It is another great year for AKA and summer internships with tribes throughout Montana and Wyoming. This summer AKA welcomes Shaylee Lone Dog at Eastern Shoshone, Karly Matt and Aryn Fisher at Northern Cheyenne, and Sky Johnston at Fort Peck. AKA believes in community-engaged evaluation and building the research and evaluation capacity of tribal youth. Read on to learn more about the amazing interns that make up the AKA Summer 2018 team.
SKY JOHNSTON
My name is Sky Johnston; I am 17 years old. I am currently raised by my grandmother Carol Welch, we live in Wolf Point, MT. I didn’t have my parents to look after me, my mom left me in 2012 she moved to Billings, MT. My father passed away before I was born. I will be a senior starting the 2018-2019 school year where I will attend Wolf Point Junior-Senior High School in Wolf Point, MT. Since my freshman year, I have played volleyball and basketball. The summer of my sophomore year I attended the Harvard Medical Program for three weeks in Boston, MA. I enjoyed the program and realized that when I go to college I would like to study medicine. I have been a member of the Wolf Point High School Indian Club aka Shunk Togeja Oyadabi (Wolf People) since my freshman year. Wolf People has given me a lot of opportunities to explore “the world” and learn about our culture. If I wasn’t a part of Wolf People, I would have experienced western Montana where we annually go to Missoula’s or Bozeman’s Wacipi. We have to raise money throughout the school year to be able to attend our choice Wacipi. I will forever remember the one year we went to the Denver March Wacipi. I am also a recent member of the Fort Peck Tribes Nakona Dakota Oyate Youth Council (NDO). NDO does a lot of youth leadership activities on our reservation.
I learned about this internship through Carrie Manning who is also our Wolf People advisor at WPHS. Carrie has been my sister's adult mentor and my adult mentor since Junior High School. I look forward to learning how to do evaluations for the events this summer. Thank you for the opportunity.
ARYN FISHER
Hi, my name is Aryn Fisher! I am a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana. I recently graduated from Montana State University with my Bachelor of Science in Community Health. I have worked for Allyson Kelley for going on 4 summers now! I am super passionate about evaluation work and I plan to get my master's in Epidemiology. In August I will be moving to New Zealand for 9 months and traveling to other countries while there!