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Transcript for Funding the Future: Angelique Albert on Native Forward's Mission to Educate Native Scholars

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Laurel Donnellan: I have an incredible guest today. I'm very happy, to introduce her in a minute, but I want to start this podcast with our

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Laurel Donnellan: principle and practice in the Donnellen Leadership Method about love. So the… the principle is love.

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Laurel Donnellan: and weak…

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Laurel Donnellan: define love as affection, kindness, and common interest, so that we can apply it to academics and to all our relationships. It's not necessarily romantic love. And the… the practice is to honor all our relationships, and

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Laurel Donnellan: I have had the privilege of being part of Lakota…

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Laurel Donnellan: ceremonies in the past that I've been invited to, and I really learned from those people about being connected to all of our relations, and the relationship we have not only with people, but with plants, and with animals, and with insects, and with

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Laurel Donnellan: water, and with rocks, and with the universe. And,

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Laurel Donnellan: So I think as leaders, we need to connect to ourselves and to all our relationships, and with that, I'm going to introduce the CEO of Native Forward.

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Laurel Donnellan: Angelique Albert. I met her at South by Southwest, and we had an amazing lunch, and I consider her a dear friend, even though we haven't spent a lot of time together. So, welcome to the podcast.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Oh, thank you, Laurel. Thank you for having me, and I feel the same. I mean, some people you just connect with, and it's nice that you, are giving us a little space to kind of share and build our relationship.

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Laurel Donnellan: Well, I learned about you by going to your presentation, and I believe it was the only one at the education conference that was delivered by a Native American, if I'm not wrong.

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Laurel Donnellan: And it's important that, for me, that all these big conferences represent all people, and,

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Laurel Donnellan: And then I learned about you, and your remarkable history, and your family's history, and the remarkable and long history of Native Forward. But I'd like to start with you. I'd like to start with just hearing a little bit about

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Laurel Donnellan: you and, your family, and how you grew up, and then we'll talk about Native Forward.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Sure, sure. So, I grew up on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwest Montana. What you should know about the Flathead area, it's just gorgeous. We're very rich in natural resources. Our tribe cares very much about

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: like you said, our animals, our, you know, plants, and you get a sense of that when you're on our reservation, that there's a strong commitment to that, and I also think we are doing quite well as a tribal government with,

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Just our infrastructure, our economic development, so,

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I grew up with a strong sense of commitment to my tribe and my people, and I grew up here, raised my three boys here, I started my educational journey at Salish Kootenai College.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And, went on to, get my master's degree from Gonzaga. But I grew up, with my mother, who is, Salish and Kootenai and Chippewa Cree, and with my father, who is French and Norwegian.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And, and, grew up close to… close to my culture, and my cultural values.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And, also, grew up with a strong sense of community.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And, commitment to that community. So, in my early years, I professionally was working with our tribal legal department, I worked with

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: As a CASA worker, helping children, and then, went on to work in the criminal justice system for a moment.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And it was all in service to community, and then went on to work in philanthropy outside of, my reservation. Came back to serve the community and work at Salish Kootenai College, so I've kind of been…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: All over the place. For me personally, it was that journey that took me…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Away from the reservation where I learned my true calling, and wanting to serve in the nonprofit field.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: When I was working in Southeast Texas, I was working for a foundation in philanthropy, and thought, this is gonna be so much fun, just giving away all this money, and every time I would read a grant application, I just found myself longing to be the one doing the work.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And so, that's kind of what led me into the nonprofit space. I do still think it's fun to give away money, so I still get to do that by.

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Laurel Donnellan: support.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: supporting our scholars, but, for me, just finding my life calling by first wanting to serve community and strengthen our community, internally, but then that led

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: led me to a… to a path of wanting to help all of our tribal communities and… and through the lens of creating opportunities.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: and opportunity through education, and when you ask about my history and that with education, it's very personal. You know, when I feel like I'm the first generation that truly had the privilege of having a quality education, both with,

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: primary and secondary, as well as post-secondary, I feel like I'm the first generation to have that, and… and so I… I see how it's transformed my life, and I want to make sure other Native people across this country have that same opportunity.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: For my, parents and grandparents, well, mostly my grandparents and those generations, they were really subjected to federal Indian laws that required them to.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: attend institutions. They were labeled as educational institutions, but they did not get access to quality education, at the boarding schools, and…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And so that's a part of my… my history, is just seeing, what… my…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: my grandparents, but also my community members, who are living today, what they were subjected to, and they really didn't have access to higher education, so…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: That's part of what shaped me and my passion for, wanting to provide education to Native people.

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Laurel Donnellan: And I appreciate it in your presentation that you talked about your grandfather, I believe?

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Laurel Donnellan: Who was at one of those, quote, schools

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Laurel Donnellan: Maybe they should have been called a prison?

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Laurel Donnellan: Tell us a little bit about that story, because I think we… some of us see that on TV, but you… you… your family's lived it, so I'd like to, you know, honor him and honor that story.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Sure, so my grandfather was taken away from his parents by force at the age of 5, and he was forced to go to a Catholic boarding school.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And he… he kept running away from that school many times, and they would catch him and take him back, and… and he, like many, were subjected to…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: abuse. Abuse of all kinds, you know, so… and many, many of those children also experience death, and… and…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: So that's a part of the story. My grandfather ended up running away and catching a train that eventually took him out of state. So, and I believe that was at the age of 10 or 11.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And so he lived on his own as a child until he was old enough to not be taken back to that boarding school, and be subjected to that abuse. But as a consequence, the language in my family was,

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: and some of those cultural practices were broken, and I had to go back and learn my language at Salish Kootenai College, and learn my cultural ways from other community members, and so that is…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: kind of what he went through, and it's interesting, in my family, we as… we're matriarchal, and…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: It's, like, my gran… my grandparent, my grandmas, my grandmothers also went through this.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And I have a lot of women in my family, but we don't share the stories as women, so it's like I only know… I know more about my grandfather's story than I do my grandmothers and aunties, and I don't know as much of their story, and I questioned that one day. I'm like, why? Why not? But then…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: as a Native woman, I also realized that I don't share my story, because who wants to… who wants to talk about all the… the hard… the hard things and… and the things that are unpleasant? But for some reason, we share our stories of our men.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And, so I do know more about my grandfather's story and what he went through, but also acknowledge that our women go through that, and more as well.

