The mission of Chemawa Indian School is to maintain the highest academic standards and foster excellent educational opportunities for American Indians and Alaska Natives. Cognizant of the diversity among American and Alaska Native cultures, Chemawa shall endeavor to preserve a safe and affirmative learning environment in which caring professional staff will demonstrate their commitment, through mutual respect and input given to decision making, as mentors and role models to each student. Chemawa will strive to fundamentally and systematically administer substantive academic programs that will challenge and reward both students and staff and facilitate the transformation of individual effort and enthusiasm into knowledge, skills and experience necessary to make choices that enrich life enabling each person to become positive contributors to their respective tribal communities and society as a whole.
Chemawa fully acknowledges the learning process as "dynamic" and will continually attempt to maintain higher levels of expectations for its students and staff, affording each a diverse opportunity for meaningful growth and development. The impetus of Chemawa will be the sound use of all resources and the application of "leading edge" technologies, enabling student connectivity beyond the boundaries of school walls. Chemawa shall afford each student an opportunity to achieve his/her full potential as a shared success between themselves, parent and our community.
Description
Chemawa Indian School is a private boarding school for Native American students from grades 9-12 run by theBureau of Indian Education in Salem, Oregon . Students come to Chemawa from many different tribes all over the western United States with large portions of the student body originating from tribes in Arizona, Montana, California, Alaska, Washington, and New Mexico. The facility is built to serve up to 400 students at a time and specializes in technology integration into education.
AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. It is a national program designed to increase access for minority students to college preparatory classes, opportunities and skills. Students can choose to apply and opt into AVID classes which directly teach college preparatory skills, help students apply for college and also support their success in their other academic classes. At Chemawa Indian School AVID is much more than just a class or a program though, it is a community which includes many, many people. There are the 25 students in each grade level class, a dedicated group of AVID teachers, community members who come in to present, the college tutors, mentors and interns from bothChemeketa Community College and the Willamette University Chemawa Partnership Program , the countless other staff and community members both on and off campus who provide mentorship and support to students in the program, as well as the administrators who work to ensure funding for the AVID program and accommodate it. To learn more about the AVID program or to visit and share your college story with the students please contact Beth Sigman at 503-399-5721 x 320. You can also visit the class homepages for some avid classes by clickinghere .
