About SDI Intern, Henry Dodge, In His Own Words

Hi.  My name is Henry Dodge, I am a Menominee Indian.  I would like to tell you a little bit about myself.  I am twenty-seven years old, and I have lived on the reservation all my life. All of my education has been done here on the reservation.  My first day of daycare was here on the reservation.  My first day of Head Start was here on the reservation, and all of my grade schooling has been done here on the reservation.  I am very proud to have all of my schooling done here on my reservation.

                Before I came to college, I worked in the woods as a logger for eight long years.  Working in the woods is not fun.  It is hard work, and if you don’t work you don’t get paid. I liked to get paid, so I work long hours in the woods.  I would work ten to twelve hours days every day.  I had to carry a big saw with me everywhere I went, and in order to run the saw I needed gas and oil.  I had to carry that with me too.  I soon became tired of this work, and I knew I had to find a new job or do something new with my life, so I did.  I knew my reservation had a college, so I might as well start school and see where it would take me. School only did good things for me.  I am now working for the college, and doing what I like to do now, not doing what I have to.       

 I attend the College Of Menominee Nation and am going on my third semester.  I have one semester left, then I will have my first college degree.  I am going to school for sustainable development, but I would like to work with our community more, especially with our youth here on the reservation.  I want to show them what they can do if they try hard and stay out of trouble.  I want them to go to school and get good grades. I have an internship with the sustainable development, which allows me to work with the community, both adults and children. I coordinate summer youth activities such as baseball games, walking clubs, cleaning up the reservation, and more.  I also teach concepts having to do with sustainable development.  Recently, we learned how many trees we breathe in a year, and how much oxygen does a tree give off.  These are just some of the fun educational things we do, and I look forward to doing more with the youth in my position here.