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Laurel Donnellan: Yeah.

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Laurel Donnellan: Well, as we've, around the corner here, we're gonna have our 250th birthday as a country. Your people's history is much longer than that on this earth.

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Laurel Donnellan: And I just want to say I'm sorry. I want to say I'm sorry for that part of our history.

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Laurel Donnellan: It really brings tears to my eyes, and it's remarkable to me that it wasn't that long ago

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Laurel Donnellan: Really.

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Laurel Donnellan: You know, it's not ancient history, these boarding schools. It was…

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Laurel Donnellan: Not too long ago, and I think that brings us to Native Forward, and the mission of Native Forward is, also very important in healing and supporting Native people, and it's also a long history. You're 50 years old, isn't that right?

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: We are, we're getting… we're going into our 56th year, so in October, we'll be 56 years old.

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Laurel Donnellan: Oh, 50 cents.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Yes. And…

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Laurel Donnellan: Yeah.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Yeah, and, just to your point, you know, as we're impacted by federal Indian law, we are citizens of nations within a nation, so it's important that our communities

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Your community, my community, our communities, understand that fact, because we will always be impacted by the laws that are created

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: In this country. And so, as Native people, it's important for us to be aware of those things. And when we were started as an organization.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: we were started at the end of the termination era. So that's a federal, federal Indian period, federal Indian law period, where, there was attempts to terminate the, the,

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: the nations, the tribal nations across this country, and it was the beginning of the self-determination era, and that is where the federal government acknowledged that, yes, we, as tribal citizens, we should have a say over our own people, and to be able to govern ourselves, and…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: So, at the beginning of that, my predecessors had the foresight to say, education is at the top of that, and we need people educated in law.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: We need people educated in education, because we need to fight for sovereignty rights, we need to retain our treaty rights, we need to have Native people educating Native people, and so they set

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: a vision for us to be able to educate the Native people across this country, and educate them at a level where they can have voice and representation in spaces that matter. So we have always encouraged our Native scholars to get the highest levels degree possible, so whether that's a master's degree, PhD,

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: your Juris Doctorate, whatever that is, we…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: help support Native scholars to get that higher education and provide that Provide scholarships to them.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: So that they can have access to higher education and get any degree they see fit, so that we, as Native people, have representation in all of those spaces. So that's the work we've been doing for the past 56 years, and, you know, I feel like the needle is moving slowly.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: But also, want to acknowledge that we have, provided

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: degrees to over 22,000 Native scholars who are doing fabulous things across this country. Like I said, lawyers fighting for sovereignty rights. When we started this, I think we had 38 Native lawyers in the country, and now Native Forward has supported over 2,000

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: tribal lawyers across the country, and we have provided over 2,200 PhDs, and, so we are very proud of that, and we are…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: in every different industry, and we've… we support students to go, to any accredited institution in any of the 50 states, and, you know, any degree field that they're interested in. So, we are all about just getting that

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: getting them that degree, helping them persist, so we do also… we primarily focus on scholarships, but we do have wraparound services and some other tools that help them persist to get to those, those other degrees. And, so that's what we… that's what we focus on.

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Laurel Donnellan: Well, and the impact, I'm sure, is far-reaching, because you're changing not only them, the scholars, but their families and generations, right? And generational wealth, which is an important thing to address as well for all people who are

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Laurel Donnellan: marginalized in this country. I'm very curious about what it looks like on the ground for, applications and how you decide who gets the scholarships, because I understand there is a gap between funding and how many people are interested in this.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Yes, we have a pretty massive need, and we've seen an increase in the past year, a little over a year, with the changes in policies at a federal level. We have seen a massive increase in the number of students who are applying to Native Forward, so we've, we have

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: had… 12,000 applicants this year.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And typically, we don't… we don't get that many. We typically get… well, last year, I think we had just over 7,000, which was also an increase. So we're at 12,000 this year, and we're only able to fund 2,000. So… so that leaves a pretty massive…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: gap for us. We, have students apply, we help them with the application process, and then we have a scoring rubric, and we score them.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Not only on academic, achievement, but also on their participation in community. So we consider, instead of just their participation in.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Extracurricular-type activities that you would see on a normal application.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: We give credit to students who participate in supporting elders in their community, or work with their cultural programs, so we do give, give points for that, and it is pretty competitive, and what we're seeing right now is that the students

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Are all… they score very high, and oftentimes it comes down to the letters of recommendation.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And if that person knows them well, and sometimes the scoring rubric is tipped just on that one thing alone, because we're seeing very high scores for most of the students.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: But, but there is a… there is a big need when we have,

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: 12,000 scholars and only fund 2,000 of them.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: So, so, there is a pretty massive, unmet.

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Laurel Donnellan: Yeah, what do you… what do you attribute the big… so, you went from 7,000 to $12,000, and 7,000… I mean, is it just more people know about you? Is it funding cuts in other places?

