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| Eric Watchman |
As part of Native American Heritage Month, This Meet Our Students blog will feature the president of SLCC’s American Indian Student Leadership Club, AISL, Eric Watchman.
Name: Eric Watchman.
Age: 27
The current city of residence: East Mill Creek, Utah
Hometown: Holladay, Utah
Major: Pre-med
Academic goals: My big goal is to become a doctor. I will most likely go to the U.
Dream job: I want to be a pediatrician with cardiology or just a general pediatrician.
Plan B: Nurse
Why higher education: In the long run, it's well worth it. I have experience working in construction, but there are few job opportunities where I was living in the four corners area. So, I had to travel for work. I spent some time in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Las Vegas. It wasn't fun being by myself and away from my family. A lot of it, too, is influenced by my wife. She's the one that wanted to go back to school first, and then I started to have thoughts of going back to school too. That gave me a big push.
Why SLCC: Honestly, it's cheaper. Also, I graduated high school in 2013, and so much stuff had left my mind. I felt like SLCC would be a good place to get back to learning.
What motivates you or inspires you at school or life: Pushing my wife to finish pushes me too. I want to give my kids a comfortable life and be an example to them. I want to show them that you can take a huge break and it'll never be too late to return to school.
Meaningful life or career lessons you have learned so far: Never stop doubting yourself. It'll help you gain confidence to do the things you think are impossible. I have experience with that. Being in the construction field, I started as a laborer, doing ground stuff, picking up shovels, and handing tools to the guys with experience. And I ended up being a team lead. Before I left the construction field, I was training to become a superintendent. I never thought I'd be in that position. And going back to school, I never thought that would happen, but it did. Being in school, I've already faced challenges. I failed a class, but it's a learning step for me. I’m retaking the course and feel like I'm doing much better than I did before. Keep trying and never give up.
Family: I have two daughters and one on the way.
Hobbies: I like to dance at powwows. The powwows go on every weekend throughout the year. My wife and I try to attend as much as possible, but it gets expensive. That's a big hobby I have had since I was seven or eight. I also do the beadwork, feathers, and leatherwork on my regalia. I also like to snowboard and go roller skating.
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| Eric Watchman dances at SLCC Veterans Day ceremony |
Student Club Spotlight—American Indian Student Leadership Club: When I first came to SLCC in 2006, they used to have annual powwows. But when I came back here last year, I found that they had died off, and it didn't seem like AISL was alive at the time. I wanted to get involved, so I started searching for other native students and an advisor.
There were only maybe seven of us, to begin with, and I became vice president, and we started doing things. Together, we made the Spring Powwow happen and worked on Native American Heritage Month events. I feel like we’ve done a whole lot to impact the indigenous community. Now indigenous students see us, and they know they’re not the only ones here.
We wanted to give them a sense of belonging. That was the vision we had. Many native students come to college never having left the reservation. City life is very different. We do everything we can to bring the reservation into the city with games that different tribes play, dancing, and drum beating. It's a work in progress, but we are getting feedback that students know we're here.
We usually meet on Fridays from noon to two. It's a place where students can interact with one another and it's not only for native students; we invite nonindigenous people, too. We want to educate people who maybe think of indigenous people as a cliché group in a John Wayne movie. We want to tell them that's not a hundred percent accurate. We have weekly newsletters. And we send out announcements each week of our activities and where we will meet. Students who want to get those announcements should email Joseph Du Shane Navanick, the club advisor.
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| Eric Watchman promotes AISL at SLCC Mega Fair |
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