The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians near Highland is giving UC Riverside a $1.28 million grant, partly to help fund its Gathering of the Tribes Summer Residential Program.

During the past 13 years, more than 500 Native American high school students from throughout the U.S. have sampled college life through the eight-day program, organized by UCR’s Native American Student Programs.

Designed to help American Indian youths learn about college life, participants stay in campus dorms and take academic, cultural, and personal development workshops, including daily writing sessions to help them write application essays.

“The tribe is aware that the number of Native American high school graduates across the country who go on to college is relatively small, and we intend to increase that number both regionally and nationally,” said San Manuel Chairwoman Lynn Valbuena.

Along with the summer residency program, the grant money will be used over the next 10 years to pay for a full-time staff member to increase student and community outreach for UCR’s Native American Student Programs and to develop educational programming and help create a Native Pathway to College Program.

Funds also will help pay for $6,000 academic scholarships for Native American students in need — four per year.

“Here at UCR, we’re surrounded by more than 30 different tribes in the Southern California region, and many indigenous peoples who are affiliated with tribes throughout North America,” said UCR program director Joshua Gonzales. “There’s so much potential to reach more American Indian students in this region — so much opportunity we look forward to developing.”

Cal State San Bernardino recognized for Hispanic degrees

Cal State San Bernardino has been ranked among the top universities in the nation for awarding degrees to Hispanics and for its Hispanic enrollment, according to Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine.

The Inland university is 14th in the nation in awarding bachelor’s degrees to Hispanics, 45th in awarding master’s degrees to Hispanics and 21st in total enrollment of Hispanic students, according to the magazine’s August/September edition.

The magazine used data compiled by the U.S. Department of Education to develop its rankings.

The Inland university was ranked third in awarding psychology degrees to Hispanics and sixth in awarding math degrees to Hispanics, according to a news release from Cal State San Bernardino.

The federal government has recognized Cal State San Bernardino as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, which is defined as a nonprofit college, university or system/district that has at least a 25 percent Hispanic full-time equivalent enrollment. There are more than 250 such institutions in the country.

“As a Hispanic-Serving Institution, our faculty, staff and administrators are dedicated to ensuring our Latino students, as well as all of our students, receive an exceptional and stimulating education that will serve them beyond graduation and well into their careers as many of them are the first in their families to attend college,” Cal State San Bernardino President Tomás D. Morales said in a statement.

UCR professor to research religion in India

Ajay Verghese, an assistant professor in UCR’s Department of Political Science, will spend three months researching in India after receiving a Senior Short-Term Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies.

According to UCR, Verghese seeks to understand whether Hindus in India are becoming secularized as the country industrializes and its people attain greater access to jobs, education, and medical care.