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: It is funding cuts in other places, so we're seeing that that institutional aid that typically went through, various funding streams through the federal government, and they consider them DEI, so let's say National Science Foundation funding that students would get, but it would be institutional aid, it would go through the institutions.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Those things are getting cut.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And even though we as Native people are not considered DEI, we are citizens of nations, so we don't technically fit in that category, a lot of our students were getting funding through those streams.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: So, the funding through those streams are getting cut, the DEI support services on campuses are getting cut, and so we're seeing an increase in not only the applications for funding, but also additional supports requested through our, support team.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: So, requests for tutors, requests for mentoring, and just those things that they need to persist.

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Laurel Donnellan: Yeah.

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Laurel Donnellan: I mean, it seems like our country and our government couldn't invest better than in our Native people and our Native young people, as far… I mean, there's such a return on investment to invest in people that

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Laurel Donnellan: want to do well, and that have done well in high school, and anyway, it's just, it's heartbreaking.

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Laurel Donnellan: But let's… we'll move over to something more positive. So you have 2,000 people that you can help this year, and how does your… how does your applications work? Like, when do people apply, and when… when are they notified? How does that work?

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Yes, we open them in January. The big… we have two funding cycles. One's in January, it opens in January and it closes in June, and then we have a mid-year cycle as well for students who may be off-cycle or miss the first opportunity. So… so…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Yeah, so we leave it open for quite a while. We have many funding streams in that first go-around. We have about… we have over 40 different programs that… that we fund, from… some are specific to STEM, some are specific to business, and some are just open to everybody. And so, that…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: We award, then we close down, and we do the review cycle, and then get them awarded so that they can start in the fall.

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Laurel Donnellan: You must… how… how big is your staff that… that processes, 12,000 applications? How do you do that?

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: This year, we tried… we tried some AI. That didn't work, so we had to… we had to go back to the basics, and we are thankful for our partners. We have various corporate partners who help. We have… out of the 22,000 alumni, they volunteer to be readers. You and your constituents, they can volunteer to be readers.

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Laurel Donnellan: Okay, that's good.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: That's so funny.

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Laurel Donnellan: You know, that's a good ask. If people want to support this cause, that's a good way to volunteer, right?

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Yes, we have a little training

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: video that people can watch so they understand how the scoring rubric works, and then they just go through, read the application, score it, and then it gets double scored, and then aggregated, and then we elevate those that align to the different types of funding streams, and then it is a heavy lift. We typically, work late hours during those cycles.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I bet. And then make it up on the back end, but,

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: it's such a joy reading the applications, hearing the stories, and the lives that are transformed, and you see it in Indian Country when you look at some of our… some of our students who have gone on to do amazing things, like,

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: the previous, Secretary of Interior, Deb Holland, we have the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Indians, and they're just… just people out there

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Doing amazing things, and the fact that we could just be a small part of their journey, it just… it fills… it feels great.

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Laurel Donnellan: It's funny you mention that you tried AI and it didn't work. I think a lot of us are doing that right now, like, we have this big promise of AI, but it might be a little too early.

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Laurel Donnellan: sometimes I'm trying AI, and I'm like, I think I just wasted the whole day using AI, where it would have taken me an hour to do something myself. But we're in the wild, wild west of AI right now.

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Laurel Donnellan: So… When you think about the future of Native Forward, what is your vision for this organization?

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Well, I think the vision is very clear. We want to fund every Native scholar who has the desire to pursue a higher education to be able to do that.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And we want to do that by providing scholarships and those support services to do that.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I… when I think about where we are in this country.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: it's… I'm concerned, honestly. I'm concerned about Natives in higher education, because when you look at the data for the… since 2013, there's been a decline in Native college-going attendance by 45%.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: What is the reason?

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Laurel Donnellan: Wow.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Why? This is massive. This is… these numbers are astronomical. So, we were looking at 197,000 Native scholars in the country, and that was in 2013. Now there are 107,000. So…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: you know, when we look and do research on why that's happening, affordability is the number one… the number one thing. We have an average unmet need last year of $26,000, and we know our students make about $35,000 a year for their income.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: So… We know that our students have food insecurities, housing insecurity, and so I think that is…

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: part of the story, and I think that there's part of the story that we still don't… aren't fully, aware of.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: So, when I think of the vision for our future, I want to make sure that every Native scholar has the opportunity, every one of those 107,000, I don't want to turn away any of them. I don't want to turn away the 10,000 that were

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: that we are, that are applying through us right now. So I think that there's,

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: there is that goal, but when you look at philanthropy, and philanthropy is giving less than one half of 1% of funding to Indian Country.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And we're a smaller portion, a smaller subset of that.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: There's such a small part of the philanthropic dollars going in to support our Native people, so my vision for the future is to, you know, with the McKenzie Scott gift that we recently received, 100% of that is going to go into the hands of students. We've built our infrastructure, we're doing well, we're able to scale in a way where we're giving out an additional $2 million annually.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And then we are taking $40 million of that, and we've started an endowment. And we want to grow that to $100 million so that we can increase. At the same time, we're addressing the immediate needs of our students.

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Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: That want to go to college, we're also growing for our grandchildren's grandchildren, and as you know, you know, as someone who has

00:25:08.370 → 00:25:21.520

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: had experience in Indian Country, it's important for us to ensure the next seven generations also have the same opportunities, or more than what we have. So, building on that future is important to us.

00:25:21.520 → 00:25:28.440

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And, just making sure that we can get more dollars into the hands of students, but really, I want to…

00:25:28.440 → 00:25:30.859

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: be able to fund every Native scholar.

00:25:32.530 → 00:25:37.040

Laurel Donnellan: So why… was it Melinda Gates that gave you the money? The… the…

00:25:37.450 → 00:25:40.479

Laurel Donnellan: I mean, the endowment you just got, I'm sorry, but…

00:25:40.480 → 00:25:44.670

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: No, no, it's okay. It was, it was Mackenzie Scott.

