Creating space for Native American student success
Tonya Shenandoah’s background and experience support her role as 's assistant director for Native American and Indigenous Student Initiatives
As the new assistant director for Native American and Indigenous Student Initiatives, Tonya Shenandoah brings a deeply rooted cultural heritage and a vision to strengthen local Indigenous and campus community ties.
Shenandoah is a member of the Oneida Turtle Clan and has a background in higher education, having spent nearly a decade at LeMoyne College in Syracuse. After facing challenges in launching the Native American Education certificate program she developed, she left academia to work at the Onondaga Nation, where she helped develop an Onondaga early childhood language program called Oha’hio, based on a Montessori education model.
When the program closed due to COVID, Shenandoah applied to an MFA program in creative writing at the University of California, Irvine, where she could be near her oldest daughter, who was also attending college in California. The plan was to finish a novel she had been working on about an urban Oneida family navigating the foster care system before the Indian Welfare Act of 1978. After completing her MFA, Shenandoah returned to her home in Onondaga Territory, New York, where she worked as a substitute teacher in the Syracuse Central School District while continuing her writing. When the assistant director position at ’s Multicultural Resource Center (MRC) became available, she felt it was a perfect fit for her skills and experience.
“This position allows me to expand the spaces for Native American awareness and understanding of Indigenous knowledge in a way that can be honored and recognized across disciplines,” Shenandoah said, “while also creating and cultivating a space where Native and Indigenous students feel a sense of belonging.”
A critical aspect of her role is recruiting Native American and Indigenous students to . One of Shenandoah’s goals is to nurture a pipeline from local community school districts, especially those on historical Onondaga and Oneida territories, and help build a financial resource system for Indigenous students interested in attending the University.
“I am looking for opportunities to bring middle and high school students to campus so they can see, firsthand, the space and the wealth of resources and opportunities and sense of community and support available here at ,” she said.
This fall, as part of the annual Haudenosaunee Festival and the Three Sisters Garden harvest, Shenandoah secured funding to invite a group of junior and senior high school students from the Lafayette Central School District’s Big Picture School, located about 20 miles south of Syracuse, where more than 70% of students identify as Haudenosaunee. Students enjoyed a campus tour and lunch in the MRC. Additionally, Shenandoah arranged for a panel of students to share their experiences and offer insights on how to navigate the application process and college life successfully.
Shenandoah has also been developing collaborations with Onondaga Community College and the Oneida Nation Education Department, creating a “How to Fund College” event with the community college. She recently completed admissions recruitment training that enables her to attend regional college fairs, including those held within the Oneida and Onondaga communities.
Financial assistance plays a crucial role in student success, and Shenandoah is committed to developing an economic pathway for Indigenous students. Although the University does not have scholarship opportunities specifically for Indigenous students, Shenandoah has compiled a list of external funding opportunities for Native American students that can be found on the University’s financial aid site.
Shenandoah has also been working directly and indirectly with various collaborators across the campus community. She has found a productive partnership with the Native American and Indigenous Studies Working Group, an interdisciplinary consortium of faculty interested in advancing Native American and Indigenous studies, including new courses, a possible minor track, hiring Indigenous faculty and community-driven research initiatives.
She has consulted with the Art Museum on several exhibitions and is in initial talks about a new sculpture installation at the site of the recent White Pine Tree Ceremony. She has also found effective collaborators in the Department of English and was invited this semester by Professor Alexandra Moore, the department chair, to teach an undergraduate course on Indigenous literature and decolonization.
“The department has a strong foundation in Indigenous literature, in a way, groundbreaking in providing counter-narratives to colonial discourse and looking at colonization as a force to counter and challenge,” she said.
This semester, Shenandoah collaborated with Birgit Brander Rasmussen, an associate English professor and a member of the NAIS working group, and Belinda Ramírez, an assistant professor from the Sociology Department with a focus on food justice. Rasmussen and Ramírez brought their students to the MRC for an event featuring Angela Ferguson, a chef and seed steward from the Onondaga Nation Farm, who prepared a meal and discussed issues around food sovereignty.
Other campus partners include the Department of Environmental Studies, the Center for Civic Engagement, the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, and the Interfaith Council.
“All of these offices have been really supportive,” Shenandoah said, “and have helped sponsor several of our events.”
In addition to recruitment and retention initiatives, Shenandoah’s campus efforts have highlighted critical issues and intergenerational trauma within the Native American community, including the troubling legacy of forced assimilation of Indigenous children through a federal system of boarding schools that operated from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. Since 2013, Orange Shirt Day has been a federally recognized acknowledgment of this painful history. This year, Shenandoah organized an exhibition in the MRC and a series of films that highlight the significance of this experience, which the federal government perpetuated in an attempt to erase Native American culture and language.
In addition to identifying this shared but often obscured history to foster a culture of openness and understanding between communities, she is also inspired to create an environment where Indigenous students feel validated, valued and seen. They, too, belong at .
“I believe that visibility is really critical to connecting and creating that welcoming space, not only for our students, but also for their families and the larger communities,” she said. “To be able to come to and recognize these spaces, like the White Pine Tree site or the Orange Shirt Day exhibition, is a way of honoring their worth and highlighting their representation here at the University.”