Embrey Fellows
TSAILE, AZ- Students, Devalynn Growler (Shiprock), Tashina Barney (Kinlichee), and Anna Shepard (Chilchinbeto) are out to make positive changes at Diné College and in their communities.
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Laura McClenny, SBS Chair, Tashina Barney, Anna Shepherd, Dr. Miranda Haskie, and Devalynn Growler |
All three students were selected to be Embrey Fellows last fall and were tasked with finding creative ways of motivating change in their communities. The purpose of the Embrey program is to strengthen leadership skills of Native American women while promoting education. As fellows, the three Diné College students will invest two years to their project, which began last October. Their fellowship will continue through the summer with research projects and classroom assignments led by their primary faculty mentor, Dr. Miranda Haskie. They also receive support from their secondary faculty mentor, Laura McClenny, Chair of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Most recently, the students completed the first set of posters that follow the Positive Community Norms framework. They plan to create 17 posters during their fellowship. The idea behind the poster project is to affect change by identifying community concerns and sources of community hope.
Brainstorming session generated side-by-side lists that look at sources of Hope and juxtapose them with matching Concerns. The students then create a Photo Voice where the Hopes and Concerns are visually depicted through photographs. The top two photos from each of the chosen Hopes and Concerns are then pilot tested to ensure they elicit the appropriate emotion or response. From there the students create posters that create a change in thinking, and ultimately "doing" using a positive approach. Dr. Haskie notes, "In the medical and social work fields, the use of fear and scare tactics is so prevalent." This project aims to turn that around by using positive messages as a way to remind people of what is good about our traditions, our culture and about living right.
As the posters are created, they will be hung in and around the community. The students will have a poster show later this fall on campus to display all of the posters created.
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