00:25:44.670 → 00:25:55.529

Laurel Donnellan: McKinsey Scott. So, and my editor will take that out, so… McKenzie, thanks, Todd. So…

00:25:55.690 → 00:26:06.439

Laurel Donnellan: why did Ms. Scott decide to give you that endowment? What was her personal reason for that? Because maybe that will help all of us understand

00:26:06.560 → 00:26:12.229

Laurel Donnellan: The need, and… and… And the reward of, of endowing you.

00:26:13.430 → 00:26:27.339

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: The gift was given as an unrestricted gift, which is the beauty of it, and it is our second gift that we've received from her. The first gift, we invested in our own infrastructure, as well as expanding scholarships.

00:26:27.500 → 00:26:34.369

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And so this one, we felt like we had the capacity to invest all of that directly into our students.

00:26:34.480 → 00:26:35.750

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And…

00:26:36.060 → 00:26:53.779

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: why did she give to us? When you look back, we were… we were part of that first pool of, that she gave to, the first 116 people or organizations that she gave to. And she said, she made reference to a glass-winged butterfly, and that…

00:26:53.990 → 00:26:59.280

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: We create change by carrying the weight of 40 times… 40 times our weight.

00:26:59.300 → 00:27:15.630

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And, and call this changemakers. And so, although I didn't… I haven't had the opportunity to speak to her directly, I do, look at, kind of her essays and kind of what she has said, and it's…

00:27:15.630 → 00:27:30.229

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: finding organizations that she believes in their leadership, and believes in the change that they are making, and can make in the future. So, she made references to those things, and

00:27:30.730 → 00:27:39.330

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Clearly very proud of that, but, also thankful that she believed in our leadership enough to invest in a way that is…

00:27:39.780 → 00:27:47.629

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: unrestricted. So we… we gotta make those decisions, and I think that's something that's important to say, is that

00:27:48.250 → 00:27:59.839

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: as Native people, we're closer… we're close to our own communities, so we… we know how to problem-solve in our communities. We're closest to the problem, we're closest to the answers.

00:27:59.840 → 00:28:14.640

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And so, to believe in us enough to say, okay, you know what's best, you make those investments. So, we are still using the first gift, which was $20 million, and we're utilizing that on strategy and growth.

00:28:14.670 → 00:28:24.019

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: and… and scholarships, and then this new funding is… is going to be 100% for… for the students. And,

00:28:24.470 → 00:28:38.519

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: So I can't say exactly why she gave to us, but I'm reading between the lines, so… and am very thankful for… for the unrestricted funds and for us to be able to decide what is best for us.

00:28:39.540 → 00:28:40.949

Laurel Donnellan: Well, I think,

00:28:42.120 → 00:28:56.020

Laurel Donnellan: The fact that you've been around for 56 years is important for people in philanthropy to know, because they want to give to something that has a solid foundation and a bright future.

00:28:56.370 → 00:28:58.740

Laurel Donnellan: I think

00:28:59.040 → 00:29:11.300

Laurel Donnellan: you know, when we help educate people, especially Native American people who often go back to their communities and serve in their communities, we lift everyone up. We lift everyone up, and

00:29:11.640 → 00:29:26.490

Laurel Donnellan: if you love this country, you need to love our Native Americans, because they were here before all of us came, and have been taking care of this beautiful country and this beautiful land for a lot longer than many of us, so…

00:29:28.020 → 00:29:36.689

Laurel Donnellan: I'm very curious about maybe a couple of other stories of people that have gone through this program and have gone

00:29:36.730 → 00:29:48.199

Laurel Donnellan: It could be, you know, we have a couple of examples of people that are well-known, but maybe there's lesser-known people that have gone back and done service in their communities that you'd like to talk about.

00:29:48.860 → 00:29:54.220

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Oh my goodness, yes, so we have, Rose Bear Don't Walk.

00:29:54.330 → 00:30:10.529

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: She's a young lady who started as, I can't remember what her undergrad started in, but she ended up going to the University of Montana and getting her degree in, oh my gosh, I'm gonna mess this up.

00:30:10.970 → 00:30:14.579

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I don't remember what her degree was in, I'm so sorry.

00:30:15.260 → 00:30:17.019

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: This is not the best example we might have.

00:30:19.540 → 00:30:23.190

Laurel Donnellan: But you know what she did afterwards, so it doesn't matter, right? Yeah.

00:30:23.190 → 00:30:26.390

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: She went on to,

00:30:26.530 → 00:30:41.729

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: to take traditional plant medicines and our traditional ecological knowledge and apply it to today, and she has integrated that into her teachings, and

00:30:41.730 → 00:30:54.539

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: is kind of revitalizing those in our tribal communities, not just here in Montana, but nationally, and sharing that information. I do think it's great to see,

00:30:55.340 → 00:31:06.740

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: The students who are… Are bringing back language revitalization, or looking at, the…

00:31:06.910 → 00:31:12.469

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Oh, I'm sorry, my mind is going off, because I'm trying to think of so many other different students.

00:31:12.470 → 00:31:13.450

Laurel Donnellan: Yeah, yeah.

00:31:13.450 → 00:31:14.200

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: That'd be amazing.

00:31:14.200 → 00:31:19.420

Laurel Donnellan: I think just a couple, Angelique, is fine, and Todd will make you sound good, so you don't have to worry.

00:31:19.420 → 00:31:23.640

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Yeah, yeah. Well, let's see…

00:31:25.260 → 00:31:37.419

Laurel Donnellan: And it doesn't even have to… you don't even have to say the names, you can just say, like, you know, someone went and got a law degree and then did this, so it could be general or specific, but I think it kind of helps people understand

00:31:37.560 → 00:31:41.090

Laurel Donnellan: You know, the power of your programs.

