First Year Student Cohort Program holds orientation

TSAILE -- The First Year Student Cohort Program at Dine College in Tsaile hosted 2005 Fall Orientation from Aug. 21-24.

The program is designed to help first-year students who test into developmental courses (math, reading, writing) advance into freshmen level courses faster as well as enter college life with ease. The cohort program uses services projects and language immersion practices, along with required college classes, to promote academic success.

The 2005 First Year Student Cohort Program also launched its Navajo language immersion dormitory. The Navajo Dorm, co-ed, is an environment where students are encouraged to speak the Navajo language outside of the classroom. Students participated in language learning activities with each another, their resident advisor, as well as staff and faculty.

During the Cohort orientation, students spent one night at a traditional Navajo sheep camp in the Chuska mountains near the Dine College campus in Tsaile. There they participated in a service learning project, the building of a sheep corral for an elderly Navajo couple who do not speak English.