NATIVE NATIONS INSTITUTE HOSTS

YOUTH LEADERSHIP CAMPS

The Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy hosted its annual youth leadership camps this summer in Tucson. On June 23, 24 Native students from 11 Native nations gathered in Tucson for NNI's second annual Native American Youth Governance Camp.

The three-day camp, held on the University of Arizona campus, drew mostly high school students from as close by as the Tohono O’odham Nation, a few miles west of Tucson, and as far away as the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and the Siksika Nation in Alberta. The intensive, three-day Governance Camp is designed to build the knowledge and skills of future leaders of Native nations. Among other techniques, it uses real-world, Indian Country teaching cases that put students in the roles of tribal executives and legislators wrestling with policy issues ranging from justice dilemmas to the allocation of enterprise revenues.

The Governance Camp was only the first half of NNI’s summer youth program. On July 19, more students arrived in Tucson for the 13th Native American Youth Entrepreneur Camp. This six-day camp, also held on the U of A campus, not only encourages reservation high school students to consider business careers in their communities but takes them through the nuts and bolts of small business development, strategies for overcoming business challenges in Indian Country, and the keys to cultivating and sustaining business success. It concludes with a Business Plan Showcase competition among the students, each of whom has spent the week developing business plans. This year's camp drew students from New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, Arizona, California, and Quebec.

Both camps combine Native Nations Institute faculty with outside speakers, including tribal leaders and Indian Country entrepreneurs. This summer Ellen Thrasher, director of the Office of Entrepreneurship Education, U.S. Small Business Administration, was one of the speakers at the Youth Entrepreneur Camp. Another speaker was Jesika Garrett from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Garrett, still in high school, was the third place winner in the Business Plan Showcase at the 2008 Youth Entrepreneur Camp. In the year since then, Jesika not only implemented her business plan—a vehicle detailing operation—but won a cash award in the student competition in the 2009 South Dakota Governor's Giant Vision Business Competition.

For additional information about the Native Nations Institute, please contact Steve Cornell at scornell@u.arizona.edu.