00:31:41.700 → 00:31:52.979

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Yes, yes. Well, I can think of someone… so, Dr. Henrietta Mann, she is someone who pursued her education a little bit later in life.

00:31:53.220 → 00:32:10.460

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And she… she is an educator, she got her degree, and she ended up being a main administrator at the University of Montana, Montana State University, but she also went on to provide, teachings at some of the Ivy Leagues.

00:32:10.470 → 00:32:17.130

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: In… across the country. And then she also started a tribal college.

00:32:17.150 → 00:32:31.759

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And that's a trend that we're seeing. A lot of, leaders in tribal colleges, whether that's at a, president level or some of the other executive, positions, that a lot of our,

00:32:31.830 → 00:32:44.280

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: A lot of our scholars have gone on to… to be in the education space and to run tribal colleges, so that's something that is, that we're proud of.

00:32:44.980 → 00:32:54.199

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Let's see, also, when I think of a PhD student,

00:32:54.800 → 00:33:13.490

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: his name is Steven, and he did his PhD research on missing and murdered Indigenous women, and is now transitioning from education to being able to use that and create a space where he can help

00:33:13.810 → 00:33:20.719

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Which is… which is kind of an epidemic in this country, where our young women are going missing and murdered.

00:33:24.950 → 00:33:31.439

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: That's so funny. I'm so sorry. Just, I guess I was, trying to think of a specific… a specific person, and I.

00:33:31.440 → 00:33:42.779

Laurel Donnellan: No, those are… I mean, I think the stories you shared, Angelique, are really powerful. I love this idea of a woman going back and, you know, taking traditional plant medicine and making the world better, and…

00:33:42.880 → 00:33:52.909

Laurel Donnellan: You know, back to, you know, originally you talked about women not necessarily having, even though you're matriarchal in your tribe.

00:33:52.970 → 00:34:05.920

Laurel Donnellan: Sometimes we forget the women's stories, so the fact that he is taking his education and telling those stories, no matter how horrific they are, is, I think, really important work, so…

00:34:06.180 → 00:34:08.030

Laurel Donnellan: I think those are good examples.

00:34:08.320 → 00:34:18.399

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: with the tribal ecological knowledge and integrating that and sharing that with the world, I think it's a powerful thing, because where we are in this country, as we look

00:34:18.510 → 00:34:24.389

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I think that we as Native people, as the original scientists of this country, and original stewards of this land.

00:34:24.389 → 00:34:44.780

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I think we have a level of knowledge and expertise that we can contribute to the world, so as we educate people in these STEM fields, and we're able to incorporate our own traditional teachings and share that out with the world, I think that it's going to help heal our community.

00:34:44.800 → 00:34:59.589

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And, I think it's timely that we share our knowledge with others and integrate that into mainstream universities and the work that we do, so I do appreciate the work of

00:34:59.590 → 00:35:11.189

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: are people who are… who are focused on tribal ecological knowledge, any of those environmental fields where I feel we as tribal people shine.

00:35:13.250 → 00:35:23.519

Laurel Donnellan: Well, you honor Mother Earth, right? And, it's… so it's more than just the science, more than the HUD. It's very embodied in Native people that…

00:35:23.640 → 00:35:27.339

Laurel Donnellan: the Earth is important, and as we face global…

00:35:27.700 → 00:35:38.249

Laurel Donnellan: change and global climate change, it's gonna be great to have those minds and hearts on that problem. It's another big problem we need to solve, for sure.

00:35:39.110 → 00:35:43.919

Laurel Donnellan: What else do you want people to know about your organization and the future of it?

00:35:46.310 → 00:35:46.920

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Hmm.

00:35:59.910 → 00:36:00.830

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Hmm.

00:36:03.510 → 00:36:10.599

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Okay, what would I like people to know about Native Forward and the future of it?

00:36:12.510 → 00:36:17.250

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Well, I will say that native forward, we're growing.

00:36:17.800 → 00:36:25.940

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And we have had… Phenomenal growth in the past 9 years, in…

00:36:26.120 → 00:36:39.020

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: in revenue, in the way that we serve students, the number of students we've served, and I'm pretty proud of that, but we're also working to increase those support services to our students.

00:36:39.200 → 00:36:43.359

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And, we are…

00:36:43.690 → 00:36:56.539

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: we just implemented a new program for mentoring and connecting those 22,000 Native alumni that we have that are already professionals in the field.

00:36:56.680 → 00:36:58.739

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: We're having them…

00:36:58.910 → 00:37:10.610

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: mentor our… our students, but also, making sure that we have wraparound services for those students, and increasing those, students,

00:37:10.840 → 00:37:19.440

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: services so that they can persist. Let's see…

00:37:20.830 → 00:37:23.650

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I'm sorry. I don't know why that threw me off so much.

00:37:24.940 → 00:37:25.410

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Your editor.

00:37:25.410 → 00:37:28.709

Laurel Donnellan: You don't have anything to be sorry about.

00:37:28.710 → 00:37:30.649

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: You always make me feel so comfortable.

00:37:30.650 → 00:37:31.380

Laurel Donnellan: I mean…

00:37:31.380 → 00:37:32.720

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I'm prepared.

00:37:32.780 → 00:37:35.100

Laurel Donnellan: Yeah, well, I'm just… I'm just…

00:37:36.030 → 00:37:41.650

Laurel Donnellan: By the way, you're gonna sound great, because Todd is gonna make us both sound great, so.

00:37:41.650 → 00:37:42.080

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: go.

00:37:42.080 → 00:37:50.910

Laurel Donnellan: But I do think, that's enough, you know? Like, that's, you know, the mentorship programs and the, and the wraparound services.

