December 2018 Newsletter

The AIHREA year in review...

This year, like so many before it, seemed to just fly by for all of us at AIHREA.  From a newly designed website to hugely successful events, 2018 was definitely a year to be remembered.  Keep reading to recap all of the awesome things we did this year!

New Website
We kicked off the new year with our sleek, new website with improved readability and functionality.  Additionally, we reinvigorated our newsletter by treating it like a blog and providing custom content for all of our followers.  If you want to find out about all of the features on our new site click here!

Our Nations' Energies Powwow
As usual, May was a busy month for us this year.  We kicked off the month with our 12th Annual AIHREA Our Nations' Energies Health and Wellness Powwow.  Instead of focusing on our primary care screening clinic, as we have for previous powwows, this year we concentrated on health education with a whole host of new activities for powwow attendees to choose from.  Some of these included taking a shot at our heavy bag while learning about the importance of exercise to a healthy lifestyle, trying on some "drunk goggles" to get an idea of how difficult it is to complete simple tasks while under the influence of alcohol, and, among others, finding out just how much fat and sugar are in your favorite coffee drinks.  Participants had a great time and we're already busy cooking up new activities for next year.  You can see a list of winners from this year's powwow here and more pictures from the event here!

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AIHREA Graduates
Just a couple of weeks after our powwow, we were happy to announce that we had three graduates this year!  We love to see our staff members successfully pursuing further education and this year we had graduates to be especially proud of.  Oliver Doerr graduated with his Bachelor of Health Science with a minor in Public Health from the University of Missouri - Kansas City.  Ryan Goeckner graduated with his Master of Arts in Religious Studies from the University of Kansas.  For his thesis research he focused on the importance of Lakota oral and religious traditions to the No Dakota Access Pipeline movement and was the 2018 recipient of the Department of Religious Studies Lewis Ethics Essay Award.  Jordyn Gunville also graduated with her Master of Public Health from the University of Kansas Medical Center.    For her capstone, she focused on maternal child health and was the 2018 recipient of the Analee E. “Betsy” Beisecker Public Health Excellence Student Award.  To learn more about our graduates, click here! Congratulations and good luck, grads!

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Summer Interns
During the months of June and July we were happy to host nearly a dozen interns between the Center for American Indian Community Health and Center for American Indian Studies.  This year we hosted interns from two high schools and seven colleges and universities.  Interns spent the summer engaging with local Native communities and learning about and being involved with various research projects at both organizations. To learn more about each of our interns, click here! AIHREA would like to wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors!

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3rd Annual Art and Culture Extravaganza
AIHREA team members spent  a good deal of time planning this fall for our 3rd Annual American Indian Art and Culture Extravaganza at Johnson County Community College.  This hard work really paid off.  This event was a huge success with the largest turnout we've ever seen in its history.  Our silent auction items netted nearly $1000 in profits to go directly to our scholarship initiatives for Native students!  We had over 100 attendees for our afternoon dance demonstration and over 70 at our evening performance.  Our newly introduced arts and crafts workshops were well attended as well.  Members of the public had a great time learning about American Indian cultures and getting to take home something in the process.  Hopefully next year will be even bigger!

As you can see, 2018 was an eventful year for the AIHREA team.  We hope that if you attended any of our events this year that you enjoyed yourself and maybe learned a little something at the same time.  We'll see you in 2019!

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