NAISA Conference in New Zealand

Since I was a child, I have always enjoyed learning and researching. I remember at one point in my life when I was asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, I said  “I want to be a professional student”.   
As a graduate student I feel that I am well on my way to becoming a professional student, as I am always learning and challenging the institutions in which I set foot in. The more I take up space in the classroom and in academia, the more I realize how necessary and silenced voices like mine have been throughout the history of this country and the world.
Last year I was selected to speak at my first major national conference at NAISA 2018 in Los Angeles. However, being a speaker sometimes doesn’t allow you the time to explore too much of the conference itself.   This year at the end of June NAISA 2019 will be held in New Zealand and it is with a humble heart and the spirit of service that I am reaching out to my family and community to help me pursue my lifelong mission to continue to learn and research ways to develop leadership, advocacy and activism in academia as a Xicana Indigenous Scholar. 
As I get closer to graduating from Our Lady of the Lake with a Masters of Science  in Organizational Leadership, my next steps are to  network within this conference with the hopes of identifying a PhD program that will provide me with the fellowship and/or funding to continue being a “professional student” and continue working towards my calling to learn and to uplift the voices of my people in spaces that we are oftentimes denied or are setup to be inaccessible to us. 
 So it is with great humility and in the spirit of service, that I invite you to support me on this journey to New Zealand in order to build and learn from other Indigenous scholars. Tlazocamati for reading and thanks for being a part of my support system! I am so grateful for being a part of a loving and supportive community!