Meet Our Student Ambassadors

Amanda has always worked hard and done her best to support her children, but because she was told she would never amount to anything, she didn’t have the confidence to pursue a college education. Then she was hired at her local tribal college, and she realized she was smarter, stronger, and far more capable than she could have ever imagined. Fueled by both her determination to prove people wrong AND be a strong role model for her own children and the children in her community, Amanda enrolled in college and completed her bachelor’s degree, charting a different path for her future – all while working full-time and as a single mom of six kids.

One of her greatest challenges in her journey has been to silence the negative voices in her head and replace them with positivity, confidence, and trust in herself, especially during and following the pandemic. Amanda committed herself to healing and helping others in her community heal as well – and is a huge advocate for using all available resources to look inward to find the best version of yourself and to find contentment and happiness.

It is Amanda’s strongest belief that through healing, we can eradicate the addiction, suicide and mental health issues in Native communities. “Healing is possible, it’s not fun, it’s not pretty, but it’s possible,” says Amanda, “and by healing yourself, you are essentially healing everyone who comes after you, especially your children, your future grandchildren, and so on and so forth … I would love for my legacy to be healed, and that’s what I’m currently doing.”

Sam’s chosen career path is all about words – using words to teach, to change hearts and minds, to rewrite truthful history, to document and preserve culture and language, and to shape the future. Sam’s vision for all Native people is to have a voice, and he wonders what our world would look like today if Native voices had been included in the growth and evolution of our country.

As an English major at Princeton University, Sam strongly believes education is the pathway to elevating Native voice, and that it is imperative Native and Indigenous voices are present in our educational systems. Oftentimes during Sam’s educational journey, he struggled with not seeing himself anywhere in his school experiences, which resulted in his dropping out of high school.

Sam soon realized the pathway to having a voice started with completing his education. “The first step is to complete our educations and introduce ourselves and our voices into educational institutions,” says Sam, who will use both his education and his mastery of words to challenge the status quo of silencing Native voice.

“I most look forward to sharing my voice as a native person. When I think about what I have to share personally … I think that I have something to share in the room.”

Throughout her journey, Selena has seen the barriers that prevent her people from traveling on the path they want to take. Being a single mom with four kids, two of whom have special needs, she has first-hand experience with the lack of resources and culturally centered support available in Native communities. This is why Selena has taken it upon herself to receive the education she needs to be a guiding light for her tribal community and help clear a better path for them.

The road has not been easy – trying to provide for and nurture her children while working towards her degree, Selena was diagnosed with breast cancer. Resilience has been instilled in Selena for generations and not only is she beating cancer, but she is also still on her path to complete her degree in human services. Selena sees the gaps in tribal communities that desperately need to be filled – and she knows that with her education, nothing will stop her from creating happier, healthier lives for her family and community.

“I keep going because I know education is the key to success. It helps Native Americans like me become self-sufficient individuals and we, in turn, show others they can do the same.”

Sky grew up living in both the Western world and in his own Navajo community, and has seen the positive impact of combining his knowledge from both. A life-long overachiever, and only in his junior year of college at Drexel University, Sky’s accomplishments are intimidating – a Goldwater Scholar, a Udall Scholar, a Truman scholar, a published researcher, the founder of Drexel’s Indigenous Students of the Americas club – all are on his long list of achievements.

What Sky has taken away from all his experiences is the concept of using both his Indigenous knowledge and his Western knowledge to approach problem-solving in new and unique ways. As a chemistry major with plans to attend medical school, Sky is passionate about addressing the health needs of his community through using both traditional practices and Western science and constructing research supporting both. His first-hand experience seeing his beloved grandfather beat stage 4 lung cancer using both Western and traditional medicine has inspired Sky to commit himself fully to merging his Western and Indigenous knowledge to benefit his people.

