By Corvo Rohwer, Puyallup Tribal News
Educators from local colleges and members of the community gathered at the Puyallup Tribe Heritage Gym on April 29 to discuss new higher education and college completion opportunities for Puyallup Tribal Members.
Hosted by Tribal Education Officer Patricia Conway and Rebirth Empowerment Academy Executive Director/Academy Leader Charles L. Carson, the community forum explored ways to lower barriers to higher education for students and proposed prospective student pathways for Evergreen State College.
There are currently four proposed pathways for students entering Evergreen State College in fall 2026. Carson emphasized the importance of not only making people aware of the education available to them, but also the choices they can make in terms of how they want to pursue their goals.
“We want to them to see a pathway, and if they choose that pathway, that’s the freedom of choice,” Carson said.
Evergreen Tacoma Faculty Member Tyrus Smith described the school as being focused on student-directed learning, with curriculum designed around modes of study that respond to various different goals and aspirations.
The proposed pathways in the partnership are built with this in mind, allowing adult students to gain credits through both prior learning experience courses and independent learning contracts. Each pathway also includes a required Lyceum class, a community gathering aimed at bringing students and faculty together for collaborative research and critical discussion.
Regardless of student experience or educational background, Carson said this partnership will help Tribal Members overcome roadblocks and open the door to higher education.
“I graduated from Evergreen, and my job right now is to get my sister, my brother and anybody else that wants to follow a college degree,” Carson said. “When we level the playing field, we can come together and integrate our cultures and we can begin to empower ourselves as people who not only have a broad understanding of our own culture, but how education is the strategy to achieve it.”
The floor was also opened up to members of the community to voice questions and discuss educational needs when it comes to incorporating culture and tradition. Puyallup Tribal Elder and former Tribal Council Chairwoman Ramona Bennett voiced her support at the forum, expressing the opinion that a degree isn’t everything when it comes to competency, but it can provide tangible proof for employers.
“You can’t go up to DHS and tell them ‘I want to direct a program that gets children out of bad situations and gets them into better ones.’ They’ll say, ‘Where’s your piece of paper? If you don’t have a master’s degree, you can’t direct a program,’” Bennett said. “We know that isn’t true, but we can comply by their rules, and we’ll do even better than that because we’ll get a piece of paper and we’ll actually know what we’re doing.”
If you or a family member are interested in learning more about the partnership for higher education and college completion pathways, visit the to access the prospective student registration form.
