The American Indian Student Association at UCLA is looking for three potential employees to manage its academic advisement centers in hopes to improve American Indian diversity on campus.
The organization’s search, named the American Indian Recruitment Project, has been looking for people to work as either a coordinator at two of their local community sites or as their community college coordinator.
Both positions’ workloads consist of advising American Indian youth in trying to gain enrollment into college.
The number of American Indian students, a broad term encompassing students of the various tribes and clans in the United States, is desperately low at UCLA, said Nora Pulskamp, a 2003 alumnna and the current coordinator for the project.
She said that this past year, only 14 American Indian freshman students enrolled at UCLA.
Heather Torres, the vice president of the association, said that this trend is “disheartening” and that the American Indian Recruitment Project is committed to reversing it.
Torres added that one way to ensure an increase in the number of American Indians admitted to UCLA is by educating and aiding the young American Indian youth that reside locally within the area.
Pulskamp said the American Indian Student Association addressed its concerns regarding the low enrollment numbers with UCLA officials earlier in January.
According to the Facebook event listing for the American Indian Recruitment Project, a number of the community sites that the American Indian Student Association at UCLA has ties to are centers that give back to the greater American Indian community.
The centers, according to Pulskamp, are located in the cities of Gardena and downtown Los Angeles.
The Facebook listing also states that the sites are committed to assisting the local youth in their aspiration to get to college and to an institution such as UCLA, a campus that has a lack of representation from the American Indian community.
These locations offer such programs as weekly tutoring, academic advisement and peer mentorship.
However, Torres said that their main goal remains to assist American Indian youth in their hope and struggle of attaining postsecondary education that is seemingly so vital in today’s world in hopes of succeeding.
The members of the project often work with children who come from disadvantaged homes in which education is not stressed. Pulskamp said that one of the project’s aims is to “plant the seed of education” in the minds of youth today in hopes that they not only will pursue greater academic opportunities but will also come back to the American Indian community and influence the coming generations as well.
The community sites also offer culturally relevant information and activities, according the event listing. Their hope is to not only offer a voice to the dispersed American Indian populace, but to also make the young men and women of American Indian descent feel comfortable and proud to originate from a background of rich cultural heritage.
Aside from the three paid positions, the project is also looking for additional volunteers.
The American Indian Recruitment Project, which currently only has seven paid positions, needs the help of students who wish to volunteer a few hours of their week in aiding the Native American youth.
Pulskamp said that it is often the case that 30 or more youths arrive at their sites looking for tutoring and only a few available tutors and mentors are there. The influx of new volunteers will immediately improve that ratio and make for better quality academic services to be provided.
It should be noted that one does not need to be of American Indian background to be considered for the application process or volunteer status, Pulskamp said. An applicant needs only to have a strong passion for working with youth.