Such a wonderful web site! Thank you to those who made this possible.

To begin: I always kept my maiden name while married - still Patricia Stanley - call me Pat or Patty as in our school days. My closest relatives are my Niece and Nephew and their families who I last visited in Topanga, CA in 2019. After HS, I went to San Jose State for 1 year, wound up traveling to Europe with a group and then on my own for another year. Returning home, I went to Chouinard Art School in La, graduating in 1965 and where I met my husband. We traveled back to Europe and returned to live in Maine and upstate New York working on a farm documentary and other projects. Eventually we wound up in Anchorage, Alaska working on another documentary on the Aleut people of St. Paul Island. Then, while working with a young native group in a leadership program, I was introduced to the rural community of Fort Yukon. When my husband and I divorced, I moved to Fort Yukon in 1984,where I started working with the Tribal Government to develop a regional organization with the 10 villages in the Yukon Flats. In working with the Chiefs of each village and the many other organizations that provided assistance, I found inspiration. We began a process with no experience and little knowledge but were able to work with those that did and took over contracts in Health, Education, and Natural Resources. I think that my proudest moment was when we celebrated our 30th organizational anniversary among all those who made it possible. In 2004, at age 61, I returned to Grad School back east and wound up expanding a 1 year Mid-Career Masters Program into 2 years and another 2 years in a Business School MBA Program. I spent summers back in Fort Yukon and in 2009 started working with our local Yukon Flats University Center. I spent 4 years there encouraging our young people and creating college courses to fit our employment needs in the Yukon Flats. I am still in contact with many of them today. In 2014 I went back to my original organization, The Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments (CATG) for 3 more years to fill a transition between local leadership.

My advice to graduating Seniors would be to follow your interests but also take your core classes seriously in any post-secondary endeavor you choose - a job, travel, college, or a trade school. Look to those who support and mentor you. Take advantage of opportunities that open doors. So many times I have found those opportunities to be serendipitous. Sometimes I wonder if our organization would have developed if it weren't for the Chief of Beaver Village who told me we had to go to a Tribal Self-Governance meeting in Las Vegas. It was there we met and asked how we could do what they talked about in contracting to provide our own services. We were mentored from there on and there were many other chance events that helped us along the way. So I continue to say to young people, fill yourself with experience and life long learning and know that you can accomplish your goals with persistence. The one thing I think today is that we can learn to accomplish anything - we just have to find the answer to the question, "How do I do that?"