Red Lake alumna reflects on successful Ivy League college experience as an Indigenous woman

Her stomach collapsed when she read “Congratulations”.

She did it.

“I kind of kept it to myself because I was like, ‘Oh, there’s no way I’m going to come in. I just want to deal with this on my own and it gets super embarrassing when I tell someone.’ I went to the bathroom when it was time for her to make decisions, “she said.” I looked at it and thought, ‘Wait.’ – I’ve read congratulations. “

Four years later, the 2017 Red Lake High School alumna completed her bachelor’s degree in English with a major in creative writing and women’s, gender and sex sciences as a minor on Sunday June 13th in Dartmouth, Hanover, NH.

According to Barrett’s family, she may be the first Red Lake High School alum to graduate from an Ivy League school. Regardless of that, her performance makes her one of the elite ranks of Ivy League graduates worldwide.

Now she’s back in Red Lake planning her next steps and hoping to publish her own books one day.

Red lake background

As a student at Red Lake High School, Barrett tried many different things.

“I was a bit of a high-flyer. I graduated as the best in my year. I was involved with the National Honor Society and did a major History Day project that I thought we made honorable mentions on in the state, ”she said. “I did a little bit with Knowledge Bowl, a little bit with the newspaper. I was pretty busy in high school. “

It’s hard for her to remember who inspired her to consider an Ivy League school, maybe a great-aunt, but she set Dartmouth as her destination when she was in her sophomore year. She remembered telling her school counselor where she had set her goal, and the counselor reacted in surprise and said, “This is a big goal.”

“When it was time for college applications, I just loved it. I wrote all the essays and ended up applying in nine different places. I was accepted by everyone, ”said Barrett. “I applied (to Dartmouth), actually on the day the applications were due, really surprised that I got in.”

Dartmouth’s indigenous history

Barrett said she noticed Dartmouth because the school claimed to offer special accommodation for Indigenous American students.

“It was always a dream,” she says. “They recently revived their original goal of recruiting Native American students. There should be additional opportunities for us. “

When Dartmouth was first founded in 1769, its mission was to exist “for the education and instruction of the youth of the Indian tribes in this country … English youth and everyone else,” it says on its website. “Over the next 200 years Dartmouth did little to realize its founding commitment to local students,” the Dartmouth website continued.

Dartmouth became active again in the early 1970s and has since graduated more Indians than any other Ivy League institution. More than 1,200 Native American, Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian people representing over 200 different tribal communities have attended Dartmouth, according to the Dartmouth website.

While Dartmouth has certainly come a long way since 1769, Barrett said it didn’t live up to their expectations. She said it was hard to find her fellowship.

“I was surprised that it wasn’t as accommodating to Native American students as people had said. The fact that these institutions weren’t really made for people like me, but I still found a small community and that was all, ”Barrett said. “Community is definitely survival in Dartmouth. When I finally found it, it went much better. “

Currently, the freshman class at Dartmouth is 4% Native American students – an increase over the roughly 0.5% Native American students in Ivy League institutions across the board.

Barrett said the culture shock was one of the biggest challenges for them and the elite school was not meeting their expectations for housing for Native American students.

“Nobody can understand that in any way, there are so few of us. I made a friend from Leech Lake, she’s Ojibwe and it just worked. That really helped. Given the wealth gap and lack of support and resources for mental health, it was so incredibly difficult to adjust, “she said. “I think right now there should be an institution-wide shift in the way the college treats mental health. It’s a systemic problem. “

As she reflected on her experience, Barrett said that she would encourage other students to set high goals, but they should trust their courage and not see the Ivy League schools as the end.

“I used to think the ultimate goal should be the most elite institutions and you should go as high as you can, but now I think just trust yourself,” she said. “There is nothing wrong with schools near where you live and schools in a warmer place. First and foremost, trust yourself. “

Write their story

Barrett switched from pre-medicine to English and discovered her calling in school.

“I should have known. In all honesty, I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I actually started on the pre-med route, but I didn’t like it that much,” she said. “When I switched to writing, I fell in love me in it. There is this amazing faculty, so much support in developing my own writing, and I’ve honestly improved so much. “

When Barrett got her diploma last week, she felt a mixture of pride and dismay. She has spent more than a quarter of her college career online.

“When you walk across the stage it feels like it passed too quickly,” she said. “I haven’t been to the library since last year – it was all gone. When I was there at the beginning, I felt like I had missed something, but it’s still a relief, I’m still very proud. “

After graduation, she came back to Red Lake and is currently working at the Red Lake Boys and Girls Club. She hopes it will take a year before continuing her studies.

“I would like to be published. I would like to find a community of writers, ”she said. “I still feel kind of out of the field. I don’t know if I want to stay home because a lot of people say, ‘The goal is to get out of Red Lake, you’re lucky if you get out,’ but it isn’t for me. I think it’s very beautiful there and I have my family and deep cultural roots. I could well imagine staying there. “

source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/red-lake-alumna-reflects-on-successful-ivy-league-college-experience-as-an-indigenous-woman/