Workshop leader:

1. 2022-24: Cinnamon Spear
   1.  Cinnamon Spear is a Northern Cheyenne artist, documentary filmmaker, speaker, educator, and author of Maria Tallchief: Woman of Two Worlds, Go Dance!, and a forthcoming book. Cinnamon owns and operates Northside Advocacy LLC and is currently working on several projects aimed at supporting Indigenous youth and mental/emotional wellbeing.

Learning goals/ objectives:

• Introduce meditation and mindful reading techniques to process academic stressors
• Learn how writing can be used as a tool to help heal ourselves and our communities
• Offer tips for self-care, self-love, and for building confidence in your storytelling voice
• Reclaiming narratives (focusing on body and heart in academia) 
• Practice writing “six word stories” to convey and process emotions and our own stories

Workshop leaders: 

1. 2022-23: Duncan McCue & Kalen Good Luck
   1. Duncan McCue is an award-winning Anishinaabe television and radio journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. McCue’s Decolonizing Journalism: A Guide to Reporting in Indigenous Communities is the only text in Canada that teaches aspiring journalists how to build respectful, reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities when researching and sharing their stories. 
   2. Kalen Goodluck is a Diné, Mandan, Hidatsa and Tsimshian journalist and photographer currently based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His reporting has been in The New York Times, High Country News, Pulitzer Center, National Geographic - Travel, Mother Jones, WIRED, NBC News, KCET, Off Assignment,  Bklyner, and Indian Country Today Media Network.
2. 2023-24, 2024-25: Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso
   1. Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso (she/her) is a multi-talented, award-winning Diné filmmaker and storyteller hailing from the Navajo Nation. Ivey's passion for filmmaking led her to further hone her craft with a full scholarship to the esteemed Idyllwild Arts Academy in California. After gaining valuable experience and knowledge, she returned to her roots on the Navajo Nation, determined to contribute meaningfully to her community through the medium of film. At the age of 19, she embarked on the ambitious journey of creating her debut feature, "Powerlands," which, true to her form, resonated with audiences worldwide and garnered numerous festival accolades, including the 2022 Rigoberta Menchú Grand Prize.

Learning goals/ objectives:

• Learn strategies for crafting a compelling narrative in journalism/ photojournalism 
• Learn tips for contacting media platforms and pitching story ideas to editors/ media outlets
• Learn strategies for initial stages of story development, including identifying medium, plot, and key “characters”
• Practice writing and presenting an effective story pitch

Workshop leaders:

1. 2022-23: Valerie Vande Panne & Frank Sesno
   1. Valerie Vande Panne is the Managing Editor of Native News Online - an Indigenous-focused news publication founded in 2011 by Levi Rickert, a tribal citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. Vande Panne’s award-winning stories have appeared in Bloomberg, Columbia Journalism Review, The Guardian, Harvard Law Today, Politico, and Salon, among many other publications. 
   2. Frank Sesno is a non-Indigenous political analyst, author, moderator, Emmy-award winning journalist, former CNN White House correspondent, and Director of Strategic Initiatives at the George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs. Sesno also published the book Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change and teaches a university class on “The Art of the Interview.”
2. 2023-24: Frank Sesno & Sheena Roetmen
   1. Sheena Louise Roetman (she/her),  is Lakota and Muscogee currently hailing from Atlanta, Georgia. She is a multifaceted writer and editor with a wealth of experience in communication and journalism. She received her Bachelor's degree in Journalism from Georgia State University, where she also pursued an English minor and specialized in American Indian Media and advocacy journalism. Currently serving as the Education Manager for the Indigenous Journalists Association (formerly known as the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA), Sheena wears many hats in her role. She manages and supports various Native American Journalism Fellowship, scholarship, and Indigenous Voice Fund programs, working closely with committees, program participants, and volunteers
3. 2024-25: Frank Sesno & Jarrette Werk
   1. Frank Sesno is a non-Indigenous political analyst, author, moderator, Emmy-award winning journalist, former CNN White House correspondent, and Director of Strategic Initiatives at the George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs. Sesno also published the book Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change and teaches a university class on “The Art of the Interview.”
   2. Jarrette Werk is an award winning multimedia journalist with experience in digital news, audio reporting and photojournalism. He joined Underscore News in June 2022 as a staff reporter and photographer, in partnership with the national Report for America program. Originally from Montana, Jarrette is a proud citizen of the Aaniiih and Nakoda Nations of the Fort Belknap Indian Community. Prior to joining Underscore, he served as an associate producer for Nevada Public Radio’s (KNPR) “Native Nevada Podcast,” an eight-part podcast series highlighting the culture, issues and perseverance of the 27 tribal nations in present-day Nevada. He is also the photographer and associate producer for “Remaining Native” a coming-of-age documentary that follows Ku Stevens as he runs to remember and raise awareness of Indian Residential Board School survivors. Jarrette has been a member of the Native American Journalists Association since 2017 and has participated as a Native American Journalist Fellow four times, including once as a mentor-in-training. He has earned a national Hearst Journalism Award, a regional Edward R. Murrow Award, Society of Professional Journalists awards, and numerous National Native American Media awards for his reporting. 

