Native student wins award for work on gender and racial identity

Monday, March 18, 2019  

By Carol Schmidt
MSU News Service
montana.edu/news

Jerico Cummings, a fourth year Montana State University sociology major, has won a prestigious national award for his work engaging his fellow students in dialogue and inspiring social change.

Cummings was named a Newman Civic Award fellow Wednesday for his work with gender and racial identity following a nomination from MSU President Waded Cruzado.

“Through building new partnerships with MSU departments, offering trainings and delivering innovative opportunities for students to engage in challenging conversations about identity, Jerico has taken action to address pressing social issues of inequality and polarization,” Cruzado said in her nomination.

Cummings said there is validation in receiving the distinction because it shows how far he has come since his first year of college. He said he struggled to find his place at MSU his freshman year and was within days of dropping out and returning home to Rapid City, South Dakota, because he felt he didn’t fit in when he was invited to a workshop that changed his life.

“My freshman year I spent really a lot of time in my dorm room,” said Cummings, who is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. “I didn’t feel a close connection to anyone.”

That changed when Richard White, then the director of MSU’s American Indian/Alaskan Native Student Success, invited Cummings to a weekend retreat about identity and dialogue, hosted by Sustained Dialogue and the Diversity and Inclusion Student Commons (DISC). Nearly overnight, Cummings recalls, he seemed to find his purpose, and has become a mentor since to others with questions about racial and gender identity.

“I met some of the most amazing people and I found a home,” Cummings recalls now. “Because I got so much out of it, I felt called to that type of work.”

Not only did Cummings decide to stay at MSU, he changed his major from chemistry and biology, which he initially chose because he thought it would lead him to a good paying job, to sociology with an eventual career in social work. He connected with people across campus who were also interested in probing issues of identity. He also became involved in several organizations, serving as an officer in MSU’s Queer Straight Alliance.

He has been active in MSU’s Sustained Dialogue program that provides cross-cultural dialogue about the influence of identity factors on student experiences and campus community relations. And, he became involved with American Indian Council and is a TRIO scholar. Eventually, Cummings was hired to coordinate the Sustained Dialogue program and run the same Common Ground retreat that influenced him so profoundly his freshman year.

“The retreat shaped my college experience in ways I could have never imagined,” he said. “When I learned I’d won the Newman fellowship it reinforced my knowing that I am supported here at MSU.”

Ariel Donohue, MSU senior diversity and inclusion officer who worked with Cummings at the university’s Diversity and Inclusion Student Commons, calls him a caring, humble, open-minded and driven student.

“Jerico is driven to create long-term social change around breaking down barriers of difference, bringing people into conversation about power and privilege and developing effective strategies to address root causes of social issues,” Donohue said. “He draws much of his strength and passion for social activism from his understanding of the ways in which his own identities intersect.”

Cummings said he plans to attend graduate school with long range goals of becoming an activist working in indigenous and gender variance issues.

The Newman Civic Award recognizes and supports community-committed students who have demonstrated an investment in finding solutions for challenges facing communities throughout the country. The fellowship, named for Campus Compact founder Frank Newman, provides training and resources that nurture students’ assets and passions to help them develop strategies to achieve social change.

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