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By using humor to diffuse tense situ-
ations and allowing students substantial
freedom to create art that is a true reflec-
tion of themselves, Egeland is working to
instill a sense of sureness and self-worth
in their lives. “A child who feels a sense of
self-worth will be less susceptible to drugs
and gangs and suicide,” she points out. “I
see students taking pride in their unique
work and defending it and displaying it
with pride.” Egeland notes that her sense
of success as a teacher comes in those mo-
ments when her students go from discour-
aged to motivated.
“When a student wrinkles up his work
but comes back the next day, unfurls it
and continues with the project using the
crumpled paper as a pivotal part of the
work, that’s my proof that I am making
a positive impact on my students’ lives,”
Egeland says.
Another Laurentian alumna is also a
TFA extended volunteer at Rosebud.
Michelle Verocchi ’09 is in her third year
of teaching science at Todd County High
School. Like Egeland, she is working to
provide top-quality education and conse-
quently improve the quality of life for the
people of the Rosebud Reservation.
Lauren Liebhaber was a senior intern in
the University communications office in Fall
2011.
Sabrina Egeland ’92
Preparing Native American
Children for a Better Future
the nation receives the same high quality
of education, it resonated with her, she
says. “I’d learned firsthand how glaring the
disparity in preparation can be,” Egeland
comments.
Egeland says there’s no typical day in
the classroom, and that every day brings
something different and exciting. While
initially attempting to teach students to
create art rather than “weapons of mass
destruction out of seemingly innocu-
ous art supplies,” as she puts it, she failed
spectacularly. But after five years, Egeland
has found a method that is both unique
and inspiring.
“A child who feels a sense of
self-worth will be less
susceptible to drugs and
gangs and suicide.”
By Lauren Liebhaber ’12
O
n the Rosebud Indian Reserva-
tion in Mission, South Dakota,
Sabrina Egeland ’92 works tire-
lessly to combat the effects of drug use,
gang activity, suicide and educational
inequality. In her fifth year with Teach for
America (TFA), “I stayed beyond my two-
year commitment because I believed this
is where I belong,” Egeland says. “Despite
the fact that the first two years were god-
awful atrocious, I was convinced that I was
supposed to be here.”
Egeland, who majored in psychol-
ogy at St. Lawrence and later was the
University’s Costume Shop supervisor,
admits that she wasn’t entirely prepared,
mentally, for Native American culture and
the challenges she encountered. Life on
the Rosebud Reservation—home to the
Sicangu Lakota, the Upper Brulé Sioux
Nation and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe—is
anything but romantic, with an 85 percent
unemployment rate, crime, violence and
only a 50 percent high school graduation
rate. Egeland’s dedication as an art teacher
makes her a pivotal resource.
Egeland’s involvement with TFA was
prompted in large part by the lack of
academic preparedness she felt during her
first few months at St. Lawrence. When
she arrived in 1988 on a North Country
Scholarship, Egeland says she believed she
was “all that and a bag of chips,” academi-
cally. But after receiving a 13 percent on
her first college quiz she realized her edu-
cation prior to college had not prepared
her for success in ways it should have.
“In high school I hadn’t been taught to
synthesize information, to use divergent
thinking, to make connections,” she says.
When Egeland read about TFA’s com-
mitment to ensuring that every child in