Learning goals/ objectives:

• Learn techniques for conducting a successful interview, including finding the "right" person/ people to speak with about your topic
• Learn how to craft/ ask compelling questions and create a comfortable environment for interviewees
• Learn note-taking techniques to better capture the essence of a conversation
• Discuss how to conduct respectful, reciprocal interviews when speaking with Indigenous elders, government officials, and knowledge-holders in ways that protect culturally sensitive knowledge 
• Understand the differences between different interview types (i.e., celebratory interviews, investigative interviews, etc.) and how to prepare for them
• Learn techniques for accurately portraying an interviewee's voice and essence when writing a story

Workshop leaders:

1. 2022-23: Chelsey Luger & Tanaya Winder
   1.  Chelsey Luger is a Lakota and Anishinaabe writer and wellness advocate, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, and a descendant of the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux Tribes. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism where she concentrated in broadcast and digital media, Luger’s writing and multimedia pieces have been published in the Atlantic, the Huffington Post, Well + Good, NowThis News, Indian Country Today, among other outlets. 
   2. Tanaya Winder is an enrolled member of the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe and an award-winning poet, writer, singer-songwriter, artist and educator. Winder co-founded the Sing Our Rivers Red traveling earring exhibit to raise awareness about murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, and her poems from “Love in a Time of Blood Quantum” were produced and performed by the Poetic Theater Productions Presents Company in NYC. Winder guest lectures and teaches creative writing workshops at high schools and universities internationally.
2. 2023-24: Supaman
   1. As a member of the Apsáalooke Nation, Supaman (Christian Takes Gun Parrish, he/him) makes his home on Apsáalooke lands in Montana. Supaman is a dancer and innovative hip hop artist who has dedicated his life to empowering and spreading a message of hope, pride and resilience through his art. He has been the recipient of the 2017 MTV VMA award for “Best Fight Against the System”! He is also a Nammy “Native American Music Award” winner, a North American Indigenous Image Award winner, and a 7 “Tunney Award winner.” He was awarded  The Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award in Canada for best video and was also voted MTV’s new Artist of the Week. His nominations brought him home awards for Best Hip Hop Album and Best Producer for the Indigenous Music Awards. His videos have received millions of views across YouTube and Facebook, which has helped put him in high demand for touring extensively throughout the US and internationally. He has performed for Google at the Google headquarters in San Francisco and was recently asked to audition for America’s Got Talent and the Broadway play Hamilton. He is currently on tour around the country spreading messages of resiliency, love, laughter and inclusion.

Learning goals/ objectives:

• Learn about the diverse ways Indigenous communicators tell stories about their communities and the land
• Experience different forms of storytelling - including poetry, song, and visual artwork
• Inspire students to use forms of communication beyond writing, or to integrate different mediums into their communication work
• Acquire a new multimedia technique and/or tool to help with storytelling 
• Learn how to manage writer's block and how to begin a story through podcast, poem, etc. using drawing boards to map out a story

Workshop leaders: 

