The theme for the 2024 national conference was Rivers of Resilience: Sustaining Indigenous Innovation. The three-day event focused on educational, professional, and workforce development for Indigenous peoples of North America and the Pacific Islands in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) studies and careers.

Accompanying the youth were Regional TANF Manager Harold Arres, Riverside Site Manager Angela Diaz and Soboba Tribal TANF Program Specialist Mayra Campos.

Campos said she reminds the TANF youth every chance she gets about how lucky they are to have the chance to attend so many different outreach events that are aimed at them and their futures. “I did not have these opportunities growing up and I am taking full advantage of them now,” she said.

As the Program Specialist, she visited the conference website to plan out their days based on the youth sessions provided. “I picked a couple different options based on topics such as leadership, college readiness and culture, anything that aligns with our program,” she said. “I then created a conference agenda alongside Harold to ensure we had enough time for our youth to attend sessions as well as get rest breaks and meals. On the days of the conference, we let the youth pick what sessions to attend based on the sessions we narrowed down.”

They also planned for educational activities the youth could enjoy in their spare time. The group was able to take a tour of the Alamo and ride a small boat around the San Antonio Riverwalk. They also visited the San Antonio Zoo as part of the conference.

High school junior David Marquez attended the annual conference for the first time. He participated in sessions on agriculture, coding and fashion. He most enjoyed visiting the resource booths that provided him with new career ideas as he has already planned to enter a STEM career field. “I learned there should be more Indigenous youth in STEM careers,” David said.

Agustin Salgado was also a first-time attendee. The high school sophomore enjoyed the seminar on “Hypersonics – How Fast is Fast?” but said his favorite part of the conference was the career fair. “I learned the importance of STEM and how it will help the future generations improve and learn valuable job skills.”

Reymoondo Padilla also enjoyed the career fair. “The career fair was my favorite because we got to talk to all different kinds of people and colleges,” the high school junior said. He learned a lot more about agriculture than he did before and was able to obtain some new career ideas. One of several sessions on the subject was “Converging Indigenous Knowledge and Agriculture Sciences.”

Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians Chairman Isaiah Vivanco is also serving his third year as Chairman of the Tribal Nations Advisory Council (TNAC) for AISES. He first met AISES representatives at a conference and learned all about them. “I was able to get the organization to come to Soboba and work with our preschool and Noli students on a robotics program,” he said. “After seeing the impact it had on our youth, and learning more about the organization, I thought there should be more Tribes working with them. They offer great experiences for our youth and they also provide tons of career opportunities. AISES has created partnerships with major tech companies worldwide. My role as TNAC Chair is to help get AISES into other Tribal communities. With all my travel comes a lot of networking with Tribal leaders from all over the country and that provides a perfect opportunity to make the introduction.”

The TNAC holds one of its quarterly meetings during the national conference, so Vivanco was able to attend the opening ceremonies in front of about 4,000 Native high school and college students from around the country who are eager to enter into the workforce at a very sophisticated level.

“Walking the trade show floor and seeing companies like Google, NASA, Apple, U.S. Forestry, and a ton of other major corporations trying to recruit our youth was great,” Vivanco said.

He said another highlight was being able to sit down and have dinner with the Soboba youth who were there to participate. “Hopefully trips like this can be encouraging or inspirational in their career paths,” he said.

Vivanco was presented with a Tribal Partner Service Award “in recognition of his commitment, service and dedication to AISES.” When he was contacted by AISES President Sarah EchoHawk telling him he was receiving the award, he was surprised. Past winners have gone to large Tribes (San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), so he was quite honored to be recognized for his efforts as an individual.

Although he was unable to accept the award on the final day of the conference due to previous travel plans and commitments, it was given to him at AISES’ 7^th annual Native Links Golf Classic that was held at Red Rock Country Club in Las Vegas on Oct. 7.

“It was good to be honored there at the golf tournament because there were many Tribal partners and business associates that I knew in attendance. As well as some of my Council,” Vivanco said. “Things like this mean a lot but none of it is possible without a great team of Council members; it’s because of their hard work that we even get the chance to sit on boards like this. So, I feel that when any of us gets recognized for something, we’re all winners!”

All proceeds from the fundraising event benefit AISES, specifically the RISE Fund powered by Aristocrat Gaming, which provides educational and career support to Indigenous students interested in Casino Gaming. Vivanco has co-chaired the tournament for three years.

“My role is to help get sponsors and participants in an effort to raise monies for the programs AISES offers to our communities,” said Vivanco, who has played in the tournament for about five years and has been on the committee for the past three.

For more information, https://conference.aises.org.

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