RED MOVEMENT. The poster promoting the AIHEC Student Leadership Conference was designed by Ben Calabaza.

The AIHEC Student Congress (ASC) sponsored the Summer Leadership Conference in Santa Fe, NM, at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) on June 24-27, 2010. This was the third year that IAIA has hosted the conference.

When we were planning this conference, ASC wanted an eye-catching theme geared toward leadership. Tribal college students at our meeting in Washington, DC, last winter chose the theme “Red Movement: Empowering Native Students.”

We planned opportunities for participants to interact with one another during the conference. We wanted to give them time to get to know one another and to make connections that would keep them active in the issues after the conference ended. Breakout sessions were facilitated by some of the student officers, and topics included Recycling, Productive Meetings, Traditional Plants, Customer Service, Multiple Intelligence, and Stickball.

Students also presented at the group sessions. Mylan Tootoosis and Daryl Lucero, officers of the IAIA student government, presented on Indigenous Student Governance. Former ASC officer Lynda Morrison gave a presentation on Woman in Leadership, and ASC Advisor Cindy Dodd spoke on the Language of Empowerment.

In addition to these various sessions, we also had some very inspiring keynote speakers, including Diné College President Dr. Ferlin Clark, David Cournoyer (director of Resource and Program Development for the nonprofit organization Native Americans in Philanthropy), and IAIA Instructor Char Teters.

Teters spoke on what she went through to educate herself and how tough it was to be Native American when she was younger. Her presentation was phenomenal; every word she passed on to us was spoken with conviction. In one way or another, her words touched everyone who was there. One very powerful question she asked was: “If not you, then who?”

We also wanted the students to experience some fun and culture of the Southwest. We held a pizza party featuring a disc jockey, DJ Garronteed, and the talented IAIA art students who decorated students’ clothing or other objects on request. On the second day, participants could choose to visit the Poeh Center, Pojoaque Pueblo, downtown Santa Fe, or Museum Hill. We also went to El Santuario de Chimayo shrine, where there was a great feeling of tranquility.

This year we had a total of 37 students, representing 12 tribal colleges, which is an increase of five students and one tribal college compared with last year. Our goal is to have at least one student from each of the 37 tribal colleges. That would be incredible.

“The main highlight was the connections we made with each person,” ASC Historian Valerie Phair (Northwest Indian College) says of her experience. She was able to expand her social and professional network and also make new friends. Not only that, but she was inspired by the workshops and speakers. “I am proud to be Native American in today’s time,” she says, “it is a time of change and healing.”

EMERGING LEADERSHIP. Most AIHEC Student Congress officers attended the leadership conference, including (from left) Sergeant-at-Arms Burdette Birdinground (Salish Kootenai College), Mountain Pacific Representative JoLynn Leishman (SKC),Secretary LaVinia Snowball (Little Priest Tribal College), Mr. AIHEC David One Horn (United Tribes Technical College), Ms. AIHEC/Historian Valerie Phair (Northwest Indian College),Treasurer Lora Boome (NWIC), Vice President Orlando Avery (Institute of American Indian Arts), Great Lakes Representative Leila Northbird (Leech Lake Tribal College), and President Tyler Blue Tarpalechee (IAIA). Photo courtesy of Valerie Phair

LaVinia Pauline Snowball (Winnebago) is the secretary of the AIHEC Student Congress and a student at Little Priest Tribal College in Winnebago, NE.