FLC senior, Reisher Scholar, heads to Australia to study impact of colonization on Indigenous culture

Fort Lewis College student Britt Herman walked into orientation for the Reisher Scholarship expecting to learn about funding for her senior year. Instead, she walked out with a plan to travel to the other side of the world.

"They mentioned that they would cover study abroad," said Herman, a senior majoring in Native American & Indigenous Studies. "So I went to see what schools we were partnered with."

Herman, a transfer student from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and member of the Mvskoke Nation, leaves July 13 for Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia, where she'll spend the fall semester in the school's Indigenous Knowledges program.

The trip is also being supported by a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, a $4,000 award from the U.S. Department of State given to undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Herman is one of roughly 2,100 students nationwide selected this spring from a record pool of more than 12,200 applicants, the largest in the program's 25-year history. Since 2001, the Gilman program has funded study abroad and internships for more than 50,000 American undergraduates.

The Gilman award is a lifesaver, Herman said, as it is covering something the scholarship wasn't designed around: travel costs for her 5-year-old daughter Luna, who is coming along.

"That one is helping to cover some of my airfare," Herman said. "Since I am bringing my daughter, all of my travel costs doubled."

Herman had hoped to study in New Zealand, where she eventually plans to pursue a master's degree in Indigenous studies. But the program didn't fit the criteria for her degree, and a FLC partner school in Australia did.

"Charles Darwin University has a great Indigenous Knowledges program and I’m excited to study there.”

Once at Darwin, Herman plans to focus her research on how colonization has shaped Indigenous communities differently across the globe and what those communities might learn from one another.

"I really want to see how different Indigenous populations have dealt with colonization, and the ways that we can help each other in areas of policy and government," Herman said. "What works for one might help another."

Herman's daughter, for her part, has been getting ready in her own way: by watching the Australian cartoon "Bluey," an Australian animated TV series aimed at preschoolers.

"I told her everyone's going to talk like Bluey," Herman said.

Reisher program, staff support paved the way

Herman transferred to FLC as a junior and spent her first year at FLC running the college's Indigenous language recording studio, bringing 10 years of recording and editing experience to the role. 

She said the Denver Foundation’s Reisher Scholars Program, a merit- and need-based scholarship available at select Colorado universities, helped her focus on her studies as she balances her family responsibilities with work and school.

The Denver Foundation awards between $6,000 and $22,000 per year to help rising sophomores and community college transfer students complete their undergraduate degrees on time with minimal debt.

"I could not be more grateful for the Reisher Scholarship, and for Gina (Jannone). She's been amazingly supportive of my academic journey and my quest to study abroad," Herman said. "This is something I would have never been able to do on my own."

Balancing school with parenting hasn't always left room for the typical undergraduate experience, Herman said, but she's found steady support from faculty at FLC including from Meg Alvarado-Aaggese, Ph.D., assistant professor Native American and Indigenous Studies.

"Being an older student, I'm not really able to go out much outside of school hours," she said, adding that a class on tribal museums and archives, she said, helped point her toward where she wants to go next: art history research at a museum, after graduate study at either the University of Auckland or back at Charles Darwin University.

"Most of my connections are with classmates in class, not really outside of it. But I feel very supported by my professors. They've been really friendly and helpful, and willing to provide guidance."