for each student and see each student as valuable and important. My Dad had a saying, 'There's no throw away kids.'"

Jessica Porter, the First Peoples' program in Creative Change program manager, stated that "Quality education should spark a student's curiosity for lifelong learning. Learning does not stop at the end of the degree, but sparks students into wanting to continue that learning."

How do you answer the question: What does it mean to pursue a quality education and be successful as a student? Please let me know. And may you be accepted for who you are and challenged to learn in a respectful manner.

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