NACA NEWSLETTER 2015-2016 Issue 2

NACA Newsletter

October 2015

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS PARENT GROUP NEWS

Happy Fall from the NACA Parent Group! We had our second parent meeting on October 5th and had a great turnout! Thank you to all the families who attend-ed. This is a great time to get info about upcoming events, ask any questions you may have related to the school and enjoy a meal. We are excited for our 10th Annu-al NACA Feast Day. A flyer has gone out on what food we are asking students to bring. We will also be Celebrating Indige-nous Pride Week and each day there will be a theme, so we hope your students will participate. We will start working the UNM Basketball games in mid-November, so if you are interested in volunteering please email Tirzah in the front office, at Tirzah@nacaschool.org. Our next parent meeting will be Monday, November 9th. The meetings start at 6pm in room 124. Please join us for a meal and to get any monthly updates. We will start planning for our Thanksgiving food drive after feast day and would love to have more parents volunteer. We look forward to seeing you all at the Feast Day!

Greetings NACA Families,

We will be celebrating our 10th Annual Community Celebration and Feast on October 16th at 10:00am at NACA’s main campus. The event brings together staff, students, families and community to share in a day of celebration for the number of years that our school has been in existence. It is a way to say thank you to our support-ers who have positively contributed to the development of our school.

The theme of our event is: Commitment to Community and Service: Building a Move-ment of Indigenous Education, Transfor-mation, Innovation and Opportunity.

This day will begin with a Sunrise Ceremo-ny at 6:30am at NACA campus. We will begin set up at 8:00am and will include help from students who arrive. Each stu-dent will report to their Advisory at 9:00a and line up at 9:45am for a Student Proces-sion. Please encourage your child(ren) to wear their traditional/cultural clothing for this important event.

This day is busy, full of fun, interaction and good food. It is a time to visit with one an-other, meet up with old friends and meet new ones. In the spirit of community, we welcome you to join us and we thank you for your continued support.

NACA NEWSLETTER 2015-2016 Issue 2

Washington D.C. Trip News

*Sell Off Event*

Our students are working extremely hard to raise funds to attend the annual trip to our nation’s capi-tal. We will be hosting a “Sell Off” event to help raise money for our students. This event is like a mini flea market where we will have vendors selling items. If you are interested in purchasing a vendor booth for $15, please contact Mrs. H at the main campus phone number: 505-266-0992 x 1036 or email: humetewa_a@nacaschool.org. This event will take place on Saturday, October 24th from 9am-2pm at NACA’s main campus (see flyer on next page) Please come out to support our students and find some items to buy.

Dean’s Corner

For the safety of all students attending NACA, we would like to request that all students who are picked up from our cam-pus be picked up within 30 minutes afterschool has ended. Any student who is on campus after 30 minutes will be di-rected to Mandatory Afterschool Study Hall (MASH) in room 120 so they are in a safe place until their rides can pick them up. The reason for this change is due to limited, to no supervi-sion after school. Many of our staff members attend meetings or leave 30 minutes afterschool is over which leaves the Out of School time staff to supervise clubs and MASH. There is no supervision for students waiting beyond 30 minutes in the front area. Due to our location many transients walk in the vicinity going to and from Graves Park. I have personally noti-fied the city parks and recreation department of this concern and have asked for support in addressing safety for our stu-dents. Although I have taken proactive steps, I would like to ask parents to speak with their student(s) about this change. Additionally, students are not allowed to leave campus to go to McDonalds or any store while waiting for parent pick-ups, as we cannot guarantee their safety. Students must remain on campus until they have been picked up by a parent/guardian. Thank you for your support in this—matter. Ms. Carroll-Dean of Students

NACA Positive Rock Stars

NACA Positive RockStars is an opportunity for students to be

caught doing something good on campus and are recognized

each week. Students are entered into a monthly drawing, and

can be nominated numerous times by staff, teachers, admin-

istration or parents who catch a NACA student demonstrating

positive acts which align with our core values of; respect, re-

sponsibility, reflection, perseverance, cultural or community

service. A student can be nominated, but if they end up with a

negative incident they lose one entry in the drawing. So the

more positive acts we see on campus the greater their chanc-

es are for winning the monthly prize, and will make them eli-

gible for the end of the year prize. So catch our NACA Rock-

Stars demonstrating core values.

Yearbook News Crazy hair day was a blast! Thank you all for your wacky styles. We have started a NACA yearbook Facebook page! You can like us and post your favorite NACA photos. We need the communities' help in cap-turing all the amazing things that happen at both cam-puses and out side of school. Thank you to the OST yearbook club for making posters. We meet Wednes-days in room 223 and are looking for more volun-teers. Students who regularly attend club meetings qualify to purchase a book at a discounted price! We will begin selling books during both lunches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in October. The pre-sale price is only $25. We will also be selling items for fund-raising, and holding raffle contests for a quarter. Save the date for the annual Halloween costume con-test on Friday October 30th! We will have a separate contest for students and staff. Prizes will be award-ed for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. We are also looking for volunteer judges. Thank you for your support. -Yearbook Staff

NACA Fall Athletics

As the fall sports season starts to wind down, we would like to acknowledge the athletes who participated.in Cross Country and

Volleyball for their hard work. Go Eagles!

