Few activities have the power to bring people together as sports; victory is contagious, defeat unifies, and the concept of a team can create common goals and unbreakable bonds among teammates, communities, and even an entire nation. In a sense, sport has the power to change lives. The lessons that athletics can teach--preparation, competitiveness, overcoming obstacles, persistence, mental and physical health, problem solving, and setting life goals--seem particularly apt for American Indian youth today. Athletics can serve as a pathway to college for American Indian students who participate in individual or team sports. Access to higher education, in turn, offers the opportunity for larger income and greater economic opportunities. The American Indian students' college experience, including statistics on enrollment, retention and drop-out rates, is prevalent in both quantitative and qualitative research. Moreover, research concerning the roles athletes and athletics have within higher education institutions is historically rich. The intersection of these two topics however, has received little to no attention. This dissertation will explore the impact of sports on American Indian collegiate athletes to determine the factors that both inspired and inhibited them from the pursuit of athletics in college. It will provide the first in-depth look at several American Indian collegiate athletes who can document how sports helped or failed to help them reach their educational aspirations.

This study examined the engagement of male, college basketball players within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The literature review shows a connection between engaging in educationally purposeful activities and student retention. Because some student athletes, male collegiate basketball players in particular, struggle to graduate at the same rate as their fellow student athletes, student engagement offers one lens to examine the educational experiences of basketball players. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) was used to collect levels of engagement along four identified variables. These four variables, part of Chickering and Gamson’s Seven Principles for Good Undergraduate Education, were relevant to the study as they were factors student athletes could control. These factors included: active learning, cooperation among students, interaction with faculty, and time on task. Student athlete responses were analyzed by three factors including NCAA athletic division, race, and highest level of parental education. This study found no significant difference in levels of engagement among the NCAA’s three athletic divisions. Additionally, no significant differences in engagement were found based on the highest level of education reached by the student athlete’s parents. Last, ethnic background presented only one significant difference within the active learning variable. The other three variables showed no significant difference based on race. The lack of statistical differences is iv meaningful as it signifies the strength of the basketball culture. The culture of this sport permeates all divisions of college basketball and transcends the background of its players. Thus, players who should display different levels of engagement based on institutional or background characteristics display similar levels of engagement

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