Our Core Program
The Native Pathways Program consists of a 12 or 16 credit core offering each quarter that explores various fields of study through a central theme. NPP is a cohort-model of learning where students join a community that engages in collaborative studies leading toward earning a bachelor’s degree. The core curriculum is designed to expand knowledge and skills in research, writing, and critical thinking with an emphasis on building community and leadership while cultivating Indigenous values for both personal and academic growth.
NPP is open to students of all levels who want to learn and expand their knowledge by examining Indigenous and Western thought and practices through an Indigenous lens. Our teaching uses works written or created by Indigenous authors and scholars, engages in place-based learning that tells the stories of the lands we reside on, and provides lessons centered on Indigenous cultural knowledge.
NPP students foster a broad set of skills through our Student Governance Council where they can be elected to learn and practice leadership, governance, and communication abilities. Each quarter, NPP students from all sites gather at s'gʷi gʷi ʔ altxʷ: House of Welcome, Evergreen’s Longhouse Education and Cultural Center, to engage in weekend-intensive sessions focused on cultural arts and education.
Undergraduate Studies
Like all Evergreen undergraduates, students studying in NPP develop their own path to best meet their interests and goals. Students in this program typically stay in it through to graduation, but are free to take other class offerings if it meets their goals.
NPP is a rigorous interdisciplinary program that prepares students to enter fields such as social services, public service, Tribal governance, education, and other humanities and social science careers. Students are also prepared to continue onto graduate school.
All students who attend the Native Pathways Program are eligible to participate in the NPP Graduation Ceremony, a specific graduation event occurring separately from Evergreen’s commencement ceremony.
We Believe in and Promote
- Relationality to emphasize the balance of indigenous relationships (kinship, cultural, community) with academics; by utilizing this, students remain full circle.
- Personal authority challenges students to be personally accountable for their attendance, engagement and learning, and to declare the nature of their own work.
- Indigenous knowledge honors the founding principles of the program and its commitment to involving our community’s keepers of cultural and traditional knowledge as teachers and valuable human resources.
- Academics give breadth within the liberal arts through reading, writing, research and other scholarly pursuits that complement personal authority and indigenous knowledge.
Site Schedules
All Sites Come Together on Tuesdays via Zoom
- Olympia: Tuesday/Thursday 6 -9:30 pm
Thursday - Meets on the Evergreen Olympia Campus - Salish Sea: Tuesday/Thursday 6 -9:30 pm
Meets on Zoom - Tacoma: Tuesday/Thursday 6 -9:30 pm
Thursday - Meets on the Evergreen Tacoma Campus - Quinault: Tuesday/Thursday 6 -9:30 pm
Thursday - Meets TBD - Peninsula: Tuesday/Thursday 6 - 9:30 pm
Thursday - Meets Peninsula College Longhouse in Port Angeles
Gatherings
All sites meet two weekends per quarter at s'gʷi gʷi ʔ altxʷ: House of Welcome on The Evergreen State College Olympia Campus.