Ian's Educational Journey - Salish Kootenai College

The following is an computer-generated summary of the video transcript.

This is the first in the Siri's, and I'm just going to go through and introduce myself first. Next, in this video, I'm just going to introduce the school. Then I go to Beautiful Sailor Scrutiny College on the Flathead Reservation in northwest Montana and then the hospital. Just have a few words of advice and some pointers for students that may be looking at this transition in their life. So speaking a sailor's dialect spoken here on the Flathead Reservation. I am thankful for everything given from the Creator. My mother is a blend of Italian and other European lineage. All three of my parents were very free spirits, and two of them live life that way to this day. Growing up in a blended family with an alcoholic Grateful Dead, Rohde is a dad. Ah, hardworking, alcoholic stepfather and a hippie alcoholic mother was really cool and fun most of the time, but it did not give me very many head starts in life. My parents very dramatically divorced when I was really young and my mother remarried and tried to make an attempt of leaving the old life behind, which it did not work very well. When I was about eight years old, my four siblings and I were packed into a VW minivan, and we drove until we ran out of gas to try toe, get us far away from California as possible. We ran out of gas in Butte, Montana, so growing up in Butte was an adventure, to say the least. Life hardened me and I was quickly washed up in a life of alcohol and drugs. I had toe overcome a lot of obstacles to be where I am today. So for the sake of time, we fast forward and now I have a beautiful family. I've been side by side with Susie Q. For 16 years now in February, she has blessed me with a beautiful daughter and three granddaughters. Oh, and of course, Chiyo and Chevy and the cat I just rescued a few weeks ago that we named Twister because of a spinal deformity from being born with this temper, this was one of the biggest drivers. For me to go back to school at the age of 37 was to try and provide them a better life economically. So about five years ago, I was helping a friend of mine remodel his house, and he kind of casually said, Why don't you go back to school? And I kind of shrugged it off and didn't really have an answer. About a week later, that topic came back up and I thought, Well, why don't I go back to school? So my friend is Craig Stevenson, who is an awesome dude who really loves to help with the education of our native students. It s K C at the time, and actually his mother has the education building named after her here on campus, just to the left of the video here, looking east here to the Mission Mountains. You can see we have an amazing campus here in Northwest Montana on the Flathead Reservation. It's of the Confederated Sailor scrutiny and pondering people's homeland. Now, just a few short years later, I have I'm going to graduate in the spring with my bachelor's and wildlife fisheries, bachelors and forest management, and I'm also getting associates and fine arms. Not to mention, I may be pursuing a master's degree here in the spring at Montana State University. When you first enter our campus from the highway in the morning and the sun is coming up over goat peak, it really calms the soul and puts you into a good mind set to learn from some really amazing instructors. Sailor Scrutiny College is a small tribal school with a very large heart and a sense of community and family. I love it here because we're not treated as a number or a paycheck but were treated as equals and have plenty of opportunity for personalized learning. From the moment I walked through the door, I had so much help encouragement being a nontraditional student, I was worried about fitting in on campus. I found that s K C support so many non traditional students. I'm also a first generation student, did not have good guidance when it came to life after high school. The trio student support services offered on campus has been an extremely essential part of my growth as a student and and and as a leader, cause I am now a mentor for the trio program. I had lived here in the Mission Valley for about 10 years and never had visited the SKC campus. I honestly had not even realized that we had such an awesome life changing opportunity right outside of my back door I could not believe I was able to go back to school. I was so nervous, and I had no idea what the next few years had in store for me. I know so many of you were feeling the same way I did. I can say is, do not let those thoughts and feelings be barriers to achieving your dreams. You can do anything you put your mind to, and SKC can help that happen. The school has provided me so many opportunities for research, internships, travel, awards and scholarships that my resume is now 14 pages long. When choosing a place to extend your knowledge, choose a school that will promote your gifts and have a sense of community and family.