Academic Activities and Learning Trips

NACA involves students in complementary academic activities and learning trips in order to strengthen and enhance the classroom learning experience. Some examples of our commitment to academic activities include:

Student Demonstrations
National History Day Projects
Junior Achievement Job Shadow Day
Student Council
8^th Grade Emerging Leaders Development Trip to Washington D.C
South Dakota Cultural Learning Trip

Student Demonstrations

At the end of every school year, NACA celebrates student learning and growth through Student Demonstrations. Each student chooses a project that reflects their best work and demonstrates it publicly for family, peers, and community members. Through this process students also practice the skills of giving a proper introduction, sharing content knowledge, making a personal connection, bettering their visual and oral presentation skills and interacting with their community. View recent student demonstrations >>

National History Day

National History Day (NHD) is a highly regarded academic program for secondary school students across the nation. Every year several NACA students prepare in-class history projects and participate in National History Day. Students are encouraged to explore historical topics from an indigenous perspective and conduct extensive research. Once thoroughly studied and explored, students draw conclusions about their topics’ significance in history and present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances and documentaries. These products are entered into competitions in the spring at local, state and national levels where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators. Each year NACA students walk away winning awards. View recent student projects>>

Junior Achievement Job Shadow Day

This is an annual field trip that gives middle and high school students the opportunity to explore a career for a day. The purpose is to help students understand how academics are related to the world of work and jump-start their career exploration. In 2008 students shadowed workers in various jobs with the City of Albuquerque and in 2009 and 2010 students were hosted by employees at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Students and families can further investigate career pathways and preparation by visiting http://studentcenter.ja.org.

Student Council

Student Council is group of peer-elected representatives from grades 7-10 in the student body. The council is divided in to clans (“Bear” handles campus wellness, “Wolf” social activities, “Deer” community service initiatives, and “Eagle” academic and administrative affairs) which are facilitated by student council members, but are open to any member of the student body. Bear clan also publishes the Talk Box – a monthly wellness newsletter for students.

8^th Grade Emerging Leaders Development Trip to Washington D.C

DC trip Academic Activities and Learning Trips Every summer, about 30 8^th grade students take part in an Emerging Leaders Development Trip to Washington D.C. This trip is an important opportunity that promotes youth leadership for indigenous students while engaging students on a deeper academic level. It provides an experience-based understanding of the endless opportunities that higher education can provide and encourages the pursuit of academic success. Students who attend this trip are greatly impacted, and strive for completing their high school education in a more focused and determined manner and begin making plans for college. The trip also creates awareness of the significance of Washington D.C./U.S. government and importance of government to government relationships (i.e. federal, tribal, state).

South Dakota Cultural Learning Trip

The first South Dakota Cultural Learning Trip took place in May of 2010 in order to deepen the educational experience that students received in Lakota class throughout the school year. During this week-long trip, students and chaperones drove from Albuquerque to North & South Dakota and visited Rosebud, Pine Ridge, and Standing Rock Sioux Reservations. Students visited Wounded Knee Historical site, Sitting Bull’s Sundance Ground and Burial site, colleges and universities, KILI “Voice of the Lakota Nation” radio station, and Thunder Valley Lakota youth organization. Students also experienced a deeper connection with the people of these regions by receiving teachings and talks from elders, visits with families and participating in sweat lodge ceremonies.