00:37:51.170 → 00:37:58.370

Laurel Donnellan: So, I'll just… I'll just have a follow-up question to the wraparound services. So, you mentioned earlier that sometimes students are…

00:37:58.540 → 00:38:00.679

Laurel Donnellan: Challenged by, you know.

00:38:02.180 → 00:38:14.479

Laurel Donnellan: rising costs of having housing and food insecurity. I'm imagining they also have a lot of, you know, struggles like most students do, just making

00:38:14.690 → 00:38:32.750

Laurel Donnellan: school work, right? Like, making, making their, helping them support their mental health and… and managing all this change in the world and at school. So do you… do your wraparound services include therapy or things like that?

00:38:33.450 → 00:38:39.260

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: We don't have therapy, but we do connect with people. We do connect them to resources on campuses.

00:38:39.260 → 00:38:39.710

Laurel Donnellan: Yeah.

00:38:39.710 → 00:38:45.159

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: We've had to increase the number of staff that we have, and we make sure that they are,

00:38:45.670 → 00:38:49.930

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: culturally competent staff who understand working in Indian Country.

00:38:49.930 → 00:39:06.569

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: But what they do is they… we do so many connections a year, so we email them, we text them, and connect with them throughout the year, so we have designated staff for each, each student, and that's something that we've just integrated over the past 5 years.

00:39:06.570 → 00:39:10.680

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And then, additionally, you know, when you speak about those

00:39:11.170 → 00:39:21.570

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: resources, those housing insecurities and things that they have. We've also implemented a new scholarship program. Well, it's a…

00:39:21.760 → 00:39:23.160

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: It is a…

00:39:23.600 → 00:39:38.340

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: emergency kind of funding stream that we have to help them if they have housing insecurity, and they need rent for the month, or they need food. So we do have funding available for that, too, and we do have various

00:39:38.340 → 00:39:47.690

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Donors who like contributing to that, because we know that's a part of persistence, is just kind of keeping them in when things get a little bit rough.

00:39:47.780 → 00:40:04.130

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: The other thing I'll say is that we do survey our students from time to time and listen to what they say their needs are, instead of us just making those assumptions. And sometimes it is those core, basic needs that keep them in there, but also we're learning that

00:40:04.130 → 00:40:19.129

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: They're asking for, funding for certifications, professional certifications. You know, they want to be able to get their CPA, but they didn't realize that it's cost prohibitive, and that there are many different tests they have to take, and they all cost, and

00:40:19.130 → 00:40:36.150

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: So we're addressing needs like that. So we continue to listen to our students and see what their needs are, and make sure that we're addressing those needs and kind of meeting them where they are. We're also excited about,

00:40:36.170 → 00:40:45.120

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: A new partnership that hasn't been announced yet, but we have… we're trying to respond to the need for more trades funding.

00:40:45.370 → 00:40:58.250

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: So, that's something that will also be, coming up. So, just really, it's important for us to listen to our students and what their needs are, and making sure that we're stepping up to, to those needs.

00:41:00.060 → 00:41:06.580

Laurel Donnellan: As we wrap up here, Angelique, what is one life lesson you'd like to share with our listeners today?

00:41:08.590 → 00:41:16.690

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I had picked… A life lesson that was affiliated to access to higher education.

00:41:16.990 → 00:41:19.919

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: But you had asked me about my…

00:41:20.620 → 00:41:39.010

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: my grandparents and that, and it really has to do with that, you know, that we all don't have equal access to higher education, and I think that's important for people to know. But just as we've talked, I think I'm gonna pivot my answer on the spot, and just say,

00:41:39.670 → 00:41:48.140

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I learned from my son and my father. It's interesting how our children can sometimes be our teachers, but, he said,

00:41:48.600 → 00:41:55.319

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: really, like, his favorite song was, Love Life, and to love your life, and to love it fully, and embrace it fully.

00:41:55.610 → 00:41:58.570

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I do feel like that's…

00:41:58.950 → 00:42:09.429

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: kind of a consistent message when I talk to you is that love, like you said at the beginning of the programming, love your life, love all of it, even the hard times, because the hard times

00:42:09.660 → 00:42:24.940

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: teach us things, and even though we can go through trauma, we can go through loss, I think that there is always something that we gain from that, no matter how hard it is, and if we integrate that into our being.

00:42:24.940 → 00:42:44.819

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: then, I think that we can use that as skills. And for… so, for example, if we go through a loss, I think it does teach us to be more compassionate when people do go through those type of things. So, so that's gonna be my life lesson, is just to love all of you, and all of your life experiences, and to learn how to…

00:42:44.830 → 00:42:48.749

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Integrate them instead of being,

00:42:49.060 → 00:42:58.029

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: maybe, impacted by them, but to embrace them and to… to make them a part of… a part of you, because I know that's a…

00:42:58.170 → 00:43:03.090

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Something that took me a while to learn how to do.

00:43:03.200 → 00:43:05.559

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: So that would be my life lesson.

00:43:05.960 → 00:43:13.169

Laurel Donnellan: That's beautiful. I'm gonna take that with me, for sure. I'm already taking it into my heart. And what is a leadership lesson you'd like to share?

00:43:14.160 → 00:43:32.059

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I would say authenticity is key. Authenticity, specifically when it comes to relationship building, I think that that's probably the single most effective tool that has helped me to get where I am. When I was younger, I think I tried to…

00:43:32.080 → 00:43:44.510

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: fit in. You know, I tried to change who I was, to fit in, so that I could be in those really cool spaces, and make a bigger impact, and so I felt like I had to change who I was, but

00:43:44.720 → 00:43:53.409

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I was my authentic self with my family, my friends, my tribal community, and the irony is that,

00:43:53.870 → 00:44:10.719

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I elevated professionally through my friends, my tribal community, my family, I elevated, because of that authenticity. So, I've integrated that across all things, and I find that…

00:44:10.720 → 00:44:16.270

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Whether I'm with donors, corporate partners, my phenomenal team, who are just…

00:44:16.320 → 00:44:34.259

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: killing it, whether it's philanthropy, when you bring your authentic self, it allows others to be their authentic self, and and I think that people see that, and they feel that, and I think that's key. And now, people invite me into those spaces.

