Gen Next

"I didn't even know there are need-blind schools," said Tara Dejolie, a Navajo from Winslow, Arizona. One of 98 Native American high school students from 21 states and 39 tribes on campus in July to meet with admissions counselors, financial aid advisors and writing coaches from 41 colleges and universities, Dejolie hopes to become an architect or interior designer. The conference was organized by New Mexico-based College Horizons, which works with as many as 300 high school students each year and is headed by Carmen Lopez '97. "I'm trying to figure out what's the right fit for me," said would-be neurosurgeon Kendrick Swamp, a Mohawk from Hogansburg, New York, who will apply to Dartmouth along with his Massena Central High classmate Alana Pyke. For Hawaiian Shania Aki, it was "an opportunity to talk to other students about the mainland."