Twenty-One Red Lake Head Start teachers earn degrees    

They are an inspiration to everyone

By Michael Barrett

Freelance Writer

       At 1 p.m., Friday, September 5, 2003, twenty-one staff members of the Red Lake and Ponemah Head Start Programs received college diplomas for Associate of Applied Science degrees in child care and education.

       The ceremony, which took place at the Red Lake Humanities Center with an audience of about 300 people, also deserved national recognition, as this Northwest Technical College Class of 2003 is the first Native American Head Start Program in the country to graduate more than 50% of employees with associate degrees.

       A 1998 federal mandate required all Head Start programs have at least 50% of their staff obtain two-year degrees by the end of September 2003. Another federal mandate is a requirement that 50% earn baccalaureate degrees by 2008 and the entire teaching staff at Head Start Programs have 100% with associate degrees.

       Marching to the stage with an honor song by Eyabay, graduation ceremonies began with an introduction by Cultural Coordinator Al Thunder, followed by the welcome and introduction of speakers by Dr. Patricia Wilber, Dean, Custom training Services.

       “It is important to all of us that our children find good educational beginnings, and good educational foundations–you are critical to the children,” Dr. Linda Baer, Sr. Vice Chancellor of MnSCU said in her address. “...I’m also proud to know that this is a good partnership that we celebrate here between the Red Lake Tribal Council and the students of fine arts.”

       She added that she hoped the graduates stuck together and keep supporting one another, and read a poem she had written called, “To Teach”.

       “Graduates, this is your day,” Dr. Jon Quistguard, President of BSU an NTC said to the graduates.  

       He also said that just as it was their day, they also should remember there are many who have helped them to arrive at this point. They should remember those who encouraged and worked with them through every obstacle along the way to accomplish what they honorably accomplished.

       Education also has no boundaries, he added, and he challenged them to continue to pursue a higher degree, and above all to help create a better society.

       One of the Child Care and Education graduates, Delana Smith, then read a poem titled, “With Apologies To None”, which touched on their experiences, as teachers, with the young Head Start children they had been honored to know and teach throughout the years.

       “...Yes, we teach Head Start,” she said. “Where else would a handsome young man, put his arms around us and ask, “Do you know that I love you?” Where else would we see a fashion show daily that teaches us the latest trends for the very young? Where else would our limited wardrobe be complimented or our jewelry thought beautiful? Where else could we walk up to a crowd and have little hands reach for us and yell, “teacher, teacher?”...”

       Delivering the Commencement Address was fellow graduate, Gail Stillday.

       “I was told to speak on behalf of the graduating class because they think I have a big mouth,” Stillday said, drawing laughter from the audience. “I tried to convenience them that I should be the valedictorian. They didn’t believe me and said, “you never were in high school, so why should you be now?” she added, which drew more laughter. “I’ll have you know for one thing though, who’s standing up here now?”

       That drew cheers and applause from the crowd.

       Stillday spoke of some of the struggles they had gone through, the personal problems, and her own surgery which caused her to miss some classes.

       “But I made it,” she said. “Some of the classes we took were kind of hard, but with all us together we all helped each other to get done with our work. It brought all of us self-esteem, we felt good with our passing grades when we got them from the college. We all got mostly “A’s”,” she joked.

       She said she really felt good, and that she could speak for everybody, that it was a good accomplishment to get their degrees, as well as it opened the doors for other opportunities.

       “When I was out in the community, people would come up to me and congratulate me, and hug me,” she said. “That would really make me feel good, knowing that people read the news and they look. So I knew that was going to be treated like a professional.”

       She was sort of joking in that last comment, and it drew smiles and applause.

       Stillday also stated that before they started going through the classes, they didn’t really have a relationship with those teachers at the Ponemah Head Start.

       “But going through this class, it brought us a lot closer,” she said. “And we love each other and are good friends no. So through this program, we are one together–both Red Lake and Ponemah–and we are now one big happy family.”

       After Dr. Mary Eaton, Vice President of Custom Training Services presented the graduates for graduation, and the conferring of academic degrees by Dr. Linda Baer, representing the Red Lake Tribal Council was Tribal Secretary Judy Roy.

       Secretary Roy had more than one reason for being at the graduation ceremony. When the Head Start Program first started in Red Lake in 1967, she was the first Head Start Director of the program, two of her sisters, Lisa Lawrence and Lynette Tyler, were among those graduating and receiving degrees, and many of the graduates she had once supervised in that capacity.

       One of them was Betty Schoenborn, 67 years old and the eldest of the class. She was one of the first Red Lake Head Start teachers, having been with the program for 36 years.

