Though her mother wanted her to return home after graduation, Zitkála-Šá chose to attend Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where she had been offered a scholarship. While initially feeling isolated and uncertain among her predominantly white peers, she soon proved her oratorical talents with a speech entitled "Side by Side". During this time, she began gathering traditional stories from a spectrum of Native tribes, translating them first to Latin and then to English for children to read. In 1897, six weeks before graduation, she was forced to leave Earlham College due to ill health and financial difficulties.