Staff Directory

About AIGC.

"Vision is not analytic, it is intuitive. It is knowing, in your bones, what can or must be done. Vision isn’t forecasting the future; it is creating the future by taking action in the present."

The vision of the American Indian Graduate Center (AIGC) is nothing short of transformation as we focus our intent, our spirit, and our traditions to build a better tomorrow for Indian people. We are creating successive generations of American Indian citizens prepared to participate in the constructive revitalization of their respective communities—those who share a common location, common interests, and common needs.

Our ultimate objective is self-sufficiency and self-determination within all Indian communities. People who are self-sufficient and self-determined are free to find meaning in their lives, to build quality lives, and to leave a legacy of wisdom for all humanity.

We dedicate AIGC resources to liberating the intellectual capacity of all Indian students. As an organization we are responsible for raising the bar of expectations for all students. We set high expectations for the individual and provide a climate where great things happen. This will result in Indian students achieving excellence in all the varied areas that they pursue.

AIGC seeks to invigorate our sense of community from the ground up. Indian country needs effective leaders as never before; AIGC intends to provide them. We need people with vision and clarity, who have the focus and direction that comes from a sure internal compass. We need people who are generous, energetic, and know how to connect with and nurture others.

These new leaders must have the extraordinary skills to move through the barriers that have so often kept Indian leaders from achieving community visions: barriers like pessimism, discouragement, and dependence on outside sources. Our new leaders will help our culture create and control the changes that need to happen, replacing the security blanket of despair with the invigorating fresh air of purposefulness.

It is imperative that, as Indian people, we create and control the rate of change, the quality of the changes and achieve the balance for that which the changes affect. The survival of Indian people depends on our journey. We must start here.

AIGC is committed to understanding how Indian communities function and providing insight about how Indians with post-baccalaureate degrees improve community life. We must understand our capacity to mobilize our resources, then use them for effective change and development. We need to form creative partnerships and alliances with other groups to advance our goal of rebuilding Indian communities.

AIGC will help plan and produce the social, economic and political changes needed to ensure the long-term positive development of our communities by providing extraordinary numbers of talented, highly skilled, and exceptionally trained Indian professionals.

Historically, our thinking has been distorted. Part of the dysfunction is that successful Indian people have colluded with outside systems—a survival necessity, but a survival tool that has extracted a great price from traditional tribal ways. Collectively, we need to find a way to get completely outside the box of conventional thinking. A return to communal principles, holistic thinking, and philosophies is the key to transforming the American Indian Graduate Center from reliance on federal funding to a proactive and independent organization that has the potential to change the face of Indian country.

Behavior begins with a thought, which generates a feeling which, when it’s a new thought, produces a new behavior. If we want to change the behavior of a relationship, be it personal or cultural, we have to change the thinking that produced it. Changing thinking is the road to empowerment, optimism and, best of all, it’s the road back home for many of the Indian graduate students that have the professional training in so many needed fields.

To live is to grow and change. Nothing remains the same and there is no standing still. This is a time of infinite possibilities, limited only by our imagination or our fears. We know that the work that’s been done at AIGC has made the Indian community better. As we change, grow, and focus on our vision, we will see the best result of all: Indians helping Indians.