COVER STORY

Education as Their Own
by Debra Haaland
Photos by Marie Leslie Photography

FEATURES

Finding Success in Science
By Valerie Santillanes

Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord
by Karyth Becenti

Education as Their Own
by Debra Haaland
Photos by Marie Leslie Photography

As long as people have existed on this earth, so have teachers. My grandfather was one of my first teachers. His lessons about nature and the environment were timeless; and now with the talk of global warming and other phenomena, they mean far more to me than ever before.

Grandpa’s teaching methods were simple. Often, we walked down to his field below our small Pueblo village, and he taught me how to remove green worms from ripening corn. We would finish one stalk and go to the next. It was always satisfying to look back and see what we accomplished.

I learned to cook by watching my grandma prepare food that grandpa brought her. While steam from her cooking pots wafted, she prayed in gratitude for the ability to give back to the earth.

My grandparents advised me to get a formal education. They met at a boarding school, and though they did not agree with the concept, they agreed with the idea of learning. When they learned a new language, another world opened up to them. It was their responsibility to share it.

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Finding Success in Science
By Valerie Santillanes

Nancy Jackson is living the dream. She’s a scientist, a mother, and a wife who still finds time to work out, volunteer, and attend her sons’ soccer games. But Jackson, a chemical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, is more than a superwoman. As a descendent of the Seneca Indian tribe, she’s a role model for Native American girls who want to break into the still male-dominated fields of hard sciences, and she was recently recognized for her work with a Professional of the Year award from the American Indian Science and Engineering Society.

But Nancy said she didn’t think of herself as someone who was challenging the status quo when she went to George Washington University in Washington D.C. to study political science.

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DR. LORI ARVISO ALVORD
by Karyth Becenti

Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord sits in her office at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire and reaches for the book she wrote titled, “The Scalpel and the Silver Bear.” She fingers through the pages, then stops and begins to read, “I stood at the sink for a long time before washing my hands. I begin my own small ceremony of clearing my mind of all thoughts and letting balance and peace take their place. I think about the medicine of the night [from the night chant] and fire and stars…My pulse slows as my mind focuses…” Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord explains her routine before entering surgery.

There have been huge milestones within this surgeon’s life. Her long and rewarding journey began in a small town in New Mexico called White Horse Lake where she attended first grade. She entered second grade at Crownpoint Elementary School and did exceptionally well. She graduated from Crownpoint High School and as time progressed, her dreams shifted from teaching to a role in the medical field.

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