ABSTRACT American Indian and Alaska Native students remain largely invisible in national higher education research datasets, limiting institutions’ ability to design effective recruitment, retention, and completion strategies. In response, the four largest Native scholarship organizations in the United States — the Cobell Scholarship Program, American Indian College Fund, AISES, and Native Forward — formed the National Native Scholarship Providers (NNSP), a collaborative research and data partnership addressing evidence gaps in Indigenous college access, affordability, belonging, and persistence. This article presents a case study of NNSP's interorganizational research collaboration. The consortium's first national mixed‐methods study examined Indigenous college affordability with participation from all four organizations. Subsequent sense of belonging and campus climate research was conducted through partnership among the Cobell Scholarship Program, AISES, and the College Fund, illustrating an adaptive collaboration model responsive to organizational capacity and evolving research priorities. Across studies, NNSP employs nationally representative surveys and Indigenous qualitative methodologies such as sharing circles, guided by Indigenous Data Sovereignty and CARE principles. Findings identify systemic barriers in higher education and institutional practices that foster Indigenous student success. This case study demonstrates how Native‐centered, higher education–adjacent organizations can lead ethical, evidence‐based research agendas that many institutions have been unable to undertake independently, offering a replicable model for addressing Indigenous student invisibility in higher education data.
ABSTRACT Native‐centric financial aid is an essential tool promoting college access and success for Native American students and a component of Native nation building. Yet, a small but growing body of literature indicates existing financial aid opportunities do not fully meet the lived realities of Native students. This article offers insights from the Native Student Aid Portal about the characteristics of Native‐centric financial aid at the institutional, postsecondary system, and state levels. We close by highlighting key lessons learned that inform student service professionals’ efforts to advance Native student services, with an emphasis on how improving financial aid information emerged as an essential strategy.
ABSTRACT Native American graduate students have a unique experience in higher education from their peers and from Native undergraduate students. This article highlights the challenges and triumphs of 12 Native American graduate students, focusing on their unique cultural perspectives and systemic obstacles they encounter in graduate education. Through their narratives, the article offers insights into their experiences, resilience, and the importance of cultural and academic support, providing guidance for faculty, staff, and future Native American graduate scholars.
ABSTRACT Using data drawn from the Multi‐Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL), the authors found that Native American college students’ participation in leadership development experiences was low. Those who participated in leadership development experiences most often did so in short‐term, often one‐off experiences. The relationship between participation and leadership self‐efficacy (LSE) and leadership capacity were examined. Recommendations for enhancing Native American student involvement in leadership development experiences are provided to address leadership practices within institutions of higher education.
ABSTRACT This article examines the evolving role of Indigenous scholarship providers in the United States, highlighting their critical contributions to educational equity, Tribal sovereignty, and student success. Grounded in a decolonizing framework and informed by Indigenous paradigms of relationality, reciprocity, and responsibility, the article explores how organizations such as the Cobell Scholarship Program, American Indian College Fund, Native Forward Scholars Fund, and AISES—Advancing Indigenous People in STEM extend beyond financial aid to offer culturally affirming support systems for Native college students. Through historical analysis, contemporary case studies, and emerging practices in Indigenous data sovereignty, the article illustrates how these providers address the systemic challenges facing American Indian and Alaska Native students in both Tribal and non‐Tribal institutions. The authors offer policy recommendations and strategic insights for student affairs professionals and higher education leaders seeking to better support Native learners. By centering Indigenous voices and worldviews, the article advocates for a transformative shift in how scholarship and student support are conceptualized, measured, and delivered.
ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) community, focusing on historical, cultural, and social realities which shape NHPI student experiences. Authors review existing research on NHPI students, highlight curricular and co‐curricular activities targeting NHPI student success, and conclude by offering strategies that educators may consider to support NHPI students.
ABSTRACT Indigenous Student Affairs (ISA) has grown from community‐driven advocacy into a vital support space within higher education. This article, written in a narrative style and grounded in a conversation among four ISA educators, traces the history and literature of ISA, highlights practitioners’ lived experiences across diverse institutional contexts, and identifies implications and future directions for sustaining ISA units, professionals, and communities.
ABSTRACT In this article, the author shares observations about serving the Alaska Native students on the North Slope at the only Tribal College in Alaska. The institution's #1 priority in its strategic plan is to indigenize the campus in every way possible.
ABSTRACT This article introduces a conceptual framework for Indigenous college student identity development, addressing the limitations of mainstream student development theories rooted in Western, Eurocentric worldviews. Drawing on Tribal Critical Race Theory and relationality, we propose four guiding questions—Where are we? Who are we? Who am I responsible to? How do we know what we know?—to illuminate the intersecting cultural, historical, and social complexities shaping Native students’ identities.
ABSTRACT Professional higher education associations offer knowledge, support, and networking for professionals. This chapter examines five national affinity groups, highlighting their efforts to enhance Native and Indigenous student success. We discuss their challenges, opportunities, contributions, and future aspirations for supporting the profession and strengthening community across higher education.
