American Indian Women's Leadership Fellowship Project

In 2010 the American Indian College Fund was awarded $1,000,000 by the Embrey Family Foundation to implement the American Indian Women’s Leadership Fellowship Project, which ends its fourth year of operation on June 30, 2014. Progressing towards its goal to further educational attainment and strengthen leadership skills of American Indian women, the Project serves as a platform for TCU women students to articulate their experience, self-define leadership and its meanings, and to conduct community based action projects as leadership practice. By fostering participation of women students in leadership arenas where they have traditionally been underrepresented, this Project seeks to create an environment of support among the women to promote learning and achievement, while addressing the historic inequalities that continue to impact American Indian women today. Through individual community projects, group trainings, retreats and annual scholarship funding, this fellowship program is designed to develop participant’s leadership skills while they attain their higher education to create the next generation of Native female leaders.
In culmination of their participation in the Project, Fellows attended the World Indigenous People’s Conference on Education in Honolulu, Hawaii, May 19-24, 2014. Fellows conducted a two-hour presentation highlighting their educational journeys, career aspirations and experiences of emerging leadership. This video highlights four educational journeys that represent the challenges and successes to provide the audience with a glimpse why American Indian Women’s leadership is important to the work of tribal colleges and universities.