Kristan
Tohono O'odham
Senior Business major
Tohono O'odham Community College

Kristan has been attending college for the past few years, but within the past two she has dedicated herself to attending full-time. This is no easy task, as she has a husband and three children, ages 14, 11, and 2. Because family life is so important to Kristan, she says she tries to structure her life around her family and be involved with her children's education as much as possible, because “I feel that this is the foundation of who they will become later in life.” She says by attending college, she is also trying to set the example of the importance of higher education to them. “I hope that they witness the hard work and sacrifices it takes to attend college AFTER establishing a family, whereas it seems to be more flexible to attend college right after high school,” she says.

Kristan is awaiting acceptance into the University of Arizona , where she will pursue a bachelor's and master's degree in business. She says she is “taking in all that I can” and is “loving every minute of it. I am amazed at what I am learning, and learning something new each day, especially in the area of O'odham culture and language. I think it is awesome that Tohono O'odham Community College has incorporated it into its curriculum. It gives me the opportunity to learn things that my parents didn't pass on.”

In addition to her studies and spending time with her family, Kristan somehow finds time to volunteer as a coach for co-ed t-ball and girls' softball. She is also the Parish Council President at her church, and sits on the board of directors for the San Solano Mission for the Diocese of Tucson.

Vincent
Paiute
Haskell Indian Nations University

Leadership is in Vincent’s student experience and his professional future. A senior business major from Bishop, California who is graduating from Haskell Indian Nations University this May, Vincent served on the student senate from 2006-07. But Vincent’s leadership skills have also been spent outside of Haskell networking, learning, and growing in federal internship opportunities.

Vincent has worked with the Small Business Administration in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and NASA. At the USDA, Vincent says, “They are the oldest and largest agency, and I was hired to develop and assess their office for communications policies. No matter how the administration changes, we have to be able to achieve objectives for additional planning.” At NASA, Vincent was responsible for team-building.

Back in Lawrence, Kansas this past semester, Vincent has been trying to promote leadership skills among his student successors for the up and coming classes. “The good thing about Haskell,” he says, “is that students come from all over the U.S. This way you get different points of view,” he says. And looking forward for his own future, he says he wants to go to law school, with an emphasis on Indian Law. He says that as a future leader of his own nation, he and others of his generation are learning the way things were, and they are “taking on the old ways of thinking to instill change, work with each other, and make things better.” This doesn’t mean that Native youth should abandon their culture, history, beliefs, and lifeways, he says. “When we don’t believe in our people, we lose our spirituality,” Vincent says.

Terry Gomez
Comanche Nation
University of New Mexico

Terry Gomez (Comanche Nation), a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) student in the Department of Dramatic Writing at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and American Indian College Fund Mellon Fellowship 2007-08 winner, will have her work brought to the stage. Her work will be featured in this month’s Words Afire! New Works Play Festival at the University of New Mexico Center for the Arts, in Albuquerque. Since 2004, Gomez has been a faculty member at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, teaching courses in dramatic writing, acting and play production. She is also an IAIA alumna.

Gomez’s thesis is a collection of three plays focusing on the history of how Native American women are negatively depicted in theater and film, and how this contributes to an invisibility of Native woman in society, low self-esteem, and a re-identification of self, especially in the case of younger people. She will develop the plays into full productions.

For details about Words Afire! and scheduled performance times, please go to http://www.abqarts.com

Randy
Tulalip
Northwest Indian College

Randy has received the prestigious Cartwright Scholarship from the American Indian College Fund and is graduating from Northwest Indian College this May with a 3.8 grade point average. He also serves on a national student congress for American Indians. A member of the Tulalip nation, Randy is fascinated by legal and business issues, and plans to study law to become a tribal lawyer specializing in fishing rights.

Randy is experienced in the legal realm. His family owns a tract of land that many would like to develop. But in keeping with the Indian way, Randy does not want to sell to develop “just anything. It's not about money. It's about making the right decision for the future.” He and his family are considering developing the land for educational or health care purposes.

It hasn't always been easy juggling family and school. Randy worked odd jobs through school, and was recently offered a professional job with high wages. Randy and his wife talked about whether or not he should take the job and drop out of college—a tough decision. He decided to stay true to his dreams and finish college and go on to law school, as the short-term gain was not worth sacrificing his dream of being a lawyer, and one day helping his tribe. Randy Elliott is an example of how the American Indian College Fund's donors are helping students to succeed in obtaining an education and making a difference in their communities.