American Indian Recruitment Programs

AIR was established in 1993, where we have served over 2,600 Native Youth from over 40 Tribal Nations, with a majority pursuing higher education. We started with a group of Native Students at SDSU wanting to contribute back to our Tribal communities. Our first donation was $400 and we thought we could change the world with this, well, it took a while and more contributions… Today, our students are representatives on Tribal Council(s) within the Region. Our youth have gone on to serve as Tribal Police Officers, Nurses, Attorneys, Veterinarians and even serving in the Obama Administration in China. Incorporated as non-profit organization in 2002, our program was initiated in response to low educational attainment among our Native Youth within our community. Our program provides academic wraparound services to our American Indian students, by empowering them through an academic after-school/summer mentoring program. We provide a culturally specific academic model of learning, tutoring, and mentoring. Our methodology has been developed as a teaching-through-culture model where we have had great success with our students. Honor include: 2009, AIR Programs was honored with the Pacific Sociological Association's Social Conscience Award. 2010, our program was honored with the Local Heroes Award (KPBS/Union Bank). 2018 UPCEA Leadership in Diversity Award, for our work with UCLA and the initial Honors Project framework. 2023, honored by the City of San Diego with a Proclamation of October 19th 2023 as AIR Programs Day. However, our most significant statistic is having our students being accepted and attending: Stanford, Brown, University of Arizona, Columbia, Humboldt State, UC Davis, San Diego State University, University of San Diego, Harvard, MIT, UCLA and many more. Together, our community is changing Indian Country towards a greater future!