Boosting recruitment
Graduate School targets American Indians
By: Monique L. Newton, Staff Writer
Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: Features
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"It doesn't sound like much out here, but on reservations out West, those are things that stick out," he said.
Jacobs, 41 and a Sioux Indian who grew up living on seven different reservations, is now a doctoral candidate in cell and molecular physiology at UNC's School of Medicine.
Beginning today, the Graduate School is sponsoring a two-day recruitment event to attract American Indian graduate students.
Twenty-two participants from across the United States - both undergraduate students and bachelor's degree holders - will learn test-taking strategies and talk to current American Indian graduate students about their experiences at UNC, said Sandra Hoeflich, an associate dean of the Graduate School.
Seventy-three American Indian graduate and professional students attend UNC, according to the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.
"We want to make it easier for them to see that graduate education is here and can help them," Hoeflich said. "We do have many great success stories."
Jacobs was one of eight children and started working for his tribal government as a wild-land firefighter as a teenager.
"I was helping pay the bills when I was 14 years old," Jacobs said.
He then worked for 18 years for the federal Bureau of Land Management.
Jacobs spent long hours as a smoke jumper, parachuting into remote areas with wildfires for eight months out of the year and attending community college classes during the remaining four.
He eventually stopped working as a firefighter and graduated from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., with a degree in cellular and molecular biology.
"Although I feel like I'm doing really good, there's also this sort of distance being created between myself and my culture and my tribe," he said.
Jacobs said that UNC is much different from where he grew up.
"Everybody's got hope in their eyes and looking forward, and their futures are bright and everything appears rosy," he said. "And that does not exist on a lot of the reservations."
But he said that he admires American Indians who still reside there.
"No matter how bad the conditions are, no matter how bleak things look, there's always someone cracking jokes and having fun and making the rest of the group laugh too," he said.
After graduating this year, Jacobs plans to have a post-doctorate fellowship and then teach at his alma mater, Fort Lewis, which he said is about 20 percent American Indian.
But he said he has big expectations for UNC.
"I think in the next five to 10 years, you're going to see a huge explosion of Native American students coming to UNC," he said.
"I hope I'm right."
Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.
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