POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam is embarking on a multi-year program, funded with $878,000 from the U.S. Department of Education, to prepare and train qualified Native American students to become teachers and school administrators.

The program is coordinated through the Department of Education's Office of Indian Education.

SUNY Potsdam's School of Education and Professional Studies will partner with the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe at Akwesasne and other native nations in New York State. The college will also work with local school districts with a significant number of native students.

“With our long history of excellence in teacher education, and our longstanding relationship with the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, the college is uniquely positioned to support Native American educators,” said the college’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Margaret E. Madden. “SUNY Potsdam is very proud to be able to offer this much needed program.”

Through the project, SUNY Potsdam will recruit and select a cohort of 10 Native American students studying education, with the goal of creating a support network and preparing them for success teaching in area schools. The college will also design innovative courses hosted and taught by Mohawk educators, and bring Native American issues into the curriculum through a faculty advocate.

In the long term, the grant will allow the college to develop an education curriculum integrating Native American pedagogy as part of a culturally responsive approach to teaching, a news release on the program grant said, ultimately allowing SUNY Potsdam to attract and train more American Indian teacher education students in the future.

"As director of the Native American Initiative at SUNY Potsdam and a resident of Akwesasne, I am thrilled that the college can offer this opportunity to Native American students wishing to become teachers," said Sheila Marshall, who also directs the Center for Diversity. "What a great match this is -- the Indian Education Professional Development Grant and SUNY Potsdam's School of Education. It doesn't get much better than this."

The purposes of the Indian Education Professional Development program are: to increase the number of qualified Indian individuals in professions that serve Indians, provide training to qualified Indian individuals to become teachers, administrators, teacher aides, social workers, and ancillary educational personnel, and improve the skills of qualified Indian individuals in the education field.

SUNY Potsdam was one of five campuses nationwide awarded the competitive grant this year. The others winners include the University of Massachusetts Boston, Portland University (Oregon), Arizona State University and Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

SUNY Potsdam is more diverse than ever, with nearly 30 percent of the student body identifying as being students of color, the press release said. The college also has one of the largest Native American student populations in the State University of New York system. To find out more, visit www.potsdam.edu/studentlife/diversity.

The School of Education and Professional Studies at SUNY Potsdam has been preparing educators for nearly 200 years. To learn more, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/SOEPS.