For Navajo doctoral candidate Manley A. Begay Jr., Harvard helps the Native American world build economic and political self-sufficiency.

Begay directs two Kennedy School-based projects which actively export Harvard to various tribes. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and the National Executive Education Program for Native American Leadership analyze reservations' economic programs and train current tribal leaders to approach policy and institutional reforms, he says.

"Part of a Real Historical Moment"

Indeed, some Native American students say they sense an irony in their choice to attend Harvard. After all, the school's traditional and elite reputation keeps many Native Americans from applying, says Rosa J. Soler, Medical School associate director of recruitment and multicultural affairs.

But the Harvard Native American Program serves to lower some of these barriers, linking Native American students to each other and providing resources and guidance.

"Community-building is a huge part of my job," Egan says.

As program coordinator, she helps keep the community healthy and growing by organizing recruiting drives, connecting students with Native American mentors in their fields of interest and maintaining contact with the University's 600 Native American alumni. She also helps plan monthly HNAP potlucks and Native American-related films and speakers.

Egan says such retention work is key for a population plagued by the "dismal" story told by low graduation rates.

But Begay argues that these rates fail to reflect that far higher numbers of Native Americans actually enter higher education--and then drop out. He says this is because many Native Americans are only beginning to feel comfortable in an alien educational system.

"Until recently we have been denied the opportunity to excel in an environment that promotes Native ways of seeing the world," he says.

HNAP Director Lorie M. Graham says the Program's academic component, which sponsors research and courses, responds to this need for schools to offer a curriculum more relevant to Native Americans.

Recently, HNAP has introduced two new projects. A faculty advisory board on Native American issues was created last year, and a course cross-listed at FAS, GSE and the Kennedy School titled "Native Americans in the Twenty-First Century: Nation Building is currently being taught for the first time.

Graham and Begay are among the class' many lecturers, while Carpenter and Wilson are two of its teaching fellows.

Indeed, Harvard's Native American community has made significant strides over the last few years. And change is occurring rapidly.

"The atmosphere has done a 360 since '93," says Amanda S. Proctor '97-'98. She adds that HNAP will hold its third annual powwow this spring and that the momentum for planning this event grows tremendously each year.