"When I wrote a column two months ago on scholarships and how few Indian students apply to them, I got a response that still floors me. So far, there have been over 780 comments to the online article from Indian Country Today Media Network.

That’s amazing to me. In 30 years of writing the column, “Around the Campfire,” I have never gotten more than 38 comments to any one column. Four years ago I did a column called “The Culture of Gallup” that generated the 38 comments. All of them agreed that Gallup is a frontier, racist town.

There have been many years that my column has generated no comments at all The 780-plus is no doubt due to the huge impact that ICTMN is having in Indian country.

Dwanna L. Robertson wrote the most thoughtful and cogent response. She said, rightly, that the process is difficult. As a person who wishes he had found scholarships as a senior in high school, I appreciate that comment. It was daunting to me. Even though I was valedictorian of our little high school, I had no idea how to find scholarships, and no idea how to win them."

Get the Story:
Dean Chavers: Indian Students Respond to Scholarship System Stories in Unprecedented Numbers (Indian Country Today 9/19)

Related Stories:
Dwanna Robertson: Scholarship system not easy to navigate (9/12)