At her post deep in the Rocky Mountains, Kelli Lewis (Environmental Studies, ‘15), a ranger for Colorado Parks & Wildlife, patrols Eleven Mile State Park on a pair of ice skates. With a patrol area of 3,400 acres, Lewis dashes across frozen reservoirs to greet anglers and campers alike.
Venaya Yazzie (English, ‘2000), a citizen of the Navajo Nation, is the host of the Native Voices radio show on San Juan College’s KSJE-FM. Yazzie, an artist herself, interviews Indigenous artists and unpacks the issues those professionals face.
As the American Southwest experiences its worst drought in 1,000 years, local farmers and participants in the Farmer-in-Training program at the Old Fort at Hesperus are adapting their agricultural practices. By choosing water-wise crops, these new farmers are getting creative to make their agronomy aspirations viable in a hotter, drier future.
Paddy Hobohm (Business Administration, ‘07) became owner and president of SPACE, Inc., a commercial interior design firm employing two dozen people. Hobohm said SPACE, Inc. is “highly focused on sustainability, disruptive innovation, and relentless creativity.”
The Stories We Wear, an exhibition curated with the help of the Center of Southwest Studies, opened on November 30. The installation honors Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives. To complete the project, 31 dedicated student contributors attended multiple workshops throughout the semester. The exhibition is now housed at Reed Library for public viewing.
Three exhibits continued the spirit of November’s Native American Heritage Month: As Seeds, We Grow: Student Reflections on Resilience, Roots of Wisdom: Native Knowledge, Shared Science, and the Art Gallery at FLC’s Native American Artist in Residence installation. Two installations are housed at FLC and one at the Powerhouse Science Center.
Durango Theatreworks staged A Christmas Carol: A Radio Play for a limited one-weekend run. Directed by Michael McKelvey, assistant professor of Musical Theatre, the fast-moving adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic by Nathan Jerkins was set in the 1940s as a radio show with a narrator, multiple actors, an applause meter, and a wonderful foley effects team.