Building bridges of success and bi -cultural competence with Native American students: A goal -oriented program evaluation

A goal-oriented program evaluation of the Second Annual Building Bridges Conference was conducted. The Building Bridges Conference is aimed at addressing the academic needs of Native American students. The conference goals that were evaluated included the ability to: (1) provide networking opportunities for Native American, other ethnic minority students, educators, and persons interested in multicultural mental health issues, (2) expose Native American high school and college students to role models in psychology, (3) provide information relating to culturally appropriate research with Native American people, and (4) provide Native American students with information and skills to become more bi-culturally competent. Volunteers completed concurrent session and over-all evaluation measures that asked if their perceptions of the conference goals were reached. Volunteers were randomly selected to answer interview questions as an attempt to receive more in-depth qualitative reactions from conference attendees.;Quantitative data analyses proved significant goal achievement for each of the goals set forth in the conference model. Qualitative data analyses further validated goal achievement by the overwhelmingly positive responses and feedback provided by the conference participants. Attendees reported they believed the conference model was valid. They consistently reported they believed the speakers were well prepared, knowledgeable, and that they did a good job in their presentation. In addition, analyses provided useful information for improving future Building Bridges events.;Future directions for program evaluations of the Building Bridges conference model should include external validation measures for determining increased bi-cultural skills gained by Native American student participants. Furthermore organizers should attempt to follow participant's educational successes and achievements. Application of the conference model in other educational settings would add to the generalizability to Native American students other than students in a rural, midwest university.