Education

That is how over a hundred Diné students greeted their relatives at the Chief Manuelito Scholarship Award Ceremony while nervously preparing to step into a new educational journey.

A Navajo student from Highland High School created new history recently by graduating as the school’s first Native American valedictorian. In addition, she is also the first Dine woman to earn that achievement in the entire Salt Lake City School District.

Emma Katherine Curtright, 17, a junior at Monument Valley High School, was one of two high school students selected to represent the state of Arizona, along with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, at the 61st Annual United States Senate Youth Program Conference in Wááshindoon earlier this month.

In February, five members of Kayenta’s Student Cultural Advisory Committee and two of their teachers were offered the chance to fly to Washington, D.C., and learn of modern tribal leadership via the National Congress of American Indians.