Native Leadership Conference

“Success through Achievement, Culture & Leadership” was the theme for

the 2013 Native American Student Leadership Conference at Salt Lake

Community College on October 2nd.

Native American students throughout the state of Utah were invited with

thirty four students representing the Sevier School District. Thirty one of

the thirty four students were Richfield Residential Hall students. Along with students

attending the conference were RRH staff Jaime Romero & Sylvia Nielson

as well as RHS staff Ursula Mackay & SSHS staff Sabrina Savage.

The day started out early with the students loading the bus at 5:30 a.m.

Upon arrival at the conference, students had a light continental breakfast.

This was much needed to refresh everyone. After breakfast, they were

greeted by, Dr. Chuck Foster, the Director of Utah Indian Education. A

blessing was given by Mrs. Pristine James and an honor song was sung by

our very own Wyatt Willie. Wyatt is a junior at South Sevier High School.

While Wyatt was singing, you could hear a pin drop; his singing touched

everyone’s heart! We are very proud of the way he represented himself,

our RRH family, and the Sevier School District.

The students were assigned to groups and then were off to attend four

different workshops:

“Success through Health & Wellness” by the Urban Indian Center Team;

“Success through Culture” by Virgil Johnson, Retired Granite School

District teacher; “Success through MESA” by Dr. Paul Ross, Asst. Director

of Educational Equality, Granite School District; and “Your Face of

Success” by Salt Lake Community College Staff & Native Students. The

workshops were amazingly well prepared, students were engaged, and

received some great information! A fun class session was with the Urban

Indian Center Team, the students found out how much exercise you get

from doing the round dance & two-step! It was awesome!

After the workshops, the students listened to keynote speaker Rhonda

Duvall “Honey” who isRecording Artist. She is also a Granite School District

Title 7 Mentor. She talked about dreaming big and believing you can

achieve all your dreams. Students were given one of her CDs. Closing the

conference was Dr. Chuck Foster.