ABSTRACT This article explores the creation of a Native alumni engagement network, position, and legacy at the University of South Dakota. Through archival review, contemporary research, and first person experience by the researchers, this article examines the significance of a position focused on Native alumni engagement and the need for higher education's investment in Native alumni's triumphs, challenges, and contributions. By investing in alumni engagement, institutions also invest in Native student recruitment, persistence, retention, and mentorship.
This article explores developmental readiness, efficacy, and design sequencing considerations in college service experiences. Drawing on developmental theory and best practices, this article offers a roadmap to more effectively align student development with the design of community service experiences. It includes implications for practice and features the Leadership and Community Service-Learning Office at the University of Maryland, College Park, as an example of readiness and sequencing in action.
Master's programs serve as a traditional entry point for many professionals working in higher education. These programs are at an inflection point with declining enrollments, financial constraints at institutions negatively impacting graduate assistantships, proliferation of anti-diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) policies, and different pathways into the field. This article invites readers into a critical and reflective conversation about four contemporary key issues impacting graduate programs and key collaborators (i.e., program faculty, campus partners, and graduate students).
The demographic landscape of higher education is shifting , undergoing a profound transformation, with “new majority” student populations—such as first-generation students, ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities, veterans, and returning adults—becoming increasingly prevalent. This article explores the implications of these shifts for the preparation of future higher education and student affairs professionals, emphasizing the need for graduate training and professional development that addresses the diverse and intersecting identities of today's students. Grounded in an intersectional framework, the article examines the unique challenges and opportunities these students face and highlights strategies for enhancing the preparation of future professionals who would be well-equipped to foster equity, belonging, and success for all students in higher education. By focusing on inclusive practices and forward-thinking approaches, this article contributes to existing scholarship while offering a vision for a more responsive and student-centered future in higher education.
In this final article, we have been tasked with discussing the future of professional preparation in student affairs. Making predictions about the future of anything, even in sedentary times, is dicey, so given the dynamism and chaos of today's world, the reader will find no such forecasts here. Instead, we summarize the challenges facing the field vis-a-vis professional preparation, and we propose a series of possible actions to be considered by the field in order to meet those challenges. Our call to the field is to design and shape the future of professional preparation, not to just let the default future happen.
Student affairs practice must proactively address issues of access in the design and delivery of community service experiences. Gone are the days of presuming equitable access to opportunities. Recent research identifies significant barriers associated with financial security, familial responsibilities, time, and transportation as critical constraints on students’ rates of participation in service. Data demonstrates students’ motivations to serve are currently at the highest documented rates historically. The article introduces the concept of “opportunity ecosystems” as a means to enable student participation in service.
Professional associations support a field in many ways, including professionalization, setting standards of practice, advocating for members and the industry it supports, and generating and sharing knowledge, research, and scholarship. While they provide ongoing education, they can play a more intentional role in professional preparation. This article will discuss how comprehensive and functional area professional associations can support preparation for entry into the field of student affairs and higher education.
This article explores how college students’ beliefs about reciprocity are shaped through community engagement, particularly in the context of community-engaged research. Recent studies highlight the central role of reciprocity in students’ engagement experiences; students not only seek reciprocal relationships and meaningful impact, but also define community engagement through this lens. Drawing on vignettes co-authored by undergraduate researchers, this chapter illustrates how reciprocity functions in practice. The vignettes focus on students’ participation in an undergraduate research collaborative that examines how higher education institutions can foster more equitable and sustained relationships with the neighborhoods and communities that host them. Key takeaways from each vignette offer insights for designing and implementing more equitable approaches to community-engaged teaching, learning, and research.
Some of the first competencies for higher education professionals were published in the 1937 Student Personnel Point of View by the American Council on Education. These have evolved and expanded over time, and professional associations have defined knowledge, skills, and dispositions for the field in general and specific functional areas. These competencies, along with relevant ethical guidelines, professional standards, and learning opportunities hosted by professional organizations provide a framework for learners across a continuum encompassing a foundation of preparing future professionals through continuous learning and professional development. Recently, professional credentialing in the forms of certificates and certification was introduced as a voluntary means to further validate professionals’ knowledge and incentivize continued learning.
Higher education and student affairs (HESA) doctoral programs might not be keeping pace in preparing leaders for the challenging roles they will occupy in the future. Curricula may lack relevance to leadership practice, and doctoral programs might emphasize research excellence and preparing future faculty over leadership development and administrative career paths. Previous efforts to make HESA graduate programs more relevant to leadership practice have focused on the development of standards or guidelines. But that approach relies on a static document to address a fluid problem. The complexities of postsecondary leadership suggest the need for a fluid and ongoing process of leadership development, where faculty and doctoral students can learn about and practice leadership in real-time in response to emerging challenges in the field. This article explains how HESA doctoral programs can create dynamic feedback loops that generate real-time learning about leadership. As these feedback loops generate new knowledge about leadership, HESA program faculty can incorporate these insights into the curriculum, learning environment, and research experiences for doctoral students.
