Thursday: Today we visited Cal Poly Pomona (yay!) Dr. Dixon gave us a tour of the campus and Irv Harrison of the Native Center treated us to a nice lunch. I love the campus- its full of living things like cows, horses, ducks, and turtles. I just graduated from there in  June so it was like going back home, I really grew a lot while attending school so being back there brought many good memories back. Dr. Walton showed us chemistry can be fun and exciting- showing us how to turn pennies into  gold and silver. We then took a look at the Native garden near the bio-trek, i love the natural plants- the smell is soothing. After that we walked to the Native Center- a place I practically lived in the last year of school. Mr. Harrison has made some amazing changes and it was good to see a friendly face (Manny)! Then we were off once again this time to drive over to the farm store where Nick and Alex made sure to extol the virtues of Cal Poly’s orange juice. After dinner we relaxed and watch one of my favorite Native films- Smoke Signals based on some short stories titled The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie. I always love the way the movie allows people to see some of the stereotypes placed on Natives . As we draw near the end of our two weeks together I am beginning to reflect not only on what i and the students have learned from the lessons but also the things we have shared and taught each other.

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Published by msbecca75

Hello my name is Rebecca Sinclair-Curtis; I have just graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Gender, Ethnic, and Multicultural Studies (GEMS) with an emphasis in women’s studies. I am a mix of both European and Native ancestry- German and Irish on my mom’s side and Apache,Cherokee, Spanish, Indigenous and my dad’s side. I am married and have one son, Timothy age 11- we also have 4 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 birds. Being both Native and white has influenced my desire to learn more about all my cultures and help educate society about the need for preservation of Native peoples and culture. Getting my degree has been a long journey and I am very excited to have achieved that goal- I am the first in my family to receive a bachelor’s degree. I plan to take a year off while exploring graduate schools and programs, I would like to continue my involvement with the Native American community.

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