Vision, Mission, and Goals

Our Vision

Tohono O’odham Community College’s vision is to become the Tohono O’odham Nation’s center for higher education, and to enhance the Nation’s participation in the local, state, national, and global communities.

Our Mission

As an accredited and land grant institution, TOCC’s mission is to enhance our unique Tohono O’odham Himdag by strengthening individuals, families, and communities through holistic, quality higher education services. These services will include research opportunities and programs that address academic, life, and development skills.

Our Goals

  • To strengthen academic learning that will reinforce a strong competitive spirit to participate in an ever-changing society.

  • To include Elders as primary resources, instructors, advisors and counselors as a means of reinforcing Tohono O’odham Himdag.

  • To recruit highly qualified faculty and staff who are dedicated to the art of teaching, advising, and service specifically to the Tohono O’odham Community.

  • To ensure the integration of appropriate Tohono O’odham Himdag in the physical environment, curriculum, and processes of the college.

  • To ensure that curricular offerings are relevant to the needs of communities and individuals in fundamental skills; i.e., general reading, writing and math skills.

  • To establish a technology core that will enable the students and the broader community to meet the challenges of the future.

Our Vision

Tohono O’odham Community College’s vision is to become the Tohono O’odham Nation’s center for higher education, and to enhance the Nation’s participation in the local, state, national, and global communities.

Our Mission

As an accredited and land grant institution, TOCC’s mission is to enhance our unique Tohono O’odham Himdag by strengthening individuals, families, and communities through holistic, quality higher education services. These services will include research opportunities and programs that address academic, life, and development skills.

Our Goals

  • To strengthen academic learning that will reinforce a strong competitive spirit to participate in an ever-changing society.

  • To include Elders as primary resources, instructors, advisors and counselors as a means of reinforcing Tohono O’odham Himdag.

  • To recruit highly qualified faculty and staff who are dedicated to the art of teaching, advising, and service specifically to the Tohono O’odham Community.

  • To ensure the integration of appropriate Tohono O’odham Himdag in the physical environment, curriculum, and processes of the college.

  • To ensure that curricular offerings are relevant to the needs of communities and individuals in fundamental skills; i.e., general reading, writing and math skills.

  • To establish a technology core that will enable the students and the broader community to meet the challenges of the future.

Core Values and College Motto

College Motto:
“Ñia, oya g t-taccui am hab e-ju:”
See, our dream fulfilled.

T-Ṣo:ṣon (Our Core)

T-Wohocudadag – Our Beliefs

T-Apedag – Our Well-Being

T-Pi:k Elida – Our Deepest Respect

I-We:mta – Working Together

T-Wohocudadag – Our Beliefs

At Tohono O’odham Kekel Ha-Maṣcamakuḍ we believe that T-Wohocudadag provides balance, strengthens, and helps us respect ourselves, other people, and cultures. 

Things in our lives (e.g. nature, people, the environment, animals) keep us in balance.  Everything is here for a reason, to learn from, to care for, and to respect.

T-Apedag – Our Well-Being

We, at Tohono O’odham Kekel Ha-Maṣcamakuḍ, believe that T-Apedag includes what is healthy and good for us (physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally) and all that is around us. 

How we interact with the world and our relationships influences our health.  Well-being is how you give, how others give to you, and how to take care of yourself  and others – (mentally, spiritually, emotionally and physically).  Self-reflection provides understanding of one’s place in the world, one’s effect on others, and vice versa.

T-Pi:k Elida – Our Deepest Respect

We, at Tohono O’odham Kekel Ha-Maṣcamakuḍ, believe that T-Pi:k Elida is a deep sense of respect for the land, the people, and the things upon the land, yourself, and your life.  

This includes valuing the people and the culture.

I-We:mta – Working Together

We, at Tohono O’odham Kekel Ha-Maṣcamakuḍ, believe that I-We:mta is crucial for the success of the college.

In years past, when someone shot a deer they shared it with the people.  This was also true when planting and harvesting the fields where everyone helped one another.  Providing food was not just for oneself; it included the concept of sharing, taking care of others, and giving back to the community.  Tohono O’odham provided help when help was needed, particularly in times of loss and death.