1. 2022-23: Kirsten Nagle
   1. Kirsten Nagel is a Senior Customer Success Manager at Adobe with over 7 years experience developing integrated digital media and helping university students tell compelling narratives. In this workshop, Kirsten taught participants how to create dynamic web pages, videos, and infographics using Adobe Express.
2. 2023-24: 'Wáats'asdiyei (Joe Yates) & Jeremy Dennis
   1. 'Wáats'asdiyei (Joe Yates; he/him), is an award-winning Haida writer, director, film producer, and owner of Alaskan Films, LLC. from Craig, AK. 'Wáats'asdiyei is a member of the Yawk'laanaas Tribe who comes from Brown Bear House and belongs to Raven moiety. Today, 'Wáats'asdiyei is an Associate Field Producer and an Associate Story Work Producer for the National Geographic show Life Below Zero: First Alaskans. He also serves as a writer for the PBS KIDS show Molly of Denali, an award-winning animated series. 'Wáats'asdiyei has also produced several short films, including Voices of Our Ancestors, which takes a deeper look at language revitalization within Yup’ik and Haida cultures. 'Wáats'asdiyei’s latest documentary film Indigenous Resistance: Now and Then, which “highlights the resilience and strength of Indigenous resistance in recent history and today, as told through the voices of Alaska Native leaders, storytellers and changemakers” will soon make its public debut.
   2. Jeremy Dennis is a contemporary fine art photographer, an enrolled Tribal Member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, NY, and lead artist and founder of the non-profit Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio, Inc. on the Shinnecock Reservation. In his work, he explores Indigenous identity, culture, and assimilation. Most recently, Jeremy received the Artist to Artist Fellowship from the Art Matter Foundation. Jeremy is also known for his ongoing 2018 Rise and Nothing Happened Here series. These works present themes of belonging, reconciliation, decolonization, and invisibility to the viewer from an Indigenous lens.

Learning goals/ objectives:

• Practice using new software programs to tell more engaging and impactful stories
• Learn techniques for incorporating different communication methods, including videos, images, audio, and writing into a cohesive story (i.e., using Adobe Express)
• Learn tips and tricks for producing visually-appealing videos, infographics, and websites

Workshop leaders:

1. 2022-23: Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer
   1. Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, an American Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology, award-winning author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, and both the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. In October of 2022, Dr. Kimmerer was named a MacArthur fellow and a recipient of a MacArthur ‘genius grant’ in recognition of her groundbreaking work weaving Indigenous ways of knowing within her scientific work.
2. 2023-24: Dr. Lydia Jennings
   1. Dr. Lydia Jennings (she/her) is a soil microbiologist and environmental scientist. Lydia, a citizen of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe (Yoeme) and Huichol (Wixáritari), earned her Bachelors of Science from California State University, Monterey Bay in Environmental Science, Technology and Policy. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona in the Department of Environmental Sciences, with a minor in American Indian Policy. Her research interests include soil health, Indigenous environmental data stewardship, mining policy, Indigenous science, and science communication. Dr. Jennings’ written works span environmental science topics ranging from reclaiming mining lands in southern Arizona and examining the impacts of food access for Alaska Native communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, to applying care principles for Indigenous data governance in ecology and biodiversity research.  Dr. Jennings has also shared her expertise and passions through community lectures, soil art activities, community trail runs, and podcasts.

Learning goals/ objectives: 

• Learn effective science communication techniques, including how to write an engaging science story that combines emotion and storytelling while maintaining scientific accuracy.
• Discuss how to center Indigenous knowledge and frameworks in science communication, including stories about climate change and environmental degradation. 
• Learn techniques for writing about science and describing plants, animals, and ecosystems without reducing them to objects (as is often the case in Western science). In other words, learn how to write about plants, animals, and ecosystems as story subjects and not objects.
• Learn how to incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing into scientific writing in ways that don’t position science as “validating” Indigenous knowledge.
• Discuss techniques for centering storytelling in joy, as opposed to solely climate anxiety, in environmental writing

Workshop leaders:

