Dorm Students

Program Overview

Student Living encompasses the Middle and High School dormitories, the residential guidance program, evening classes and a recreation program for Middle and High School students. Each program is student-oriented, and services are designed to meet student needs. Student services offered through the residential guidance program include individual counseling, support group counseling, substance abuse education and prevention, and therapeutic services. Counseling services are available for students during the academic day, after school, and during evening hours.

All dormitory students have unique opportunities to participate in structured evening program classes that provide workshops, such as traditional embroidery, beadwork, fly-tying and fishing, country western dance, arts and crafts, Native cooking and traditional agriculture.

The Student Living Program also helps to coordinate the Evening Study Hall Program, which includes mandatory study hall for all dorm students.

About our Staff

Student Living Advisors (SLAs) are paraprofessional dorm staff that provide caseload services including academic support, off-campus recreation and dormitory activities. SLAs are class sponsors, and they assist in a variety of activities throughout the school year, including the Junior/Senior Prom, school dances, fundraising projects and promotion/graduation preparations. Middle School SLAs also work as part of the Middle School team consisting of Academic, Counseling and Student Living staff members.

Residential Advisors (RAs) provide dormitory coverage and student supervision in order to also ensure the safety and well-being of our dorm students. The majority of our Student Living staff members are Native American and from students’ own home communities, providing them with a unique understanding of student cultural backgrounds. Further, Student Living provides ongoing professional development and skill-building through on-site college courses in partnership with Northern New Mexico College.

 

On behalf of all SFIS dorm staff, we are happy to welcome all of our dorm students!

 

My name is Leslie “J.R.” Romero. I’ve been involved in Student Living type work for over a decade, with a significant portion of that time at the administrative level. I had amazing mentors, and when an opportunity opened up at SFIS, somewhere I thought of as “The Big Dance” I couldn’t help but pursue the chance. I am an alumni of SFIS (Class of 2005 YAY!). I credit this school with providing me opportunities that would have never existed in my home community. I grew up in North Dakota, but I have close family connections in Cochiti Pueblo. New Mexico was always a place I went to for the summers, spending time with my beloved grandparents, who I miss every day. SFIS has always been another home for me. I strongly believe that sentiment is shared amongst many of my fellow alums.

 

I worked at the Institute of American Indian Arts, starting first as an overnight Area Coordinator and worked my way up the chain to become Associate Dean of Students. My focus was always on dorm life and how we make our students’ lives just a bit easier. I wrote and enforced policy, I handled all of the day to day aspects of my staff, which included some awesome student workers. Those college kids inspired me, even though our ages weren’t so far apart (at the time), they helped remind me to not forget the backgrounds our students come from. I carry that lesson everyday, we all have a story of struggle that brought us to where we are.

 

I knew early in college I wanted to help my people, but I was unsure how to do that. I dabbled in political activism, but along the way I remembered how so many good people helped me stay on the right path. My SFIS dorm staff, my SFIS teachers, my SFIS support staff, especially my Senior Year Academic Counselor. I would not have gone to school were it not for her pushing me to attack my scholarship applications like I was an OG Brave protecting my village. Suffice to say, my achievement of being a Gates Millennium Scholar would not have happened without her. Without that scholarship, like so many of our families, there was no money to send me to school. It is no exaggeration to say, my life was changed. SFIS was the catalyst for that change.

 

I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication from the University of New Mexico. Everyone’s a Lobo, WOOF, WOOF, WOOF! As a dorm student all four years at SFIS, the transition to college life was easy, maybe too easy sometimes. Because of the lessons provided to me by my dorm staff, living on my own was a relative piece of cake. I emphasize to my dorm staff nowadays, as their Director, to never forget how each small lesson does carry on for our kids. I was proof of that.

 

Each year is something new working with our students, they always have a ton of energy, and in all honesty, they are such good kids. Our communities produce the best and brightest and SFIS proves it again and again. On behalf of my dorm staff, we love your students, we want nothing but the best for them. Our goal is help them live independently, and to help enforce that they should never forget where they came from. SFIS is a special place and being a SFIS dorm student is an unforgettable ride!