Diné student earns associate degree, salutatorian honors in same week
Submitted | Ranielle Ramirez
Maudicel Chavez
WINDOW ROCK
Maudicel Chavez, the great-granddaughter of Big Mountain matriarch Katherine Smith, will graduate as salutatorian of Odessa Career & Technical Early College High School on May 15, one week after she walked the stage with an associate degree in criminal justice from Odessa College.
Chavez is Táchii’nii and born for Mą’ii Deeshgiizhnii. Her maternal grandfather is Tábąąhá and her paternal grandfather is Naakaii Dine’é.
To read the full article, please see the May 14, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow