A MONTANA FIRST: THE CAMPUS CORPS TRIBAL SUMMIT

In early summer of 2009, Campus Corps took an opportunity to host a unique, Tribal Montana-focused corps of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act sponsored AmeriCorps members. We held an orientation in June and were off to the races. Teams served on the Fort Peck Reservation, the Fort Belknap Reservation, Flathead and the Blackfeet Reservation. Members took on work ranging from using music and dance to promote healthy lifestyles, improving conditions at low-income housing complexes, providing enrichment for youth and dozens of other activities.

From a Compact staff member perspective, working with the Campus Corps members who started under this project was one of the more exciting and inspiring things I've gotten a chance to be part of. We worked with everybody from underground hip-hop artists, former welders, moms, dads and everybody in between. The common theme among these 40 members, not surprisingly, was a deep commitment to their communities, and to being positive, hard-working role models for the younger generation in their communities. This is the sort of stuff we get to deal with regularly at the Compact and with Campus Corps, but this was a special group and their energy for service was a really inspiring thing to witness.

Roll forward a handful of months to the Campus Corps Spring Summit 2010, held this year in Havre. The Spring Summit is the annual event where MTCC takes a moment to convene and recognize members for their good work: As a final hurrah to close out the Recovery Campus Corps members' service, we'd been approached by Fort Peck Community College about convening Campus Corps members from the state's tribal colleges. The event, entitled the Campus Corps Tribal Summit, was largely organized by Adriann Ricker, Campus Corps leader with Fort Peck Community College. The CCTS featured representatives from five of the state's seven tribal colleges, Montana Board of Regents member, FPCC Provost, and Little Bighorn College founding president Janine Pease, music and best practices from Campus Corps alumni, and words of wisdom from Judy Linthicum, director of the Daya Tibi Wellness Center in Poplar, MT.

Fort Peck Community College is a campus rich in leadership, and their Campus Corps program is a great example of leadership that looks at the entire state as its community. The fact that the FPCC team believed in their work and its potential to be replicated in other communities speaks to the quality of individuals that one finds at the campus, and in the communities across the Fort Peck reservation. Attendees spoke about being inspired to begin their own local Campus Corps teams, explore similar programming and tying the promotion healthy lifestyles to the work of college student leaders. Hats off to Fort Peck Community College!