“For me, growing up my parents have always instilled in me and my younger brothers that education is something that once you have it, nobody can take it away from you … So I think education itself, specifically now in today’s world, when people think of education, they mostly think of Western education, but for me, I have my cultural upbringing, which I consider education. And coupled with Western education, like being at my university and studying chemistry, I feel that taking these two spheres or these two facets and really combining them has helped me become such a balanced person.”

Blackfeet, Assiniboine Sioux, Blackfeet Community College

Lisa is in the final year of her bachelor’s degree at Blackfeet Community College, and is studying Social Work and Addiction Studies. Her motivation for pursuing her area of education rests in the challenges faced by her community every day.

The mother of 4, and the adoptive mother of 5 more, one of 7 siblings, and surrounded by aunts and uncles and grandparents, Lisa’s priorities have been firmly entrenched in family life, caring not only for her own, but others in her community as well. From a young age, the value of hard work was instilled by her grandfather, and Lisa continues to demonstrate that hard work is the key in creating opportunity, and forging her own future.

Seeing brothers and sisters succumb to alcoholism and substance abuse, Lisa aims to use her education to break the cycles of addiction that plague the reservation, and provide hope, compassion, and love to everyone she works with.

“I know change takes time. I used to say soon as I was educated, I was leaving our small town. I now have the mindset that my hometown needs me, and I am not going anywhere. I always felt that running away would be the best for me. Now I see what I can do, and I am running to my town. My future has me creating a safe space where individuals are free to be who they are. A space where I can provide counseling and resources.”

Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Haskell Indian Nations University / University of Kansas

Annalise is a fierce advocate for balance between man and the land we live on, and is seeking a future in which she can truly serve as a steward for the land. A PhD candidate at the University of Kansas, Annalise is resolved to becoming a true leader within her community, and an ambassador to the rest of the world, introducing Indian land-use values informed by cutting edge science.

Through her studies, Annalise has discovered the true scientific reasoning behind traditional Indian medicine – for example, that the Cherokee stories of cedar’s protective and purifying qualities contain lessons of plant phenology, photosynthesis, and seasonality, The marriage of Native land-use traditions to modern Western STEM allows her to bring her unique perspective to the world of science, and showcases the unique approach to climate change fostered in Native “steward of the land” thinking.

“I want to remind non-Indigenous humans of their relationship with the land and that they too are part of this world and not separate from it. I hope to teach at a TCU and let new Indigenous scholars know that they belong in STEM and that their aspirations for their communities are valid. Seeing the increase of Indigenous scholars in STEM gives me hope for the future that we will have a paradigm shift and that other humans will start to think more like Indigenous people.”

Yankton and Santee Sioux, African, Sinte Gleska University

“Resilience is in my DNA,” says Promise, reflecting on her upbringing. Surrounded by instability, drug abuse, and a responsibility to protect her younger siblings, Promise views her education as proof that nothing will stop her from achieving her goals.

Promise was never expected to go college – beginning as early as middle school, teachers would tell her she was “too stupid” to go to a university, and not to bother trying. Later, she would skip school to work odd jobs to support her family, and believed that college was simply out of reach.

One day, she woke up, tired of the negativity that plagued her world, and decided to take a chance and apply to her tribe’s community college. Promise was not only accepted, but awarded scholarships, a moment that reignited her belief that anything was possible: for herself, for her community, for everyone.

Now a senior at Sinte Gleska, Promise is set to graduate in the spring with her bachelor’s in Special Education, and aims to become an empathetic and compassionate leader in early childhood education. Even through adversity and doubt, Promise says, “we are somebody, and we can achieve.”

“I will be the first person in my family to buy a house, I get to be the first person in my family to not be incarnated, I get to be the first person in my family to receive a master’s degree, I get to be the first administrator in my family. I get to build generational wealth for my family, I get to heal the hundreds of years’ worth of generational trauma. I pave the ways for all my relatives, my future Is bright like the stars at night on the Ihawnktowan lands where my feet were molded in the grass at my family’s cemetery.”