American Indians hardly find it easy to adapt to learning environments in the city. Due to this consistent problem, various schools like St Joseph Indian School came up to assist Americans to pursue quality education.
In this article, you will find interesting facts about St Joseph’s Indian School, such as the admission means, requirements, and steps, tuition fees, admitting rate, available programs, scholarships, and financial support system.
St Joseph is an Indian school that has a plain goal of making better the quality of life for Lakota (Sioux) children and families.
As an apostolate of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, St. Joseph’s core goal is to educate American Indian children and their families for life — mind, body, heart and spirit.
This goal propels the organization to educate and provide housing for over 200 Lakota (Sioux) children each year.
Before we proceed, here’s the table of content below for an overview of what to expect in this article.
About St. Joseph Indian School
According to Wikipedia, American Indian boarding schools, also known as Indian Residential Schools, started in the United States during the late 19th and mid-20th centuries with the sole aim of absorbing American Indian children and youth into Euro-American culture.
St. Joseph’s Indian School gives help to American Indian children seeing the desire to revive the pride in their culture by learning the Lakota language, learning the American Indian culture, and healing the broken family circle wherein a lot of them come from.
Of truth, this school provides an opportunity for Lakota (Sioux) children to escape extreme poverty and abuse when they attend St. Joseph’s Indian School. Students get access to all services and programs because of charitable contributions from generous supporters. Currently, over 200 children are benefiting from this school.
St Joseph’s Indian School Programs
Children in St. Joseph’s gain from personalized care plans that follow nationally approved and accredited techniques. Friends who support St. Joseph’s Native American programs help provide for every aspect of a child’s needs.
There are so many amazing programs at St. Joseph Indian School for children to enter and they include:
- Lakota Language Program
- Religious Education Program
- Family Integration Program
- Physical Health Program
- Mental Health Program
- Outreach and Other Programs
- Residential Living Program
- Identical Living Program
- Education Program
- Cultural Awareness Program
Educational program
St. Joseph’s Indian educational programs are top-notch. After completing the eighth grade, this school can take up to 50 students into its high school.
These students then get the proper training and guidance they need at that level. However, they don’t do it alone.
St. Joseph’s Indian school partners with Chamberlain High School to give its students the opportunity to be a powerful part of many sports, fine arts, and extra-curricular activities.
Notwithstanding that they attend the local public high school, they still live on St. Joseph’s campus with their houseparents.
Cultural Awareness Program
Preserving and apportioning the Lakota (Sioux) culture is a vital part of every Native American program at St. Joseph’s. Each student has a strong cultural heritage which is appreciated by their fellow students and is infused in the daily routine — both at school and in the homes.
There are so many games and competitions that help Native American students understand and communicate their cultural heritage, and it’s been helpful to them.
Lakota Language Program
St. Joseph’s Indian school appreciates and fully grasps the importance and the essence of the Lakota language to the culture of the Native American youth.
At St. Joseph’s Indian school, children in grades one through eight attend a regular American Indian Studies class where they learn the Lakota language.
Additionally, all classroom teachers push to include the Lakota language and culturally appropriate material in their regular curriculum.
Religious Education Program
When it comes to beliefs, St. Joseph Indian school sees this arm as crucial. They have a powerful belief in faith as they share strong affiliations with the Catholic church.
Their belief in God pushes them to take spiritual exercises such as fasting, praying, etc. Good you know, you don’t need to be a Catholic as they have to respect the belief of every student.
Family Integration Program
St. Joseph’s Indian School is serious regarding the engaging and inclusion of their American Indian students’ families through personal visits, effective listening, identifying their demands and creating ways to meet unmet needs by connecting families to available resources, both at St. Joseph’s and in their local communities.
Each staff member is intentional about reaching out to every students’ family throughout the year via phone, email, and postal mail, and take every opportunity to have face-to-face contact.
This way, they build a strong connection with the students’ families while giving them reassurance of their child’s safety and care.
Physical Health Program
St. Joseph’s Indian school’s health center staff seeks to meet the physical health needs of all its students. St. Joseph’s has five full-time nurses on staff as they also work alongside healthcare providers from the local hospital.
For each time, a physician is on campus to see students 4 days per week. For something more serious than common childhood illnesses, like x-rays or blood tests, students go to the local hospital.
All staff who work hand in hand with the American Indian youth — like teachers, houseparents, and counselors — also get training to deal with minor health problems.
Mental Health Program
Mental health is an important aspect of each student’s path in this institution. For this reason, St. Joseph Indian school brought in some master-level mental health professionals to help any student having mental health problems.
All students have a personal counselor they work with on a one-on-one basis.
All available clinical services team helps youngsters — and their families — deal with everything from homesickness and growing pains to drug addiction and every other problem.
Outreach and Other Programs
St. Joseph’s Indian School refuses to stay idle during the summer months. A growing number remain on campus to live in the summer homes and enroll in other summer activities.
Throughout the summer months, students get a Summer Day Camp for local Native American youth, a traveling Bookmobile, a women’s shelter, and an adolescent care center on a local reservation.
St. Joseph’s Indian School Accommodation
St. Joseph’s Indian School presents you with another place like home for American youth in grades one through twelve.
American Indian families take their kids to St. Joseph’s with a strong assurance they will be safe, loved, and cared for in every way.
There are no dormitories in this institution. American Indian children live in any of the 21 campus homes with two specially-trained houseparents.
They live and play together just like any normal family. All students learn life skills during their time in this school.
Admission Requirements and Steps
Before a child can gain admission into St. Joseph’s Indian School, the child must have downloaded two important forms which include:
After you have filled the forms, you send them to the school’s address, which is:
Admissions Office
St. Joseph’s Indian School
PO Box 89
Chamberlain, SD 57325
If you want to make any sort of inquiry, you can call (605) 234-3465 or email their admissions office to get answers.
Admission Rate
St. Joseph’s Indian School is large enough to accommodate numerous children and so admits child to encourage education.
Tuition
Getting your child admitted into a quality school for quality education with personal guidance and counseling comes at an enormous cost. However, money isn’t the driving force as they give preference to your child’s learning than money.
But you know, feeding and accommodating these children come at a cost. It costs approximately $58,000 per year, per child to meet all necessary needs of a child.
These costs include compensation for teachers, counselors, and support personnel needed to run the school and its programs.
With the dedicated, professional staff who provide specialized care for over 200 students each year, you’re sure your child will graduate a better individual.
Scholarships at St Joseph’s Indian School
St. Joseph’s Indian School is proud to announce they awarded $171,933 to Native American youth pursuing higher education in the 2018-2019 school year. They’ve been able to sponsor over 130 students due to the generous offers they get from their sponsors.
Conclusion
Conclusively, St. Joseph Indian School remains one of the reputable institutions that engages in the enhancement years of kids and you can be a beneficiary of this enhancement. Its quality not quantity.