In July of 2008 Alyssa competed in the Seafair Scholarship Program for Women in Seattle Washington's annual summer event called Seafair. She was crowned a Seafair Princess and the pictures of her in regalia (to the left) were taken at the Seafair Powwow. In June of 2008 Alyssa won the National Young Native Writer's Essay Contest and was flown to Washington D.C. and spent a week touring the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. There she and the 4 other finalists explored the Smithsonian special collections and viewed artifacts (click here to see some pictures), met senators such as Ben Nighthorse Campbell and attended writing workshops. The summer of 2007 Alyssa attended Latseen, a summer cultural immersion program sponsored by the Sealaska Heritage Institute. The camp taught attendees about the Tlingit culture. This essay describes her experience at Latseen and was also her main essay for her Stanford college application. |
