Samantha is a busy sophomore attending college in Arizona and studying Global Health.

Samantha is one of 194 undergraduate students awarded the AIEF Program’s Scholarship for the 2011-2012 academic year. She is also one of many award recipients that submitted letters of appreciation to the AIEF team of donors, committee members, and staff.

In her letter, Samantha shared, “My interest in global/public health was inspired by my home native community (Navajo) and other native communities I worked with during my break from classes. It occurred to me that this was the best path to take if I really wanted to make a positive impact in Native America. It is widely agreed that money takes you places, but your financial support in my educational pursuit has done more than take me to class. The opportunity to gain a degree and pursue my desires in helping others and create a better world is priceless.”

When she is not studying, Samantha enjoys hiking, cooking new dishes, dancing, babysitting, gardening, and reconnecting with family and friends. Her letter concluded with, “I thank you for your kind support. It is with this kind of collaborative efforts that we can continue to work towards a common good and a better future for native communities. I look forward to being the support for future generations as you have been to me and working to further enhance the efforts of countless before me, and hopefully, countless after me.”

Although we accept applications and award applicants from tribes and reservations all over the country, we choose to focus on certain reservations that have been identified and considered to be the most impoverished or have the least access to additional resources - the Navajo Reservation is one of these. Samantha also represents a couple of other groups with her fellow scholarship awardees…

Other statistics from this year’s scholarship winners…