Native American Scholarships at Snow College
Among the many projects of the Utah Rotary District’s Native American Initiative is a scholarship endowment for Native American students to attend Snow College Richfield.
Through the generous contributions of many Rotarians, this endowment fund has now reached $55,500. This year $6,000 was set aside for three worthy Native American candidates. The remaining funds were placed in an endowment at Snow College to allow the scholarship to continue to be awarded each year for years to come.
After reviewing the scholarship applications, three Native students were awarded scholarships of $2000 each for this school year. The scholarship recipients are Jontay Begay from Cameron, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation and Gregory Hurley from Navajo Mountain, his mother is from the Lo’kaa’dine clan (Reed People); both graduated from Richfield High School and were residents of the Richfield Residential Hall. The third recipient is Emily Culumber from Smithfield, Utah she is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
Many thanks to the Richfield Rotarians who donated a total of $42,650: (including Roger Bird, Jay Bosshardt, Neil Bosshardt, Larry & Janie Pearson, Brent & Janis Thorne plus Representative Carl & Gail Albrecht).
The remaining $13,000 was donated by Rotary Clubs from Salt Lake, Bountiful, Cedar City, Centerville-Farmington, Mt Timpanogos, as well as a $1000 award from the Rotary Governor’s Collaborative Grant. Three other Utah Rotarians donated $1000 each.
Background Information:
The Richfield Residential Hall (established in the 1950s) houses about 100 Navajo Students each year – who attend Richfield and South Sevier High Schools. Many of these students also take courses at the Snow College Richfield campus. Richfield club is very aware of the need for post-secondary training for Native students.
Richfield Rotarian Brent Thorne is a Snow College alumni, who currently serves on their Foundation Board and is Chair of their Scholarship Committee. When Paul Summers suggested the Utah Rotary District establish a Native American Scholarship, Brent was eager to extend Rotary service to Native students. Brent is a driving force behind this endowment.
There are five tribal cultures which inhabit what is now called Utah: Utes, Paiutes, Northwestern Shoshones, Goshutes, and Navajos.
Today, there are eight sovereign tribal governments within Utah: Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, Navajo Nation, Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, San Juan Southern Paiute, Skull Valley Band of Goshute, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute.
There are 59,338 Native Americans living in Utah but less than 10 percent have a bachelor’s degree. About 46% of Utah’s AIAN population lives in urban Salt Lake (14,562), Utah (5,608), Davis (3,269), and Weber (3,150) counties, with the remainder on or near the eight reservations within Utah (some of which cross/share borders with neighboring states).
Census data show that the largest tribal communities indigenous to Utah are the Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe, and Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.