1. 2022-23: Luella Brien & Laurel Sutherland
   1. Luella Brien is an Apsáalooke educator, journalist, and news editor who has worked with the Ravalli Republic, Billings Gazette and, most recently, the Big Horn County News. Brien received her Bachelor of Arts degree in print journalism at the University of Montana School of Journalism and is a graduate of the Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute. Brien is the founder of Four Points Press, an independent digital media company serving the Crow Indian Reservation and surrounding area that is “ dedicated to giving the voice back to the people of the region and getting the story right. She has focused on increasing coverage of Crow Reservation news in ways it hasn’t been covered previously. 
   2. Laurel Sutherland began her journalism career in 2018 and currently works as a Staff Writer and Indigenous News Reporter for Mongabay, the world’s most popular rainforest information site and an international environmental journalism network. Prior to joining Mongabay, she worked for the Stabroek News, one of the leading print and digital news agencies in Guyana. She has provided news coverage on several beats at once, including on the environment, the extractive industry and Indigenous Peoples. Laurel has written widely about environmental rights issues affecting indigenous communities around the globe, from Maasai villages battling displacement in Tanzania to Gwich’in communities fighting to protect the Arctic from oil extraction.
2. 2023-24: Jarrette Werk
   1. Jarrette Werk is an award winning multimedia journalist with experience in digital news, audio reporting and photojournalism. He joined Underscore News in June 2022 as a staff reporter and photographer, in partnership with the national Report for America program. Originally from Montana, Jarrette is a proud citizen of the Aaniiih and Nakoda Nations of the Fort Belknap Indian Community. Prior to joining Underscore, he served as an associate producer for Nevada Public Radio’s (KNPR) “Native Nevada Podcast,” an eight-part podcast series highlighting the culture, issues and perseverance of the 27 tribal nations in present-day Nevada. He is also the photographer and associate producer for “Remaining Native” a coming-of-age documentary that follows Ku Stevens as he runs to remember and raise awareness of Indian Residential Board School survivors. Jarrette has been a member of the Native American Journalists Association since 2017 and has participated as a Native American Journalist Fellow four times, including once as a mentor-in-training. He has earned a national Hearst Journalism Award, a regional Edward R. Murrow Award, Society of Professional Journalists awards, and numerous National Native American Media awards for his reporting. 

Learning goals/ objectives:

• Discuss contemporary topics, trends, and journalism approaches across Indian country, including work being done both at local news outlets and larger, national media outlets
• Gain insights on local journalism as a career, including how stories are developed and published
• Learn techniques for telling compelling stories
• Discuss strategies for doing journalism in a less extractive manner & building rapport and maintaining trust within a community

Learning objectives:

• Learn website design and best practices
• Develop personal website to showcase scholarship and work

The application for the Fall 2024 - Spring 2025 cohort is now open! ICP application submission period: June 28th, 2024 - July 26th, 2024.

The 2024-2025 Cohort will be announced soon! Correspondents will have 5-days from notification to accept or reject their offer.

The 2024-2025 Ilíiaitchik: Indigenous Correspondents Program is open to current Indigenous college/university students who meet one of the following criteria: 

1) are a Tribal college/university student; OR 1) are a graduate student, or 2) are an upper-division undergraduate student (3rd or 4th year) currently attending a higher education institution in the United States. This includes but is not limited to American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and members of Canadian First Nation or Métis communities currently attending colleges and universities within the United States. Preference will be given to applicants with an expressed interest in environmental-related fields, communication and resilient solutions (i.e., Indigenous/Native American studies, biology/ecology, forestry, natural resources management, earth systems/science, conservation, urban planning/development, environmental engineering, agriculture, fisheries and wildlife management, technology, hydrology, environmental policy and law, etc).

Disclaimer: The Ilíiaitchik: Indigenous Correspondents Program, University of Arizona’s Indigenous Resilience Center, and GWU’s Planet Forward do not act as an arbiter for determining Indigeneity. We rely on applicants’ good faith in self-representing connections to their Indigenous communities. To this end, please be prepared to provide documentation upon request or a statement of your Indigenous ancestry.

1. When the application opens on our webpage, applicants should provide the requested information and submit their answers to four short-response (minimum words: 80) questions via the form. These questions ask about students’ interests in communication work, their passions, their backgrounds, and prior experiences as storytellers. 
   Note: We recommend writing, editing, and saving your statements beforehand in a Word or Google Document before pasting and submitting them via the form. 
2. As a final step, you will be asked to upload a copy of your CV or Resume.

Any questions or concerns please contact Alexander Cotnoir (alexandercotnoir@gmail.com) or JoRee LaFrance (joreevlafrance@gmail.com).