News

NWIC fundraiser raises spirits and $120,000

A lively live auction, a dynamic fashion show, cultural sharing and laughter – a lot of laughter. That’s how Greg Masten will remember Northwest Indian College’s 5th Annual TL’aneq’: Gathering for a Celebration benefit dinner and Native cultural arts and experiences auction.

“The 2013 TL’aneq’ event was a great night,” said Masten, director of NWIC’s Development Office, which organizes the event. “We were thrilled with the turnout and people had a lot of fun.”

The event, held April 12 at the Swinomish Casino & Lodge, was attended by tribal and non-tribal NWIC supporters from Washington all the way down to Southern California. Together, those supporters helped raise nearly $120,000 for NWIC student scholarships.

NWIC students’ ‘Traditional Journeys’ business plan wins national competition

At the beginning of April, Northwest Indian College (NWIC) students headed to Scottsdale, Arizona with a business plan concept in their hands that they hoped was creative enough and put together well enough to out-compete the business plans of tribal college students from across the nation.
 
The students were in Arizona April 11-13 for the American Indian Business Leaders (AIBL) 2013 Annual National Conference, at which a student business plan competition took place.

NWIC student poem wins national recognition

“We Are Red and Vibrant,” a poem by Northwest Indian College student Desiree Pulido, received an honorable mention in the Tribal College Journal’s recent student writing contest. The poem will appear in the August edition of the Journal and on its website.

Pulido, Nooksack, wrote the poem for a class presentation, for which each student was to creatively tell the story of his or her journey to college and who and where they are.

Northwest Indian College launches Nisqually campus webpage

By Kapiolani A. Laronal, NWIC Extended Site Coordinator

Northwest Indian College recently launched its Nisqually Extended Site webpage to better serve the Nisqually Indian Tribal Community. The page will help answer questions about services and programming provided at the site, and provide important contact information.

NWIC’s Winter 2013 President’s, Dean’s lists

Congratulations, Northwest Indian College students for your outstanding work so far this academic year. Students who made NWIC’s President’s and Dean’s lists for winter quarter 2013 are included below. 

In order to make the President’s List, students had to complete 12 or more credits (not including classes graded S/U, F or I) and earn a grade point average of 4.0. The following students made the President’s List:

NWIC rocket team successful at NASA rocket launch competition

On April 21, Northwest Indian College’s rocket team, the RPGs, put its rocket to the ultimate test at NASA’s University Student Launch flight competition in Huntsville, Alabama. 

The students competed with college and university teams from across the nation to see whose rocket could come closest to a 1-mile altitude goal and safely return its onboard science or engineering payload to Earth. Fifty-four teams took part, though six faced mechanical or technical issues and did not launch.

Construction begins on new NWIC library/tech building

On Feb. 20, construction began on Northwest Indian College’s new library and technology building, a project that will cost approximately $3 million. This will be the eighth building constructed on NWIC’s main campus as a result of the college’s $44 million capital campaign, which began in 2005. The building is scheduled to be completed by January 2014.

The almost 11,000-square-foot facility, designed by Zervas Group Architects, will essentially be two buildings under one roof, said Jay Conway, who is managing NWIC’s new campus construction.

The northern section of the building will house the college’s IT department, staff work rooms, labs and offices. The southern portion will house traditional library spaces, teens and children’s rooms, special collections, study areas and a large open space with the books and magazine stacks.

Eagles bring home AIHEC title for second consecutive year

To say the Northwest Indian College men’s basketball team challenged itself this year is to put it mildly. The Eagles’ season was filled with games against much larger schools, including an NCAA Division I and Division II teams. The team took on those large competitors with the hope that it would prepare them for the tribal college basketball competition of the year: the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) national basketball tournament.

On March 17, the Eagles’ tough season paid off when – for the second consecutive year – the team claimed the AIHEC championship title at the basketball tournament, held in Cloquet, Minn.

NWIC rocket club taking off to national competitions

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April will be a busy month of travel and competition for Northwest Indian College’s rocket club, the RPGs. The club will be in Huntsville, Alabama April 17-21 for NASA’s University Student Launch Initiative competition. A few days later, they will travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the First Nations Launch.

This will be the team’s third year participating in the NASA completion – last year they took 12th out of 41 teams.

It’s the team’s fourth year participating in the First Nations competition, which they have taken first place in for the past two years. This year, club members’ ambition led them to enter both the tribal college and the AISES (American Indian Science and Engineering Society) divisions of the competition, with a separate team for each.

Recipe of the Month: Nettle Smoothie

Gail Julius, a Lummi Tribal member and Northwest Indian College Traditional Plants & Foods Program Assistant (part of the Cooperative Extension Office), has committed to providing the community with a healthy recipe each month.

This month Julius is asking readers to focus on antioxidants to give their bodies a fresh start going into spring.

“It’s spring cleaning time, not just for you house, but also for you own temple: your body,” Julius said.

Nettles are a great source of antioxidants and are high in minerals, vitamins and amino acids.