Diné professionals fill Lukachukai school gym for career day
Navajo Times | Krista Allen
Officers with the Chinle Police District speak to students during a career day event at Lukachukai Community School on April 30, 2026, in Lukachukai, Ariz.
LUKACHUKAI, Ariz.
Principal Carmen Jodie watched students move through the Lukachukai Community School gymnasium Thursday, April 30, as Diné professionals from the area set up tables for a career day that academic counselor Arlinda Betone started two years ago to answer a problem the school’s leaders have watched for years.
Too many of their students leave.
“A lot of them end up in the cities rather than here. They kind of start their lives out there,” Jodie said.
Career day at the K-8 school is Betone’s response to that pattern. She invited Navajo Nation Police officers, Navajo Nation Fire and Rescue crews, Speaker Crystalyne Curley and her staff, the Navajo Interagency Hotshot crew, the Navajo Times, among other professionals. Students moved table to table getting a look at the people keeping their own communities running.
Betone, who is in her fourth year at the school, said she launched career day to widen what young students think is possible.
“Just to allow our students to think beyond the box,” Betone said. “To be able to meet people from different professions, especially Native people who hold positions that are willing to share their experience with their younger people.”
Betone said reaching the youngest students was the point.
To read the full article, please see the May 21, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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