Native American Scholarship Program For Undergraduate College Students Offered

American Indian Services (AIS) has announced the availability of scholarships for Native Americans. AIS provides scholarships and programs to Native Americans in need, to grant them access to education while ensuring the preservation of their cultural values.

Details can be found at https://americanindianservices.org

The freshly announced scholarships are specifically for those students whose lineage can be traced back directly to Native American ancestry. The scholarships are distributed according to tribes and are available to those who are or less than 100% Native Americans.

The scholarships provided by AIS are based on need and allocated directly to the schools for the beneficiaries. They come in the form of financial support for the beneficiaries to attend college, maintain enrollment, and graduate.

Given the high levels of poverty in Native American various tribes and the scarcity of educational materials and opportunities therein, AIS sets out each year to provide thousands of college scholarships to natives from over 300 federally recognized tribes.

Other factors influencing the organization's drive to provide scholarships include the fact that Native Americans may attend schools run by their tribe and may or may not be at a disadvantage when it comes to learning English.

According to a representative for AIS, "for way too long, Native American student experiences in education have been inconsistent with people of all other minorities. The absolute most pressing concern for this learning population is a lack of tribal role models within higher education... Native Americans have been continually underrepresented in postsecondary learning. Even when they do attend college, this learning community graduates at a much lower rate than their white counterparts".

Information on the Native Americans and AIS scholarship distributions can be found at https://americanindianservices.org/native-american-scholarships

To receive a scholarship from AIS, candidates must prove their ancestry, since every tribe has unique requirements for membership. One example is that of the Cherokee tribe, where candidates must demonstrate that they’re direct descendants from that nation. This means proving that at least one of their great-great-grandparents is on the ancestry list.

The Bureau of Indian Education, has stricter entry requirements. With this organization, candidates are required to be at least 25% Native American before being considered.

AIS hopes that with the scholarship program natives will be able to achieve individual success and be better able to support their communities while making positive change for future generations. The organization is open to individuals who would like to contribute to making this possible.
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To find out more about the organization, interested parties can click on the links above or go to:

​https://g.page/r/CTjDNa6xs-KSEBA for location details.