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Two weeks is over. I cannot express my appreciation for this opportunity. It was an honor being here and experiencing this program.  I feel I have gained an understanding of how I can apply my culture in a higher level of education. I have shared and heard many stories that I will keep close to my heart. I have learned a lesson to always value my culture it is what keeps me grounded. I feel so grateful for being here this year. The college course we have almost everyday have made me feel confident in myself to apply to college. I just want to thank Scott and everyone in the program for giving me this opportunity. I am so thankful.

Thank you,

MADDIE

During this program, I was not comfortable with being in a group because I didn’t know anybody. Going further into the program, I made certain connections with students and teachers. This made me more comfortable with them and motivated me to wake up every morning. The schedules were always so intense and kept me with exhaustion. Even though we got little free time, I still think it was a good learning experience. My favorite part was going to Wishtoyo and Limuw because it felt so natural. I had this white shirt that smelled so dank. I wore it because I didn’t care and felt free. I really liked making the declaration because I felt empowered. We didn’t finish, but we will continue to work on it. I believe that Wishotyo and Limuw. I appreciate all the mentors for keeping us safe and getting us to bed so early. I wanted to thank Scott for putting this program together. I hope I come next year.

Before I came to this program I was expecting just to come to Pitzer and learn about a little about native culture. I did not expect to evolve my understandings in native traditions, thinkings, language, and to especially learn alot more about problems within native communities. The first time I saw everyone here at this program I was pretty sure a few of them were really annoying and I would not want to talk to them. Now I am really close friends with them all and am even getting them on social media to keep in touch for long times to come. During this program we got into deep conversations which we all need to work on spreading what we learned with others. I was able to get stronger in my writing and feel more comfortable about applying to college. I will not forget traveling to Limuw island and hiking to the beach. I will also remember the run I shared with my friends through the island and even teaming up to form a power house team in Pool. Im going to be using alot of my new knowledge throughout my life. I learned to open up more through our theater classes and enjoyed myself through everything we did. Autobots roll out. 

This is the last night of the Pipeline program from the year of 2016. The past two weeks have been quite the experience. It’s definitely been the most emotional by far, but that isn’t a bad thing. It brought us closer than ever. Some of us at least. I’m so glad I was able to bring my sister Agnes here and hopefully we’ll both return next to cause more Chumash havoc.

The overall experience was good and it was nothing like I thought it would be due to theft I thought I wasn’t going to know anybody. Claro my roommate and I got along. The whole experience was spiritual and I got to find myself and find positive and negative assets that I have. I got to make different crafts that I really like and I will give some away to my family members so they will know where our heritage comes from.

This whole program was so much fun and different from last year and the years before. I enjoyed these past 2 weeks with all the new people. I love learning more about college because I can’t just apply to a college without figuring out what other attachments are needed. Wishtoyo has helped me become more open to being who I really am. To start to communicate more with my peers.

I am excited to see the performance we are planning to do at grad. Thank you to the mentors and the amazing staff that helped me out throughout this program.

This was my second year doing the program and it was yet another year of amazing memories. I learned so much about scholarships that I didn’t know before. With this new knowledge, I feel more prepared for college and it’s a little bit less scary. I’m very thankful for this program, it makes me motivated to go to college and most importantly prepares me for a bright future. Tomorrow will be hard to leave all my close friends and all my new friends. During the program we all become so close and it’s always hard saying good bye. To close, I’d like to thank everyone who puts the program together, the elders who give us their time, and the students who participate in the program and make it complete. Thank you for another great summer!

I loved all the activities and ceremonies we had this year. So thankful for all the elders and all the people that are involved in the program. My second home is Wishtoyo and I am going to miss it so much. I hope I can come next year, for my senior year. Happy to go home, but also sad.

I don’t want to write to much because I might get emotional, going to miss scott, and all the mentors. I became really close to some of the other students, and I am truly grateful for them. Hope graduation goes well, and I want to pray that everyone has safe travels home.

The first week of the program I had a lot of interacting with my peers. I had a lot of fun with the mentors and I had a very good experience. One day in theatre we made a little alter and everyone put something on the alter and shared a story about what they put on the alter, after that some people got emotional (which I get) but as the program went on it seemed like everyday some one new would get emotional. I think that in the mornings as we got up really early to go play traditional games with hector it would give us energy as the day started. After the first week we traveled to Wishtoyo. Then went to Limu island for a few days, while the wifi barely worked I felt like i was able to bond with other people other than the people I already knew. I felt like we got closer after we weren’t in any dorms and had to be out with others Wishtoyo. Overall the program was really fun and for some reason I thought there would be more activities, I had really fun in all the classes but my favorite had to be blogging. Gina is so fun and taught me blogging is really fun. thank you Scott for giving me the opportunity to be apart of this program.

So today was my last day at the Pitzer native youth 2 college program, overall I had really fun at this program. I really benefited from all the college classes and learned so many new things. I made so many connections that will last even longer than just this program, not only with students but also with my mentors. I learned so much from these mentors and I just want to thank Scott and everyone in the program for giving me this opportunity to participate here. My favorite part of the program was having fun with everyone and learning at wishtoyo