St. George Native American Leadership Conference

On Saturday March 2nd, we enjoyed the warm weather and beautiful day in southern Utah.
Our students were invited to attend the annual Native American Leadership conference in St.
George at Dixie State University. This was a change for the RRH, who usually attends the
northern Native American Leadership conference. When we first arrived at Dixie University,
our students registered on the computers and received a free lanyard with their name tags. The
school provided us with water and snacks, and seated us at our reserved tables. We listened
to the speeches and stories from our guest speakers. All speeches were very motivational and
encouraged all to continue with education, believe in ourselves, respect our families and where
we came from, and to do all of this being drug and alcohol free.
We were served lunch, followed by awards being handed out. Every student received a
certificate with categories ranging from academics, attendance, leadership, performing arts,
and standing tall. We ended our conference with pictures taken with Miss Indian USA, Shaylin
Shabi. She also sang Happy Birthday to our students, twins Kyler and Kylen Cozad. Four of
our seniors were awarded with scholarship money: Nizhoni Brown, Hongva Lucero, Harley
Poorman, and Serida Slim. There were three money awards given out for artwork that were
submitted to the contest. Of all counties who participated, the top three were given to our
students. Third place with a drawing, Kyle James, Second place with a drawing, Thompson
Yazzie, and First place was Nizhoni Brown with a photograph.
After awards were given out, we watched Hawaiian dances performed by a dance group. We
ended our trip with shopping at the mall. Our students talked about how much fun they had and
memories they made during our trip even into the next day. The bus drivers commented on how
much fun they had as well, transporting our student to and from the conference. They said our
students were well behaved and a joy to travel with.