NACA NEWSLETTER 2015-2016 Issue 2

Updates from College Engagement

NACA’s class of 2015 has been busy since graduation. Our NACA grads are

attending universities/colleges around the state and beyond. Here are a

few of the schools our alumni are attending. We wish them well in their

educational goals.

UNM: Rhiannon Jojola, Ashley Morales, Neulyn Castillo, Taney Jojola, Gra-

ham Laverty, Sydney Red Tamahawk, Kaly Calabaza, Neulyn Castillo,

Justina Creager, Latrell Davis, Ricardo Gonzales, Karina Ruiz, and Kayla

Salas.

Institute of American Indian Arts: Javin Aguilar, Joseph Lorge, Mariah Cas-

tillo, Hailey Suina

Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute: Skyler John

New Mexico State University: Davin Valencia and Erin Apodaca

New Mexico Highlands University: Shania Miera

Colorado State University- Josh Wade Savannah Trujillo, Joseph Lorge, Mariah Castillo,

and Hailey Suina at the Institute of American

Class of 2016

The following students took and passed classes at CNM this summer: Jordan Sarracino, Lehuanani Ayau, Anthony Jiron. Taylor Tom

took a film class, and Marcii Abeita took and passed two classes – a film and a child development class – and she earned a certificate

that allows her to work at preschools.

Linsey Shije attended a summer program called Summer Policy Academy, which she attended the previous summer as well. Last sum-

mer the program was in Santa Fe, and students went to the Roundhouse to debate about blood quantum. This summer, the program

was at Princeton University in New Jersey. Linsey said it was a beautiful campus! They also went to Washington, Philadelphia and New

York. The group did presentations on subjects such as education for indigenous people for organizations including the World Bank and

Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Go Linsey!

Deanna King went to College Horizons at Stanford University in California. She loved it!

Danzel Edaakie and Felicia Sisneros went up to Fort Collins, Colorado for the Native Education Forum at Colorado State University.

They said it was super fun and they took a class and some workshops, went hiking and swimming in a lake. And now they’re eligible for

a scholarship at CSU. Felicia also did a week-long Simon Scholars retreat at UNM, where she lived in the dorms and took an ACT prep

class. Danzel also took some of his art to the Santa Fe Indian Market and he sold out of everything by 11am!

Quiren Martine started a 2-year internship at the UNM’s Cancer Center, profiling health risks in rural communities in New Mexico. He

presented his research in front of a panel of professionals at the end of the summer and it was very impressive! He also did Simon

Scholar retreats at UNM for a week in and in Glorieta, NM in August.

Aaron Lee graduated from (MS)2, or MS Squared, after 3 years at the math and science program at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massa-

chusetts. He has been accepted to Dartmouth University’s Fly In Program

Sonny Olguin, Lizzy Grey and Demitrius Payne attended a Simon Scholar retreat at UNM at the beginning of the summer, staying in

the dorms and taking an ACT prep class. They attended another Simon Scholars retreat in Glorieta, NM at the end of the summer. Son-

ny also went to College Horizons at Bowdoin College in Maine, and Lizzy worked at Explora Children’s Museum. In addition to his Simon

retreats, Demitrius received an internship at the Mesita Computer Lab through the Leadership Institute at Santa Fe Indian School, and

he was in the Notah Begay III Foundation Golf Program.

Simone Frazier participated in the Voces Writing Program at the National Hispanic Cultural Center and had some of her work published

in an anthology.

Congratulations to all of our students for a job well done!

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October 2015 5th—Morning Circle

13th—Washington, DC Mtg, 5:30pm-Main Campus

14th—NACA Literacy Night 5:30pm,-Main Campus

15th—End of Q1

16th—NACA Celebration/Feast Day

12th-16-NACA Book Fair Rm 218, Main Campus

21st—NACA Pageant-6pm-Main Campus

24th—NACA Sell Off 9am-Main Campus

30th—Halloween Dance 4:15 Main Campus

NACA

Student Voice

“I recently had the honor of speaking at the

First Annual Southwest Intertribal Agricul-

ture Council conference. I was asked to speak

about the Youth Leadership Summit I have

attended for the past two years in Fayette-

ville, Arkansas.. Along with two others, we

ended the conference by speaking about

what we learned at the Summit. As a student

fellow, I spoke about a mentorship program

for youth involved in agriculture that I am

starting along with the others student fellows

from the program. In order to become stu-

dent fellows we had to write a proposal for a

project that we could start in our community

and model all throughout Indian Country.

While in Arkansas the student fellows picked

one proposal to focus on for the year, which

was my proposal. I was able to speak to my

good friends at the Intertribal Agriculture

Council to gain their support in starting my

mentorship program.” -Senior Lena Sanchez

Hands In The Water Mural created by NACA Art Students This mural was created to raise awareness about the toxic waste spill in the Ani-mas River in Colorado and how we are all connected to the water, how im-portant and sacred it is to all of us. We are calling out the EPA to make every effort to clean up this river now, and we pray for the cleansing and healing of the rivers, streams, lakes and all living things that have been impacted by this toxic waste from mining.