Despite the fact that school is out for the summer, students involved in Nebo's Title VII program have spent the last four weeks learning about their culture and how to turn their knowledge to future personal and academic success.

The students capped Camp Eagle Summer School on Wednesday with a powwow to showcase their artistic accomplishments.

"We're following the pattern of a traditional powwow to show the kids how a regular powwow runs," said director Eileen Quintana. "Powwow is a way of being thankful, of being in harmony with our surroundings, and offering prayers for relatives and the community."

And this capstone powwow was a learning process, Quintana said, one in which the community was invited to become involved.

"Children are very important to our community," Quintana said. "A lot of our community will come out to support things that the kids are doing. Native Americans are very close-knit. I love that about my people."

Starting from scratch

Quintana, of Spanish Fork, developed Nebo's Native American Program, also known as Title VII, 11 years ago.

At the time, only 37 percent of the American Indian seniors attending Nebo schools were graduating.

Quintana began by meeting with families in the area, inviting students to participate in an after-school tutoring program. That first year, Quintana had 87 students and only $11,000 in funding.

"Now, she averages about $187 per student and writes grants to fund after-school programs and workshops," said Lana Hiskey, Nebo's public information officer.

With the early funding, Quintana hired master teacher Brenda Beyal. Beyal also teaches in Rees Elementary's multi-age program, in Spanish Fork.

With Beyal's help, Nebo extended the academic-year tutoring program to a voluntary summer school in June.

Beyal has taught Indian education for nine years, Hiskey said. "She has a passion for two areas: Indian education and multi-age education. She started with 13 students nine years ago and now has over 100 students in summer school. The summer school has become a family event for cultural preservation for the Native American students."

"Mainly because the students feel they have a place to come to get help," said fellow instructor Margie Dobson, a family consumer science teacher at Spanish Fork Junior High School. "We have had parents coming and tutoring students. My son-in-law went on a mission to Japan. One of our students was taking Japanese at one of the local high schools and he came in and tutored her. My daughter tutored calculus to some of the high school students."

According to Dobson, other parents who excel in math, computers and science fill-in with whatever instruction is required.

"First we said only third-, fourth- and fifth-graders," Beyal said. "We found that when they came, they came as a family. It wasn't just the younger kids, so we opened the program up. It's something that the parents and the kids look forward to. We think academics is important but we do it through culture and through family. We never take a child on a field trip unless the parents come with them."

Blessing students

"I liked how there is a program for the Native Americans," said Nia Nez, 18. "I like how involved Eileen is, how focused and determined she is with the Native Americans. She gets us involved with the Native American culture."

Nez, a recent graduate of Payson High School from Santaquin, has spent time in the program, taking two Navajo language classes, and a Navajo government class. She was working to apply for The Chief Manuelito Scholarship, but needed to take a couple of Navajo culture classes.

Which is where the Title VII program came in for her.

The coursework she needed to complete the classes was available by computer through the Title VII program.

While there, Nez said she benefited from the cultural lessons that instructors were teaching younger children, things she said she hadn't heard before, despite the close ties that she and her family keep with the culture.

At Payson High, Nez said there were only a couple of students with whom she shared cultural ties.

Attending the after-school program, Nez said, helped her reconnect with those who shared her heritage. "It's a strong part of our family. We go down to the Navajo reservation where mom and dad grew up to go to things like powwow. We talk about it a lot."

Nez wants to attend BYU to pursue a degree in the medical field, preferably with athletic training and physical therapy.

She's hoping to earn enough money to attend Spring semester 2010.

Hard work paying off

Today, Nebo's Title VII program has 265 students, preschool to senior year, enrolled in the after-school tutoring program based in the Grant Building in Springville.

And graduation rates for American Indian students in the district have soared.

Since Nebo School District started offering the after-school classes, nearly 90 percent of their seniors have graduated.

At one point, Nebo's Title VII program graduated 97 percent of its seniors, Quintana said.

Much of that credit goes to the students' families, she said.

According to Quintana, 85 percent of students in the program are of Dinéh, or Navajo, decent, but the program also draws students from the Goshute, Paiute, Lakota, Chippewa, Cherokee and Shoshone nations.

While Nebo's program spends a large part of its cultural education on teaching Dinéh tradition, the program encompasses all of the cultures, giving each a voice in language, art, craft and music. With this knowledge, students can move forward, graduating from Nebo schools with the skills required to move into the university system.

The success of the program, Quintana says, can be measured by CRT scores that the school uses to test math and literacy and reflect academic progress. The scores have gone from the low 25-percent quartile to the 75-percent quartile.

"I see a direct correlation with the after-school tutoring and the attention that we're giving the students," she said.

It's a success that has not gone unnoticed.

Brenda Beyal received Utah's No Child Left Behind 2006 American Star of Teaching award in September 2007. Secretary of Education Senior Advisor, Norma Garze, flew out from Washington D.C. to give the award.

Quintana received a distinguished award from Forest Cuch, director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs for her outstanding work.

According to J. Lynn Jones, director of Special Education and Federal Programs at Nebo, many students who participate in the program graduate with scholarships and move on, some going to schools closer to family or tribal lands while still others stay in the Utah Valley.

"Many of these kids graduate with high honors," he said. "We have distinguished graduates. They're good students. They work hard in class and become good citizens. That's what we're all about."

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