The American Indian College Fund has announced a $2 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of professional development opportunities at tribal colleges and universities (TCUs).

The three-year initiative, "Growing Our Own: Faculty Professional Development at Tribal Colleges and Universities," will provide fellowships to TCU faculty and staff looking to complete a graduate degree or meet new accreditation requirements, including one-year, $40,000 fellowships to eight doctoral students who are completing their dissertations and two-year fellowships for ten master's degree candidates annually.

The grant also will provide funding for forty faculty members seeking to complete eighteen graduate credit hours to meet recently implemented accreditation requirements for highly qualified faculty, with priority given to those teaching at TCUs accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. The primary content areas to be funded by the foundation — which has partnered with AICF since 2004 to strengthen TCU faculty leadership — are in the humanities, including English, music, art, language, and history. AICF also will provide fellowships to up to ten faculty in other disciplines, including education and public health.

"Education is one of the most influential ways that Native people and American society provide a framework for history and for contemporary life," said Cheryl Crazy Bull, former president of Northwest Indian College and current president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund. "For tribal people, education is how we affirm our identities, build the esteem of our citizens, and share our values with the rest of society. This investment by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is phenomenal because it not only removes a significant barrier to access — financial support — it brings new and better knowledge and qualifications to our most valued assets — our teachers."