The gentrification of the Mission District brought a "gang list" that affected young people in a 60-block radius, limiting their freedom of movement and association. Vicente Garcia used his 2007 Young People For fellowship to organize the community to stop the gang list.
Valerie Collins
(vcollins)
Oglala Lakota College
2008 Fellow
Valerie is a half-Walker-River-Paiute, half-Cheyenne-River-Sioux-Lakota woman who hails from Milpitas, Calif. Many would say she exemplifies Lakota values, especially respect, generosity and humility. She took care of both of her parents until August 2007, when her mother passed on, and now continues to look after her father in Dupree, S.D. Family is vitally important to her. Valerie is editor of the campus newspaper and has been involved in creating a campus government since spring 2007, which she is now Vice President of. Most notibly, Val is the current Historian for the AIHEC Student Congress, a group serving over 37,000 tribal college students across the US and Canada. Outside of school, she co-founded a suicide prevention organization for the community and strives to bring Lakota and Paiute artifacts back to their homes from various museums across the country. Valerie has attained her AA in Literature and Communication from OLC in May '08 and is now working on a degree in Lakota Studies. Her next step is to go on to the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, NM to recieve her BA in Museum Studies.