The Occom Scholars Program was envisioned by the Native American Program, the Native American Council and faculty in the Native American Studies Department at Dartmouth College. The Program was created to build on the concept of the development and contributions of the young Indigenous intellectual at Dartmouth.
The mission of Occom Scholars is to develop the intellectual potential of Native first-year students by building scholarly capacity and creating a strong cadre of Indigenous intellectuals within the Indigenous population at Dartmouth. Occom Scholars aims to enhance participants' writing, research, cognitive and critical thinking skills, as well as peer mentorship capabilities and while nurturing students who exhibit high self-efficacy. Occom Scholars will use a foundation of Native knowledge in its curriculum. The program will provide opportunities for students to empower themselves into becoming confident and responsible Indigenous global citizens by using Native knowledge to demonstrate how the Indigenous perspective can contribute to Dartmouth and beyond.
In a global context, Indigenous education priorities are coming to the forefront, and Dartmouth's Occom Scholars Program is an essential part of the shift. The Occom Scholars Program will work to develop confident and responsible Indigenous global citizens that can respectfully collaborate with a variety of educational experiences and enlist their skills as Indigenous people to make an impact. The Occom Scholars Program will support Dartmouth College with their commitment to Indian Education directly stated in the Charter of 1769 and reinforced under the Kemeny and Wright administrations.
The Occom Scholars Program is housed by the Office of Pluralism and Leadership/Native American Program and administered by a staff Director who will serve as liaison to faculty, staff and collaborating departments. The Occom Scholars Program is a full-year program (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer terms) for Indigenous first-year students. The Program brings together first-year Scholars and student Mentors whose experiences reflect a wide range of cultural and academic histories. Scholars are selected through a competitive process that emphasizes intellectual curiosity, past academic initiative and leadership. Scholars selected benefit from faculty and peer mentoring, social and academic programming, and funding for summer research projects at the completion of their first-year. Upon successful completion of requirements, each participant's transcript will notate their distinction as "Occom Scholar." Mentors benefit from participation in the program, working as an advisory team with the Director towards the program outcomes and learning how to lead/facilitate discussion, foster an intellectual atmosphere and pursue their own intellectual endeavors.
Throughout the academic seasons, Occom Scholars underlying expectation is to engage Scholars and Mentors in understanding their education and intellectual pursuits holistically--mental, spiritual, physical and emotional. As healthy Native people in all of these ways, we hope to contribute to a sense of individual vitality as related to the Indigenous community, but also to Dartmouth as Scholars contribute meaningfully to coursework and academic discussions, and in Native and non-Native contexts beyond the halls of the College.
