SAN MARCOS — Palomar College has been awarded the Native American Student Support and Success Program (NASSSP) Grant by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.
The $1.5 million grant was issued in February 2025 and Palomar will receive $300,000 yearly for the next five years. The grant aims to provide academic and personal support for students, including counseling, supplies, textbooks, transportation, and technology support.
The American Indian Studies Department (AIS) has developed the Native Student Support Program for Inclusion, Resilience, and Education (NSPIRE) Program through the NASSSP grant.
NSPIRE Director and Dean of Student Success, Equity, and Counseling Leslie Salas said the funding explicitly supports Native American and Alaska Native students.
“All the funds are going to support this specific population, which, if you look at our strategic goals, if you look at our student equity plan, our Native American, Alaskan Native students are disproportionately impacted population of students,” Salas said.
An analysis done by Palomar in 2022 showed that most Native American/Alaska Native students were disproportionately impacted in terms of the rate of program completion within three years.
Dean Salas emphasized the importance of the grant, given that the local district area has a large population of Native Americans and Alaska Natives, and San Diego County is home to many tribal nations.
There are 109 federally recognized tribes in California and 18 of those are located in San Diego County, more than any other county in the U.S., according to NSPIRE’s program page.
“Palomar has a history of supporting our Native American students. The American Indian Studies department is one of the first in the state at a community college, and we’ve had the department for 50 years, which is really important,” Dean Leslie Salas said.
The AIS Department is working alongside a Native program coordinator, Native counselor, Native peer mentors, Native elders, and a Tribal Liaison to ensure the program’s success.
“This grant gives Palomar the resources to develop an even stronger program and services for Native students,” AIS Department Chair Seth San Juan said in an email interview.
The Native American Student Alliance (NASA) Club has also been brought back for the first time in five years. The club aims to create an environment that will help students feel more welcomed and supported at Palomar in addition to the NSPIRE program.
Emy Gregor, student support program coordinator for Palomar’s Native American Resource Center hopes that the program will encourage Native students to persist and accomplish educational goals.
“Mainstream educational pathways were not originally built for us as Native people to succeed, and in many ways they were created for us to struggle. But through this program, we wanna remind students that native people have always been here and will continue to be here, and our time in these academic spaces is now,” Gregor said.
As of Fall 2025, 15 students are enrolled in the NSPIRE program. The application is open year round for any students who identify as Native American. There is no application deadline.
For more information on the NSPIRE program, visit the program website.