WIEA Conference

Posoh,

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the WIEA Pre-Conference and Youth Day. I was able to take away many different teachings from both days. Thursday was centered around historical trauma and trauma informed care. Friday, I attended the Youth Day track with the SLC students and various other students from the area. The Youth Day gave me the opportunity to get to know the SLC students better.

They started off the day with a Tobacco Tying Ceremony and followed with a lunch performance by Gary D. I am very grateful to experience the Tobacco Tying Ceremony and I learned such a great deal from the various individuals that presented to the students. The students were extremely engaged and I felt it was an excellent way to start the morning. The highlight of some of the student’s day was the performance by Gary D. For those of you who do not know, he is a recording artist from the Menominee Reservation. I found his music inspiring and I think he connected with many of the students. We even received his newest CD!

In the afternoon, the students were given a campus tour of CMN and heard more about future scholarship opportunities from AICF. There were a lot of quality conversations and questions going on in both sessions. To end the day, the students had the opportunity to meet Matika Wilbur. She spoke with students about her Project 562 and the importance of storytelling and indigenous knowledge. The students were all engaged and I personally learned so much from her visit. Overall, it was a wonderful two days and am very thankful that I had the opportunity to attend the conference. It has made it even clearer that I want to become an educator within our community and make a difference in the lives of our youth.