00:44:34.260 → 00:44:47.470

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And they invite me, not because I fit in, they invite me because I'm different, I'm unique, because I don't fit in. And so I find that my voice is unique in that space, and

00:44:47.610 → 00:44:54.029

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And so I think the authenticity is one of the leadership, skills that

00:44:54.160 → 00:45:07.210

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: just… I… I always try to ground myself in… let's just be authentically yourself, because if you try to be anything else, it… people feel that. So, authenticity… I think that's… that's my…

00:45:07.350 → 00:45:09.480

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: That's my, lesson.

00:45:09.480 → 00:45:19.810

Laurel Donnellan: I mean, beautifully said, and I think that's why, we both like each other, and why you're in my space today, is, it was just always easy and

00:45:19.910 → 00:45:32.119

Laurel Donnellan: authentic and deep from the moment we started our friendship and this conversation. And how do people find out more about how they can help and donate to Native Forward? Where do we go for that?

00:45:32.330 → 00:45:34.479

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: at nativeforward.org.

00:45:34.620 → 00:45:48.200

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And I will just, let your readers know, they can also email us directly. We have direct links on our website where they can email us if they want to have a partnership, they want to…

00:45:48.200 → 00:46:02.190

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: participate and be a reader, a volunteer, if they would like to join us in building this endowment for the next seven generations. So, there's all the ways to connect right on our website, so, nativeforward.org.

00:46:03.100 → 00:46:06.430

Laurel Donnellan: Thank you so much for your time today. It's been lovely being with you.

00:46:06.430 → 00:46:07.410

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Thank you.

00:46:09.360 → 00:46:11.940

Laurel Donnellan: Okay, we'll have our other guests come back.

00:46:13.680 → 00:46:20.799

Laurel Donnellan: I didn't mean to throw you, but you were… you were really beautiful, and Todd will… Todd will take out the…

00:46:20.800 → 00:46:23.800

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: I didn't recover very well, I was like…

00:46:23.800 → 00:46:32.840

Laurel Donnellan: No, I think I'm also tired, because I don't know where I got Melinda Gates from, because it's McKenzie Scott, but we'll… it'll be perfect.

00:46:32.840 → 00:46:33.590

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: same billionaire.

00:46:33.590 → 00:46:37.410

Laurel Donnellan: Colleen, I don' Generous women.

00:46:37.410 → 00:46:38.499

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Generous women, yes.

00:46:38.500 → 00:46:45.820

Laurel Donnellan: Daniela or Colleen, anything that you want to add, or say, or…

00:46:47.470 → 00:46:48.490

Laurel Donnellan: you heard?

00:46:48.670 → 00:47:02.520

Colleen Dunn: Yeah, just wanna circle back to confirm that we will send, I know you had asked about some photos of some of the scholars specifically, as well as, obviously photos of Angelique.

00:47:02.520 → 00:47:08.910

Colleen Dunn: And, you know, as Angelique was speaking, I was thinking of a particular scholar we've worked with.

00:47:08.910 → 00:47:27.790

Colleen Dunn: Previously on some coverage, Eldred, and we can send Lennessy, who, went to law school after seeing… he sort of was walking through museums, seeing pieces of art that were stolen from his tribe, and he went to law school because he wanted to help prevent things like that from happening. That's a great story.

00:47:27.790 → 00:47:28.400

Laurel Donnellan: Doria.

00:47:28.400 → 00:47:29.669

Colleen Dunn: So that's another…

00:47:29.670 → 00:47:38.750

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: repatriated stuff from Paris. Repatriated stuff from other countries. Yes, he's amazing. That's what I'm saying, like, my brain just shut off.

00:47:39.480 → 00:47:50.720

Laurel Donnellan: We can actually… if you're okay, we can have Pauline and Daniela go away, and you can just tell, like, a 3-minute version of that story, and we can cut that back in.

00:47:50.890 → 00:47:52.950

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Is that okay? Eldridge, what's his last name?

00:47:53.310 → 00:48:02.160

Colleen Dunn: It's lesseny… here, I'll drop it in the chat, because I'm not… I'm not positive about the pronunciation. It's actually the full… and we have…

00:48:02.160 → 00:48:03.540

Laurel Donnellan: name, but I don't…

00:48:03.710 → 00:48:10.010

Colleen Dunn: Yeah, we have great… Yeah, I believe so. We have great photos, from him as well that we can show.

00:48:10.010 → 00:48:21.090

Laurel Donnellan: Okay, so we can throw him into the article. Okay, I'm gonna have you guys go away. I'm gonna have Angelique… I'm gonna ask her that question again, and she's gonna answer… again.

00:48:21.340 → 00:48:24.330

Laurel Donnellan: Daniela, you can go away.

00:48:24.880 → 00:48:30.280

Laurel Donnellan: Angelique, any other examples of people that,

00:48:30.680 → 00:48:35.669

Laurel Donnellan: Have been scholars and have done good work with their scholarship that you'd want to share?

00:48:36.540 → 00:48:38.710

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Sure, Eldred…

00:48:38.760 → 00:48:57.320

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Lasancy is someone that comes to mind. He is a student who, in his life, he was walking through a museum one day and saw stolen items from his tribe. And so he went on… he went back to school, pursued his law degree.