       After asking if anyone had a Kleenix, she said she was reminded of the early days of Head Start after hearing Delana’s poem. Teacher’s aides was what they were called when she first started with Head Start.

       “I remember going to town and having kids say, “Look ma, there’s my teacher,”“ Roy said. “The parents, not to be mean or anything, but just because that’s the way things were back in the 60's, their parents would say, no, she’s not your teacher. Because the title ‘teacher’ was protected and guarded. And it took us a long time to realize that all of us who worked with young children are teachers.”

       She said her grandson started Head Start a couple days ago and she joked that she would be up there everyday now.

       “The night before he started his uncle Michael was talking to him, and he said, “Just think, my boy, you’re going to have the same Head Start teacher your uncle had”,” she said. “And that’s Phyliss Thunder. And so, you more than anyone are protecting and nurturing the future generations of our Tribe. And everyone says our children are a great resource and our children are our future. It’s you good, strong, tough women who practice that everyday, and take these children under your wing and show them the way to a better tomorrow. I’m so happy to know you all, and to have worked with you.”

       On a personal note, she said two of them were her sisters of her blood–Lisa Lawrence and Neddy Tyler–and she was so proud of them.

       “But the rest of you are sisters of my heart, and I’m so proud of all of you...” Roy said, as tears rolled from her eyes. “On behalf of our tribe, I want to tell you today, that we honor you, and that we congratulate you, for your wonderful achievements, and that if you choose to continue, let’s celebrate today, let’s celebrate what you’ve already done. But if you chose to continue, we will be there for you, and we will support you in anyway that we can.”

       Secretary Roy asked that the Tribal Council members and Chiefs there help in making a presentation to the graduates from the Tribal Council. At the ceremony were Treasurer Darrell G. Seki, Sr., Red Lake Representatives Roman ‘Ducker’ Stately and Jim White, Ponemah Representative Clifford Hardy, and Chief John Sumner.

       “For once we have men waiting on women,” Secretary Roy joked as they prepared for the presentation, which drew laughter from the audience.

       Each graduate was presented with beautiful Native American designed blankets in a variety of colors.

       Also offering appreciation remarks, was graduate Jacqueline Defoe, who said it was so nice to see so many people come out to help them celebrate their accomplishments. She thanked the Tribal Council for all they’ve done, the instructors they had for the last three years, and their director, Norine Smith.

       Defoe said Smith came into their program and gave the program a well overdue boost, as well as encouragement everyday, and helped them whenever they faced a problem.

       Vern Treat, NTC Provost, said they at NTC appreciated the important goals that the everyone placed on the staff and graduating students, and he wished the graduating class great success in their lives.

       Norine Smith was hired by the Tribe as Head Start Director in 2000. In learning that just one other staff member and herself held college degrees and there was a federal mandate in place, she became concerned the Head Start Program would lose federal funding if the program failed to comply.

       Through Custom Training Services in her contacts with Northwest Technical College in Bemidji, they arranged a course of study for Head Start Teachers. All staff members were tested to determine their academic readiness for college, with those needing improvement in reading, writing and math, receiving tutoring in those areas.

       The staff was up for the challenge, Smith was quoted in a Pioneer article as stating, and she said they tried to provide as much support as they could.

       Since transportation back and forth to Bemidji was difficult for some of their employees, the courses were taught at the Head Start Center. With having a relatively short period of time to complete the 64-credit course before the deadline, classes were scheduled around their regular teaching schedules. The students took classes after the kids were finished with school, on Fridays when Head Start was off, weekends, during holiday breaks and summers.

       There were also some tough obstacles facing the students, including births, deaths, hospitalizations, accidents, and illness.

       Patty Smith lost her mother last winter and said it was a hardship. But since she has a big family, they helped her out, and her classmates helped her as well.

       Of the 21 women graduating, 17 were the first members of their families to obtain a college degree.

       This year, Red Lake and Ponemah Head Start Programs have a current eligible enrollment of almost 200 students. That figure could be higher because enrollment eligibility is based on family income levels. It was also reported that there were about 400 four-year-olds living on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, of which if they had all met eligibility standards, they wouldn’t have enough classroom space to accommodate all of them, even though two new classrooms have been added this year.

       The twenty-one graduates receiving their Child Care and Education AAS Degrees were: Sandra Brown, Teana Clark, Margaret Crowe, Jacqueline A. Defoe, Kari Graves, Simone Johns, Anita Kingbird, Lisa Lawrence, Ellen Lussier, Karen Martin, Shirley Rosebear, Betty Schoenborn, Delana Smith, Patricia Smith, Alberta Spears, Esther Spears, Gail Stillday, Phyllis Thunder, Lynette Tyler and Randi Jo White.