Four-year colleges weren't the right fit for Kristina Nez Begay, who flourishes at MATC and found her cultural roots here.

Finding Herself
Navajo Honor Student Discovers American Indian Heritage

Many people go to college hoping to find themselves. Beyond that, Kristina Nez Begay found something unexpected at Milwaukee Area Technical College – her cultural roots. For the first time, the 28-year-old is making a serious effort to explore her Navajo heritage. Thanks to MATC’s active Native American Student Movement (NASM), Office of Indian Affairs and input from her Navajo father, she is learning customs, traditions and a bit of the language.

Her father was sent to a mission school as a child and then to live with a Christian foster family. When he married a German woman and they had children, he wanted them to grow up in the white world, thinking they would have a chance for a better life. Nez Begay’s parents divorced when she was seven, and she and her sister and brother lived primarily with her mother, white stepfather and younger half brothers.

Although grateful for her upbringing, she was always curious about her Native American background. Through NASM, she has learned that each tribe or nation has its own values, rules, language and attitudes. “A lot of Native American students here know their own language and know certain etiquette about their own traditions,” she says. “I don’t know those things because I didn’t grow up surrounded by it. Now I try to learn something about my culture every day.”

Wants to Be a Doctor

Enrolled in MATC’s four-year college transfer program, Nez Begay intends to earn her associate degree and transfer her credits to Harvard University, Fort Lewis College in Colorado, or Dine College, a Navajo school in Arizona. Fort Lewis and Dine offer electives specific to Native American cultures, such as the Navajo language, jewelry making and sand painting. Dine also teaches herbology. Nez Begay plans to become a doctor and serve her residency in Indian Health Services on a reservation. She says doctors who care for Native Americans face unique challenges, such as elders who will accept only Native American healing traditions and won’t go to hospitals or emergency rooms.

Now a highly motivated student who studies as much as eight hours a day, Nez Begay previously attended two four-year colleges. Neither fit her learning style, so she dropped out. She moved to Madison for a time, lived in a co-op with 28 roommates and worked on a variety of social justice activities. In 2002, she decided to give MATC a try.

“I love it here,” she says. “The teachers genuinely care. A lot of teachers give you their home phone numbers on the syllabus. It’s a healthy environment for everybody. I’m getting good grades now, which is an astronomical thing for me. I have to study all the time because I don’t learn that quickly, but I like studying because the teachers are so good at explaining things. Before, I never understood math at all. But at MATC I passed trigonometry with an ‘A.’ My teacher, Mike LaFratta, had a lot to do with it. If you didn’t understand it one way, he’d explain it in a different way.”

Another mathematics teacher, Kathleen Olson, met her at a coffee shop during spring break to help her understand her homework. “What kind of person does this? Someone who really, really cares about teaching the students. All my teachers say ‘You can do it, whatever you want. Is there something you need help with?’”

Nez Begay loves to tell stories about instructors who went the extra mile. English Instructor Anne Lehman helped her tremendously with her writing, reading and comprehension skills. “I still go to her office to have her look over my scholarship applications,” Nez Begay says. “She’s always willing to help.”

Nez Begay is flourishing despite some physical challenges. She has fibromyalgia, which leaves her weak and struggling to maintain mobility. “If anyone could stand in my shoes, they’d be exhausted,” she says. "If I want to make my finger touch my thumb, every muscle in my body tenses up to make that happen. What most people can do in a day, takes me five days. It takes a lot of energy for me to keep moving every day.”

Despite all that, she has earned a 3.97 grade point average, is on the national dean’s list and was third-place runner-up to become a state ambassador for the Wisconsin Technical College System. She is a student senator as well as NASM officer. Nez Begay is also a student representative on MATC’s Indian Advisory Council, which works toward recruiting more Native American instructors.

Greg Johns, a student services specialist in the American Indian Office, says, “I’m just so impressed with how responsible Kristina is. She does a very good job of doing what she says she’s going to do. She’s a leader among students. Some Indian students, especially those who don’t look very Indian, don’t identify themselves as such. Kristina is very confident in the Indian circle, and she makes a point of questioning things and dispelling stereotypes about Native Americans.”

Having experienced academic success, Nez Begay is determined to control her own destiny. “I want to have goals for myself, mentally, spiritually and physically. I want to understand myself and know how I fit into the universe. I want to develop that inner spirituality that will pull it all together so that I can see the connections in my life.”

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