The paper describes a program that uses history and geography to orient freshman undergraduates in the American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Program at Stanford University. The program has increased recruitment, retention and graduation rates for students from native groups in recent years. The creation of a sustainable campus community grounded in local history and geography is one factor in this successful effort to increase representation of underrepresented populations in higher education.

Laura Jones is currently working on an action research project that promotes reform in doctoral programs in research universities, and on community outreach programs for educators in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her longstanding interest in cultural geography was developed during her tenure as Stanford University's Campus Archaeologist, a position that combined resource protection, community outreach and archaeological research.