NASAI 2025: Storytelling for Success

The 2025 Native American Student Advocacy Institute conference brought together hundreds of educators, advocates, and tribal education leaders for an inspiring three-day experience that focused on addressing the educational challenges facing Native students. Hosted annually by College Board, NASAI seeks to galvanize and build national networks to enhance the academic performance of Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students and to close the educational opportunity gap.

The nationally recognized event, now in its 18th year, featured powerful storytelling about the importance of understanding the role culture plays in driving educational success for Indigenous students, as well as innovative strategies that have transformed student outcomes.

The conference opened on Wednesday, June 4, with a powerful presentation by visual storyteller Matika Wilbur. A photojournalist and a member of the Tulalip and Swinomish tribes, Wilbur is best known for her Project 562. For this project, she spent over five years traveling and visiting more than 500 tribal communities to collect images of Native people. “Our students have to see themselves as they are and not as others would depict them,” Wilbur told the audience gathered in downtown Seattle. “When they see their culture and people, they recognize something new about themselves and their potential.”

NASAI also featured workshops and sessions such as incorporating Native traditions into standard coursework, helping students successfully make the transition from tribal colleges to predominantly White institutions, and supporting students’ mental health and wellness.

Writer and educator Angeline Boulley shared her 36-year journey to bring her New York Times bestseller young-adult book Firekeeper’s Daughter to fruition. The novel, which centers on the experience of a Native young woman in Michigan, reflects Boulley’s own Ojibwe upbringing. She said there’s a need for more Native authors to tell their own stories, but she encouraged all teachers to engage with books like hers. “We need more Native teachers who are comfortable engaging students with our culture, but we also need resources for non-Native teachers to incorporate accurate and relevant portrayals of the culture,” Boulley said. “Erasure is just as damaging as misinformation.”

The conference concluded with the presentation of the Dr. Henrietta Mann Leadership Award. This award is presented to Native individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment to Native students. They’ve advanced Indigenous communities and fostered the development of future leaders. The award also pays tribute to legendary Native educator Henrietta Mann, one of the designers of the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Montana, and Haskell Indian Nations University's Native American studies programs.

The 2025 recipient is Dr. Patricia "Patsy" Whitefoot, Yakama Elder and renowned educator. Dr. Whitefoot's extensive experience in Indian education includes roles as superintendent, principal, consultant, counselor, teacher, and activist for missing and murdered Indigenous people. For Whitefoot, education is the key to making change for the lives of Native students. “It takes constant education with one another, with non-Native and Native populations, to make change,” she said.

Throughout the event, NASAI served as platform for educators and advocates to exchange proven strategies, collaborate on new solutions, and address the unique educational and cultural needs of Native communities. It’s also a family reunion.

“This is our opportunity to come together reconnect and recharge our spirits in service our young people and our communities,” said NASAI co-chair Amanda Cheromiah, executive director of the Center for the Futures of Native Peoples at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa.  “Our collective work has never been more important for our students.”

To learn more about NASAI, visit www.collegeboard.org.