Ganado High’s Davis earns large scholarship

BURNSIDE, Ariz.

Ganado High School senior Nizhonabah Davis faced a new reality when she first moved to the Navajo Nation and she faces a new adventure when she heads for China on scholarship next year.

The Flinn Foundation in Phoenix awarded the 2017 Flinn Scholarship to Davis and 19 other Arizona students in April.

Born in Winslow, she moved to Flagstaff at age four with her mother. She said that transition kept her in a similar reality.

When she moved to Burnside as a fourth-grader, the change was much different.

“I had to start chopping wood in the winter and taking care of my grandfather,” she said. “And even getting groceries is an hour drive. I was used to just walking around the corner.”
She paid attention to the details of her life on the Navajo Nation like chopping wood, cooking for her grandparents and walking to school.
 
She said her science teacher, Norm Geiger, inspired her to focus on a specific field, which she began to think of in terms of the little details like her walk to school.

“Even when you walk, there’s Newton’s law of motion within your feet,” Davis said.

As she put her mind toward the future, as either a doctor or an engineer, she began to see the study of physics as a possible bedrock to her education and then her career.

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