00:48:57.320 → 00:49:16.079

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And now is working to repatriate items from various places back to his own tribal community and others' tribal communities. So, such a powerful story. He was our, Student of the Year last year, and students like him and others are just doing

00:49:16.170 → 00:49:20.849

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Work that is so powerful, and

00:49:21.330 → 00:49:27.950

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: And, just proud, proud of the work that he's doing, as well as, all of our other scholars.

00:49:28.360 → 00:49:30.979

Laurel Donnellan: It must be so satisfying for him.

00:49:31.110 → 00:49:38.520

Laurel Donnellan: To be so involved deeply with his history, and then healing his history. It's amazing.

00:49:39.410 → 00:49:53.420

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Yeah, I think that's something that, is a… is a cultural value to give back to our tribal communities, and to make sure that we are making our… our community stronger. I think that's something that

00:49:53.730 → 00:49:59.400

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: is powerful about Native Forward. It's not about the individual

00:49:59.500 → 00:50:14.519

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Native person getting an education. It's really about us as tribal people getting an education to make our tribal communities stronger, and to make our tribal communities prosper. So, he is just a shining example of that.

00:50:15.830 → 00:50:24.259

Laurel Donnellan: It's been my experience that you put communities ahead of the individual, which is very different in America, but very needed.

00:50:28.070 → 00:50:30.810

Laurel Donnellan: There we go. Now we got our sound bites.

00:50:30.810 → 00:50:38.280

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Okay, thank you. I feel… thank you for helping me recover, guys. This is why you guys are here. You're like, get it together, woman.

00:50:39.520 → 00:50:40.470

Colleen Dunn: It's always easier.

00:50:40.470 → 00:50:41.270

Laurel Donnellan: True.

00:50:41.270 → 00:50:44.250

Colleen Dunn: It's easier to be on the sidelines and come up with it, so…

00:50:44.250 → 00:50:51.489

Laurel Donnellan: But just, you know, I don't give people questions ahead of time for two reasons.

00:50:52.500 → 00:51:09.400

Laurel Donnellan: your life and your work is so interesting that, you know, if you have prepared questions, it doesn't… people don't come off that authentic, and then it doesn't allow me to go to where we needed to go, right? Like, we went to so many places that

00:51:09.440 → 00:51:12.820

Laurel Donnellan: I could have never planned, like, right? Yeah.

00:51:12.820 → 00:51:16.029

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: No, I love it, I love it, so thank you for your patience, and…

00:51:16.450 → 00:51:17.090

Laurel Donnellan: Oh, of course.

00:51:17.090 → 00:51:18.569

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Sorry, Colleen.

00:51:18.570 → 00:51:29.050

Laurel Donnellan: Yeah, and you know, as we go forward here, Angelique, we'll definitely… I'm gonna be a little… I'm gonna be off for most of June because of my shoulder replacement, but

00:51:30.330 → 00:51:46.790

Laurel Donnellan: We're doing some work on, long-term vision and career planning for young people that might be a nice support for your scholars, and maybe it's something we do for the folks that don't get scholarships.

00:51:47.080 → 00:51:47.750

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Yeah.

00:51:47.750 → 00:52:04.159

Laurel Donnellan: You know, it'd be kind of cool to give them something… I think about putting their heart and soul into their application and not getting the scholarship, right? And maybe there's something that we can partner on and do together for them.

00:52:04.160 → 00:52:07.950

Laurel Donnellan: Yes. Cause that would be really…

00:52:08.350 → 00:52:24.549

Laurel Donnellan: I mean, it feels like a heart calling for me. So we are… we do leadership development and programs and career development programs, so, I actually this week came up with a new model for

00:52:24.590 → 00:52:32.699

Laurel Donnellan: career development, because of all this AI and everything. We used to have people, like, choose a path, or choose a degree, or choose this, but

00:52:32.840 → 00:52:46.560

Laurel Donnellan: we're coming up with this career portfolio planning, where you… where you plan for four different buckets. So you plan for a job, that's fine, but you also plan for gig or freelance work.

00:52:46.900 → 00:52:50.440

Laurel Donnellan: You plan for entrepreneurial pursuits?

00:52:50.740 → 00:52:56.409

Laurel Donnellan: Because whether it's a small or large business, I think everyone should… and AI is actually…

00:52:57.020 → 00:53:15.990

Laurel Donnellan: giving people more access to the ability to do that. And then, we also have to plan for pivots and pauses, especially as women. You have to plan for, you know, having children, or having a loss, or caregiving, or other things. So, we're starting with a group of

00:53:16.090 → 00:53:24.519

Laurel Donnellan: first-generation women who are going to college for the first time. We're working with a not-for-profit in Florida, but I think

00:53:24.680 → 00:53:39.989

Laurel Donnellan: It's a really good program for anyone who is planning their career. So, I'll circle back with you on that in July, and thank you all for your time today, and I… I'll let you go back to changing the world.

00:53:39.990 → 00:53:44.680

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Aww, thank you, and oh my gosh, I'll be thinking of you in June. I'll send up some prayers for you.

00:53:44.680 → 00:53:52.010

Laurel Donnellan: Next… it's a week from today. I believe in the power of prayer. I'm in a prayer circle every morning with,

00:53:52.050 → 00:54:09.200

Laurel Donnellan: people that do Native American spirituality, and I… I… I was, like, when I… a couple weeks ago, I was, like, crying and not being able to sleep, and now I have no pain, but I still have to have surgery. Thank you for prayers, and thank you for your time.

00:54:09.200 → 00:54:09.540

Angelique Albert, CEO Native Forward: Take care.

00:54:09.540 → 00:54:12.759

Laurel Donnellan: women, all of you, be well. Bye-bye. Thank you.

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