Three New Students Add to IAIA’s Diversity: An Interview Snapshot

BY SERGIO RIVERA

There is a diversity of students on the IAIA campus ranging from international student to Native and non-Natives.   According to the Admissions, Enrollment and Recruitment office, 42 freshmen and 24 transfer students started this fall. A total of 344 students are enrolled.

Eighty-three federal tribes are represented. Four students are from countries outside of the U.S.; 28 states are represented.

Snapshots

Three new students show the diversity of the IAIA student body.

Gina Lee is a Korean student majoring in studio arts. She said IAIA has a very supportive faculty. She has always wanted to learn the history of Native Americans and live among them.

Gina Lee.  Photo by Sergio Rivera
Gina Lee. Photo by Sergio Rivera

Nami Okuzono, another first year student, is also majoring in studio arts. “It was always my dream to be here,” she said.  She wants to learn how to make Native American jewelry. “I am so happy to be here at a Native American school and not a Christian school where it was more based on ‘I’.”  She said IAIA is more based on ” ‘we’, being together.”

Nami Okuzono.  Photo by Sergio Rivera
Nami Okuzono. Photo by Sergio Rivera

Carolyn Taylor transferred from Phoenix Community College. She is working towards a bachelors in Fine arts and minoring in art history. “It is very different here from the school I transferred from. IAIA has more of a Native-based curriculum.” She is Hopi from the state of Arizona.

Carolyn Taylor .  Photo by Sergio Rivera
Carolyn Taylor . Photo by Sergio Rivera

(Featured Photo:  IAIA Entering Students, Fall 2013.  Photo by Wallace Ashley.)

Copyright © IAIA Chronicle  2013

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