IAIA 2018 Student of the Year Announced
On behalf of Financial Aid Director Lara Trujillo-Barela and the IAIA Student of the Year Committee, I am pleased to announce that Charlie Cuny (Oglala Lakota) has been selected as IAIA’s 2018 Student of the Year (an award that is sponsored by the American Indian College Fund).
Cuny, a Junior, who is majoring in Studio Arts with a concentration in painting and has maintained a high academic grade point average. She is also an American Indian College Fund Scholar and Cobell Scholar. In addition, she is an award-winning artist and has engaged in leadership and service activities at IAIA, with her tribe and other Indian organizations. Cuny’s educational goals are to graduate with a BFA and then to complete her Master’s degree in Art Therapy. She then plans to return home to use her education and training to help her tribe.
—IAIA President Dr. Robert Martin (Cherokee)
“The desire to achieve a college degree must be instilled in the youth by role modeling and shaping their environment. I wish to be a positive role model for the younger generations with my college education and to set a path for children with the dream to succeed. As a young Native woman from a little community on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, I can relate to and understand the wants and needs of the youth—showing the youth that a college degree is necessary but that it takes sacrifice and self-discipline.”
IAIA Student of the Year Charlie Cuny
