GU graduate university student gets to be one particular of two scholarship recipients | News

Isabel Yasana Hawley is a graduate university student at Gonzaga University striving to build a profession that positively impacts her neighborhood and long run generations. Hawley is a person of two winners of the REDW Indigenous American Scholarship in Accounting and is pursuing a Masters in Enterprise Administration in American Indian Entrepreneurship.  

The scholarship, administered by the American Indian Graduate Centre, supplies merit-primarily based need to have for learners pursuing levels in accounting, taxation or business administration. It is sponsored by REDW, a person of the Southwest’s 10 greatest community accounting and organization advisory companies, and will help Indigenous Individuals pursuing larger education and learning levels in those fields. 

“I have normally identified that I desired to pursue better instruction,” Hawley mentioned. “The MBA-AIE degree is so distinctive as opposed to everything else out there which is what seriously sparked my desire.”  

Hawley graduated from Southern Oregon University in 2012 with a bachelor’s in organization administration and wellness and bodily instruction and a minor in Native American experiments. She was involved at her college in clubs and athletics, actively playing volleyball, taking part in multicultural golf equipment and volunteering within the community.  

Throughout her life, Hawley has been playing in All-Indian Ball tournaments as a way to hold up with her appreciate for basketball.   

“That was a way I kept active and retained my passion alive, but it also retains me connected to my community,” Hawley said.  

Hawley is an enrolled member of the Klamath Tribes, and is Klamath, Modoc and Filipina. She grew up in Coos Bay, Oregon, location of the standard villages of the Coquille, Coos, Decreased Umpqua and Siuslaw people today.  

Impressed by her spouse and children, Hawley is linked to her cultures and strives to empower her group. Her mom, a retired English trainer of 31 decades was associated with the National Indian Schooling Association and her sister performs at the Native American Rehabilitation Affiliation. Hawley and her husband, Kellen, try to go on their cultures and traditions from their backgrounds to their 4-yr-aged daughter.  

“I’m so passionate about my neighborhood, my tradition and providing back again, which is why I’m doing the job toward earning this diploma,” Hawley explained.  

She and her spouse and children are learning Klamath by their Tribe’s language software in weekly Zoom meetings.  

Hawley has worked at Nike considering that 2011, starting off as an intern ahead of returning as a deal employee and sooner or later transferring to a total-time place in electronic model advertising, where she  worked for the last 5 many years. In January, she begun a new job in Unite / Value Manufacturer Advertising and marketing.  

A single of her preferred components of Nike is the volunteer networks within just the organization. Hawley is on the NikeUNITED Indigenous American and Mates community (NAN) leadership workforce as chief of workers.  NAN focuses on recruitment, retention and academic alternatives internally for staff members. They attempt to enhance representation, give instructional chances and produce local community within just Nike.  

She has also worked with Nike’s N7 program, a fund that supports organizations that supply programs and solutions, focusing on bodily exercise and instruction, to Indigenous American youth.

“What has saved me whole in this corporate space is remaining ready to do the job with our NikeUNITED Indigenous American and Friends community,” Hawley mentioned. “With my knowledge at Nike and at N7 I come to feel like I have been able to come across these alternatives that I would have under no circumstances dreamed of.”  

Hawley is doing the job whole-time at Nike when pursuing the MBA-AIE degree, carrying out the most for herself and her family members in get to give again to her neighborhood. She aspires to pursue a doctorate right after, but has not made the decision what the precise emphasis will be.  

“I really do not know what I want to study, all I know is that I want to give back to my community by way of it and be capable to teach some others,” Hawley said.  

By her perseverance to neighborhood and empowerment, Hawley has built an affect on these she has fulfilled in the MBA-AIE plan.  

Mirjeta Beqiri, MBA courses director and professor of operations management, could not be more psyched for Hawley’s accomplishment.  

“What has amazed me most about Izzy is her determination to her research and her perseverance to excel,” Beqiri said. “Her constructive mindset, graciousness and treatment for many others, specially for the duration of this amazingly tough time, are hugely valued. She exemplifies Gonzaga’s maximum beliefs.” 

One particular of Hawley’s friends in the MBA software and government director at Northern Quest Vacation resort & On line casino, Meg Miller, a short while ago hired REDW LLC  to do accounting and fiscal audits for her business. She has been quite impressed with the business and its standing in the marketplace, generating Hawley’s selection as the scholarship winner even more substantial.   

“I believe a whole lot of Izzy, she’s an outstanding person and a fantastic colleague,” Miller mentioned. “She can see how upstream accounting would have influenced her tasks in the previous and can have an effect on her potential tasks. She can enable all people see points via that lens in this kind of a one of a kind method.” 

By means of all of the challenging do the job and worries Hawley has confronted, she is guided by a quote from American civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman. “You just cannot be what you cannot see” has inspired Hawley to pave a route for other Indigenous girls to observe in becoming leaders in both equally company The us and their personal communities.  

“There needs to be an improve in illustration in leadership roles for our Native American tribes in all sectors,” Hawley said. “I want to inspire other folks, particularly people coming from my group, to be ready to pursue a degree in business enterprise, truly feel empowered to share their voice, improve our visibility and Indigenize corporate areas and outside of.”