Monarch Project students bead graduation caps, reflect on accomplishments

Legacy High School senior Jordan Houle sketched her beadwork design onto graph paper before threading her needle with white, black, and gold beads, her school’s colors. On a recent Saturday morning, she joined fellow high school students involved with the Monarch Project to bead the rim on their graduation caps.

“I was really excited to bead my own cap for graduation because my biggest goal has always been to graduate from high school,” said Houle, 17. “This whole thing is an achievement and accomplishment for me. I’m going to be the first in two generations to graduate in my family.”

After several weekends of working with Monarch Project staff at United Tribes Technical College, the high school beading group will wind down on Saturday, April 15. “If you know any students who now say, ‘Hey, I want to bead my grad cap,’ they can still come over,” said Leah Hamann, UTTC’s early college coordinator.

The final class is scheduled from 1-4 p.m. in Building 1 A-B on the UTTC campus. Star Gifts created a beading supply bag for students. Monarch is funded by a five-year grant, now in its second year. The Monarch Project started two years ago with five high school students. Enrollment has grown today to more than 500 students in seven partnering schools, including Solen, Standing Rock, Mandan, Bismarck High School, Century, Legacy,  and South Central.

The project places a student success coach in each high school. Hamann said 83 seniors are enrolled in the Monarch Project. “What’s beautiful about this grant is it’s a demonstration grant. We’re demonstrating how important it is to have individuals in our schools to connect our students to opportunities and resources,” said Hamann.

Monarch success coaches are UTTC employees who are placed directly at the high schools. A unique aspect of the project is that high school principals were involved in the interview process and helped select the UTTC success coaches to work in their school, said Hamann.

“I’ve been asking for a beading class since before my junior year,” said Emma Vallie, 18, a senior at Century High School. “My advisor emailed me and told me they had created one. I said, ‘Put me in.’” Vallie is a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe. She said she hadn’t beaded before the Monarch beading group, but she said she quickly learned how to bead her mortarboard.

Vallie has the honor this year of being named class valedictorian for Century High School’s graduating class. After hours of working on calculus and other homework assignments, she rewards herself by taking time to bead. She said it’s therapeutic.

Justin High Elk sat with the Monarch group on April 1 and offered beading tips to the students. “I want to share my craft and cultural heritage,” he said. One tip included using blue painter’s tape to mark straight lines on the grad caps. It’s easy to see and doesn’t leave fuzz on the cap.

High Elk is completing a bachelor’s degree in business administration at UTTC. He is celebrating 12 years of sobriety and said beading keeps him focused. He sells beaded medallions at Star Gifts at Gateway Mall and takes orders at Elk Native Beads and Regalia on his Facebook page.

The graduation beading class is one of many student-inspired programs led by the Monarch Project, a Department of Education, Office of Indian Education five-year grant-funded program. It’s designed to help Native high school students meet their educational goals.

The UTTC staff who joined students on weekend beading days all noted how achieving higher education goals and creating something artistic helped them feel grounded.

Quinetta Hairy Chin-Brown Otter is working towards an online master’s degree in Indigenous Leadership from Southeastern University of Oklahoma. She is a Native American Studies instructor at UTTC, and she loves to bead. She will teach a Tribal Art course this summer at UTTC, a class that Monarch students can take for credit.

“I was really excited to bead my own cap for graduation because my biggest goal has always been to graduate from high school.”

Jordan Houle, Legacy High School Senior

Hamann, who helped organize the mortarboard beading session, sat at the beading table and patiently weaved pine needles into a basket. Since learning how to weave, she’s made more than 70 baskets. The practice, she said, keeps balanced and rejuvenated.

When a Monarch success coach at Legacy High told Houle about the beading class, it brought back memories of her grandmother. Houle was then 7 years old.  “I stopped beading after I moved away from my grandma,” she said. “This was an opportunity to learn more about it and get back into it.”

Monarch organizers welcome input from students and their families on services the project could provide. Ideas can be shared at the monthly Monarch Project Advisory Council. Or they can submit a request at the UTTC website. The Monarch project director position is open.

Dateline:

BISMARCK, N.D.