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Other name | NPC |
---|---|
Motto | Expanding Minds[ citation needed ], Transforming Lives[ citation needed ] |
Type | Public community college |
Established | 1974 |
President | Chato Hazelbaker |
Academic staff | 178 |
Administrative staff | 136 |
Students | 6,712 |
Location | , , United States 34°14′35″N110°03′15″W / 34.2431651°N 110.0542716°W |
Campus | Rural |
Colors | Royal blue, Gold |
Nickname | Golden Eagles |
Mascot | Ernie Eagle |
Website | www.npc.edu |
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Northland Pioneer College (NPC) is a public community college serving the communities of northeastern Arizona. Campuses are located in four of the largest Navajo County communities: Holbrook, Show Low, Snowflake, and Winslow. Five centers are located in Hopi/Polacca, Kayenta, Springerville, St. Johns, and Whiteriver. NPC also partners with community members in Apache County, Arizona.
NPC is governed by the Navajo County Community College District, the nation's second-largest community college service area – 21,158 square miles (54,800 km2). The Navajo, Hopi, and White Mountain Apache Indian Reservations occupy more than forty percent of the total land in the college's service area. NPC has an open admissions policy.
In the late 1950s, citizens in Northeastern Arizona were concerned about the lack of access to higher education and began advocating for the establishment of a regional community college. In fall 1972, the Navajo County Community College District was formed to serve the higher education needs of residents in a region covering 21,158 square miles (nearly the size of West Virginia). The district oversees Northland Pioneer College, which began offering college classes in fall 1974. More than 2,000 students enrolled that first year, double the anticipated number. Classes were held in an abandoned school, an abandoned hospital and a variety of public school classrooms and community buildings. The first graduating class, in spring 1975, included nine students.
NPC is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. [1] The college also is accredited by agencies on a program-specific basis. [2]
The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in the southwestern United States. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado River Indian Tribes of the Colorado River Indian Reservation at the border of Arizona and California.
Coconino County is a county in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. Its population was 145,101 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Flagstaff. The county takes its name from Cohonino, a name applied to the Havasupai people. It is the second-largest county by area in the contiguous United States, behind San Bernardino County, California. It has 18,661 sq mi (48,300 km2), or 16.4% of Arizona's total area, and is larger than each of the nine smallest states in the U.S.
Navajo County is in the northern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 106,717. The county seat is Holbrook.
Ganado is a chapter of the Navajo Nation and census-designated place (CDP) in Apache County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,210 at the 2010 census.
St. Johns is the county seat of Apache County, Arizona, United States. It is located along U.S. Route 180, mostly west of where that highway intersects with U.S. Route 191. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 3,480.
Window Rock, known in Navajo as Tségháhoodzání, is a census-designated place (CDP) that serves as the seat of government and capital of the Navajo Nation, the largest territory in North America of a sovereign Native American nation. The capital lies within the boundaries of the St. Michaels Chapter, adjacent to the Arizona and New Mexico state line. Window Rock is the site of the Navajo Nation governmental campus, which contains the Navajo Nation Council, Navajo Nation Supreme Court, the offices of the Navajo Nation President and Vice President, and many Navajo government buildings.
Tuba City is an unincorporated town in Coconino County, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation, United States. It is the second-largest community in Coconino County. The population of the census-designated place (CDP) was 8,611 at the 2010 census.
Holbrook is a city in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city was 5,053. The city is the county seat of Navajo County.
Jeddito is a census-designated place (CDP) in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. The population was 293 at the 2010 census.
Diné College is a public tribal land-grant college in Tsaile, Arizona, serving the 27,000-square-mile (70,000 km2) Navajo Nation. It offers associate degrees, bachelor's degrees, and academic certificates.
Black Mesa is an upland mountainous mesa of Arizona, north-trending in Navajo County, west and southeast-trending in Apache County. In Navajo it is called Dziłíjiin and during Mexican rule of Arizona it was called Mesa de las Vacas. It derives its dark appearance from its pinyon-juniper and mixed conifer woodlands.
The Hopi Reservation is a Native American reservation for the Hopi and Arizona Tewa people, surrounded entirely by the Navajo Nation, in Navajo and Coconino counties in north-eastern Arizona, United States. The site has a land area of 2,531.773 sq mi (6,557.262 km²) and as of the 2000 census had a population of 6,946.
Arizona's 1st congressional district is a congressional district located in the U.S. state of Arizona, covering northeastern Maricopa County. Before 2023, geographically, it was the eleventh-largest congressional district in the country and included much of the state outside the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas. From 2013 through 2022, it also included the Navajo Nation, the Hopi reservation, and the Gila River Indian Community, with 25% of the population being Native American. At that time, the district had more Native Americans than any other congressional district in the United States. In the 2022 elections, David Schweikert was elected in the redefined district. It was one of 18 districts that voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election while being won or held by a Republican in 2022.
Polacca is an unincorporated community in Navajo County, of northeastern Arizona, United States. It is Hopi-Tewa community on the Hopi Reservation.
Iva Casuse Honwynum is a Hopi/Navajo artist, social activist, and cultural practitioner. A Native American, Honwynum is best known for her woven baskets and figurative sculpture. Honwynum's most important breakthrough was the development of the pootsaya basket, called "a rare innovation in Hopi basketry". She developed the pootsaya during her 2014 residency at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, having been awarded the Eric and Barbara Dookin Artist Fellowship.
On March 17, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was reported to have reached the Navajo Nation. The virus then spread rapidly through the Navajo Nation to the point that the Navajo, in 2020, had a higher per capita rate of infection than any state of the United States. The population according to the 2010 United States census was 173,667. As of September 13, 2022, the number of confirmed cases was 31,571 with 1,893 deaths.
Ferlin Clark is an American academic administrator and educator. He is a member of the Navajo Nation and currently works as an administrator in Office of Dine School Improvement of the Department of Dine Education. From 2018 to 2022 he served as president of Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma.