Using Stories to Teach

Abstract

S P R I N G & F A L L 2 0 2 0 W I C A Z O S A R E V I E W I grew up on the Navajo reservation during the 1980s and 1990s. I attended a public school in a small rural community and graduated with about sixty other students. I left my home in Querino Canyon, Arizona, two weeks after graduation to attend a summer bridge program at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. This program was designed to integrate students of color successfully into colleges and universities. Students selected for this program were also firstgeneration college students or students from lowincome backgrounds. This program helped me to integrate successfully because they were intrusive and continued their support into my second year of college. I credit this program for my success as an undergraduate student because they provided the resources and support that I needed to acculturate and operate in a new academic environment. I faced challenges and setbacks as a college student; but I did not allow these to deter my decision to complete degrees, including a doctoral degree in English. Along the way, I found that many educators and administrators at colleges and universities were available and supportive when it came to acculturating students to the academic environment; however, I also learned that many of them lacked understanding about Native Americans and our cultures. During my time as a graduate assistant instructor at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, I was categorized by faculty and graduate students on separate occasions as “quiet,” “introverted,” or “silent.” They would also usually follow their remarks with a comment Using Stories to Teach