Native Students at STC Receive Star Quilts

Native American graduates at Southeast Technical College received star quilts to celebrate their achievements this May. The Sioux Falls School District gifts star quilts to graduating seniors every year, and Shasta Weston, an access coach in the STC Office of Access and Workforce Opportunity, suggested that STC could expand on that tradition by giving star quilts to college graduates.

Weston, who is Dakota, explained that “Star quilts are very important to the Dakota people. It's an honor to be gifted a star quilt; we will gift to individuals, to honor them, for the birth of a baby and other milestones throughout life, as well as at giveaways—is a traditional emblem, a source of pride, and an item of tribal identity. The star design itself is also symbolic, representing the Morning Star, a link between the living and the spirit world.”

Initially gifting star quilts was proposed for the class of 2026 at a meeting, but representatives of the Office of Health Equity and Experience at Sanford Health offered to donate the funds for star quilts for 2025 graduates. “They said, why wait until next year?" said Marcella Prokop, Director of Access and Workforce Opportunity. "I said I had to raise money to purchase quilts. They said if I could find enough quilts for Friday, they said they’d fund it.” 

Star quilts are hand-sewn, one-of-a-kind pieces and require a great amount of skill, care and time to make. There’s a higher demand for star quilts during graduation season, so finding them was a challenge on short notice.

However, by working with the Sioux Falls School District Office of Indian Education, Sweetgrass Soapery and All Walks Trading Co. owner (and STC alumna) Miranda Koltze, and  STC Access Coach Shasta Weston, they were able to find enough quilts to honor all the Native American graduates in STC’s class of 2025—and the search took only twelve hours! 

“It really speaks to the power of community and how well STC and our community partners work together to support students,” Prokop said.

Weston expressed great appreciation for Sanford Health making this possible.

“I’m very grateful that Sanford sponsored the Star quilts so that we could give our students that high honor. Getting a college degree is a great accomplishment for Native American people. Our people have the lowest graduation rates, sitting at 0.7% in the nation for college graduates, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Unfortunately, not everyone's family is able to afford a star quilt to honor their graduates, so I think it is phenomenal that Southeast Technical College is able to honor these Native American students in partnership with Sanford.”