Stone Child looks at health care, four-year teacher degrees

A pilot program to train emergency medical technicians and plans for the college to offer its first baccalaureate program were some of the topics Stone Child College President Nate St. Pierre discussed with former Lt. Gov Angela McLean when she visited the campus Tuesday.

McLean’s trip was her first to Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation since stepping down as Montana’s 35th lieutenant governor to assume the post of director of American Indian and Minority Achievements and K-12 Partnerships for the office of the state’s Commissioner of Higher Education.

McLean was accompanied by John Cech, deputy commissioner of Academic and Student Affairs, who is traveling with her to all seven tribal colleges on Montana’s Indian reservations.

In his conversation with McLean and Cech, St. Pierre described tribal colleges as “places of hope.”

Bachelor’s degree in elementary education

St. Pierre said the college is aiming to do more, including starting to offer its first bachelor’s program in elementary education.

Students can earn an associate degree in arts and sciences in early childhood, elementary and physical education.

St. Pierre said he sees a reservation with a mostly younger population which will likely yield younger families with children and a need for additional teachers in the reservation’s schools as well as in the Box Elder schools, which sit just outside the reservation and many Native students.

He said the program would require additions to its nine full-time faculty and additional adjunct faculty, but, he added, the space provided by the college is sufficient.

St. Pierre said the college is still working on the details of the program and is looking to have the program in place by the fall semester of 2017.

“I’ve said from the beginning of this whole scheme of things that we have to do it right the first time, and if we do it will open the door for other four-year programs based on what our needs are,” St. Pierre said.

If it is not done right or the program starts off poorly, the college and all stakeholders in the program will have to “go back to square one,” he said.

McLean, a former Anaconda High School teacher and former chair of the Montana University System Board of Regents, said the plan is as “exciting.” It’s an opportunity she said could help address the shortage of teachers typical on reservations and would enable those students to begin a career while continuing to reside on the reservation.

“Kids don’t want to leave, and education is a field that will allow our folks here in Stone Child or down at Chief Dull Knife (college) or anywhere in Indian Country where they live to get their education and to stay where they live and truly keep their gifts there,” McLean said.

Health and human service

Human services is another field of study that St. Pierre said has drawn great interest from both current and prospective students.

Some of those students who have graduated from that program have gone on to four-year colleges, and later go in to licenced addiction counseling.

Rural behavioral health, a program that was just started last year, has garnered a great deal of interest.

The Association of Schools of Allied Health Professionals provide services involving the identification and evaluation of diseases and disorders; dietary and nutrition services; and rehabilitation and health management systems.

Eventually, St Pierre said, the college might provide certifications in such areas as medical coding and billing.

Cech said the Montana Department of Industry and Labor estimates that over the next decade 1,300 jobs will need to be filled each year in the health care industry in order to keep up with rising demand and the exodus of baby boomers from the workforce who are reaching retirement age.

St. Pierre said that next month, Stone Child College will collaborate with the Chippewa Cree Tribal Health Center and Montana State University-Northern to offer an apprenticeship program for aspiring EMTs.

St. Pierre said funding for the Tribal Apprenticeship EMT Pilot Project was provided by USA Funds and the tribal college apprenticeship program.

An article in the Rocky Boy tribal newsletter and a flyer went into additional detail, saying the training will occur between May 9 and June 22 twice a week. The course will be a total of 150 hours and be commensurate to seven college credits.

The college is beginning to recruit students for that training now, St. Pierre said.

Students in the program will become versed not only in how to provide treatment and administer emergency procedures, but also the technical, ethical and legal issues that are involved in the field of emergency care.

St. Pierre said college officials are expecting about five to complete the training and it looks like the health board will be able to hire those participants upon successful completion of the course.

He said that, in talking with some of those involved with the tribal health facility, the people at the clinic say they are going to likely need a wide range of health care professionals for the reservation’s new health center being built just down the street from the campus.

“With this health care facility, they are going to be needing just about everything,” St. Pierre said.