June 17, 2009
Building Nations Through Education
Native American Student Advocacy Conference
The University of Arizona in Tucson was the host for the second annual Native American Student Advocacy Institute, held May 18-19, which the College Board cosponsored. This year’s conference theme, “Building Nations Through Education,” drew 220 attendees from 22 states; the District of Columbia; and Colombia, South America, representing every level of education, government education agencies and other nonprofit organizations, who came to strengthen the education pipeline for Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian students.
To begin the conference, Regina Siquieros, a Tohono O’odham studies instructor, offered a blessing. In the program, conference organizers paid a special tribute to the O’odham people, who originally inhabited the land on which the University of Arizona now sits. After a welcome from Diné College President Ferlin Clark and others, attendees heard remarks from speakers LuAnn Leonard and Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy. Leonard was the first Native American member of the University of Arizona’s Board of Regents and serves as executive director of the Hopi Education Endowment Fund, after spending 22 years with the Hopi Tribe as a higher education counselor, director of youth affairs and assistant to the tribe chairman. Brayboy, who is a Borderlands associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Arizona State University, shared his vision for preparing educators to serve
indigenous communities.
Monday’s plenary luncheon featured speaker was Iris PrettyPaint, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe and
codirector of Research Opportunities in Science for Native Americans at the University of Montana, who introduced the Family Education Model, a family-centered retention model for tribal colleges and universities. PrettyPaint’s discussion centered on the results of her study, which “indicates that persistence for tribal college students is interwoven with family, community and academic relationships and that the development of culturally relevant retention practices could facilitate the retention of American Indian students in all institutions.” Afternoon breakout sessions gave way to an evening reception at the University of Arizona Museum of Art, with a special presentation by local Native American students and music by Native American singer-songwriter and flute player Johnny Oberly.
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 NASAI attendees (from left) Ferlin Clark, Karen Francis-Begay, LuAnn Leonard, Regina Siquieros, Olivia Siquieros, Robert N. Shelton, Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy and Peter Negroni
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Tuesday began with a plenary brunch with featured speaker Stephanie Fryberg, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, who discussed ways that the cultural environment prevalent in learning environments can influence a Native American student’s academic motivation and performance. She stressed the importance of creating classroom cultures in which students feel they
belong and can be successful, as this yields better academic outcomes.
Ferlin Clark, who was co-chair of the conference, moderated a leadership roundtable at the closing plenary session. A wide-ranging group of participants — Candace Begody, University of Arizona student; Denny Hurtado, director of Washington State’s Office of Indian Education; Denise Juneau, superintendent
of the Montana Office of Public Instruction; Carlos Medina, assistant provost in the Office of Diversity and Educational Equity at the State University of New York; and Ned Norris Jr. chair of the Tohono O’odham Nation — discussed how to best serve Native American students and their educators. The recommendations of this plenary panel will be sent to the
education department.
Next year’s Native American Student Advocacy Institute will be held April 19-20 at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. For more information about the conference or to obtain conference materials, please visit the NASAI home page.
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