Leech Lake Tribal College Awarded $9 Million in Partnership with Fond du Lac College

Leech Lake Tribal College recently broke ground on a new sustainability project, and they’re not working on this one alone.

In a first-of-its-kind partnership with the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, the two institutions are using a $9 million United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant. The project will help build a sustainable education system and also promote STEM and agricultural careers to students and the community.

Through the land-grant mission of teaching, research, and service, LLTC aims to grow these goals with the newly obtained grant, which is part of the Biden administration’s plan to advance racial equity and support for under-served communities.

“Our project has four goals,” explained LLTC Office of Sponsored Programs Director Melinda Neville. “They’re going to be building institutional capacity, supporting our students, providing learning opportunities and on the job training, and reaching our community and helping grow more sustainability on our area.”

“We’re grateful for any money awarded to our college to help enrich our communities by way of creating sustainable options,” said LLTC Environmental Communications Coordinator Nicole Roberts.

The funds will not only go toward operational costs for sciences and human health studies, such as internships and tuition costs, but also projects such as demonstration gardens. These gardens will most likely be used for both the community and school studies.

“It’s been in the works for a while,” noted recent LLTC STEM graduate and project intern David Villier Jr. “It’s a start in the right direction. So it’s progress. And with the grant, the money is getting put to good use.”

As the $9 million award is in partnership with the Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College, both students and staff will benefit from these funds through shared resources.

“We’re equal partners in this. And on both campuses, we’re going to be doing similar programs, separately, but also having joint efforts,” said Neville. “One of the things we’re launching is a faculty knowledge exchange.”

“To be able to make those collaborations in a healthy way is important to Indigenous culture,” said Roberts.

Along with the Minnesota legislature appropriating $3 million to tribal colleges, including Leech Lake’s, these funds will assist not only the schools but the community as well.

“What we really want to do is bring skill sets into the community, to train our students to become leaders in this field of food, agricultural [and] natural sciences, and human health,” said Neville.

“It’ll help the youth. I’m a father, too. I have a 12- and 14-year-old and hopefully they can utilize it and they can come here and enjoy what we’ve created,” said Villier Jr. “This is just the foundation for the future.”