Saturday, June 28

The final day on the road.  It feels like the past two weeks have flown by.  Our last stop is at the University of Iowa.  We meet Tracy Peterson at the Latino and Native American Cultural Center on Saturday morning to chat with him about LANA3, also known as the Latino and Native American Alumni Alliance which is a unique program of the University of Iowa Alumni Association.  Tracy, a member of the LANA3 Board and the director of diversity programs and K-12 outreach in the College of Engineering, kindly agreed to meet with our group to describe this symbiotic collaboration between the alumni association and the cultural center.  He shares stories with us about the sense of belonging and ability just to be one’s own self that American Indian students feel when they are at the cultural center.  (A message repeated at several of the other campuses visited along our way.)  When alumni would return to campus, they would often make a point to visit the center.  LANA3 was created to extend this feeling of belonging beyond the walls of the center, and to help American Indian alumni network and support one another as they pursue their professional careers.