Four EBCI college students who are Fellows in the Jones-Bowman Leadership Program and two invited EBCI guests participated in NC State’s 23rd annual Powwow in Raleigh on April 6.
Jones-Bowman Fellows Joey Owle, Dakota Brown and Kelsey Standingdeer are shown at the 23rd annual NC State Powwow. Standingdeer helped organize the event.(CPF photo)
Kelsey Standingdeer, a third-year Jones-Bowman Fellow and graduate student at NC State, was a coordinator for the powwow, whose theme was Uniting Together, to Change for the Better. In keeping with the theme, she recruited two head dancers from Cherokee, Josh Trejo and Dakota Brown, another Jones-Bowman Fellow who is in the program for the first time.
Standingdeer also invited Miss Cherokee 2012 Karyl Frankieweicz to represent the EBCI, and enabled Joey Owle, also a third year fellow and graduate student at NC State, and other members of the Walelu stickball team to receive powwow funds so they could travel to Raleigh to perform exhibition games. This is the second year the team has participated in the event.
Second-year Jones-Bowman Fellow Savannah Hicks travelled with the Native American Student Association (NASA) from the University of Tennessee (UT) to participate in the powwow. The NC State event inspired her to organize a similar event at UT next year. “I want our native group to stand out from all of the other student groups at UT and for my tribe to be proud of the work we are doing at UT,” said Hicks.
On her experience as powwow coordinator, Standingdeer said, “We have had such wonderful feedback on the powwow and the stickball game. We had many new faces at the NC State Powwow, and it was great to see Cherokee represented here so well. I want to thank everyone from Cherokee who came out to show their support for the students at NC State.”
The Jones-Bowman Leadership Award Program makes financial awards to undergraduate college students committed to developing their leadership skills. The program honors the memory and leadership of Principal Chief Leon Jones and James Bowman, who were founding members of the Board of Directors of Cherokee Preservation Foundation. Each year they participate in the program, Jones-Bowman Fellows receive funding of approximately $4,000 for individual leadership learning plans they develop with their mentor.
Nominations are now being sought for the 2013/14 program; the deadline is May 6. For more information, visit https://www.cpfdn.org/jonesbowman.html.
– Cherokee Preservation Foundation
