Generating Tribal Energy: For former University of New Mexico Regent Sandra Begay-Campbell, moving from the sunny Southwest to frigid Grand Rapids, Mich. to pursue a college degree was not just shocking to her physically, but emotionally, too. “I stuck out like a sore thumb,” she says in front of a crowd of graduate students, professors and administrators at the National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education held in May of this year in New York. She lasted only one semester and returned to her hometown community college, which suited her better and paved the way for her to transfer to the University of New Mexico’s main campus to earn a degree in civil engineering.
