Page 30 - 2023 February Report

February Report 2023
Arizona and New Mexico Trip Report (4)
Michael Bates, Christa Moya, Angelique Albert, Sherry Salway Black, Bobby Krause and Sara LaBarge at the headquarters of Native Forward Scholars Fund.
Native Forward Scholars Fund (previously American Indian Graduate Center)
JSF made an endowment grant to the American Indian Graduate Center in 2020. AIGC is the oldest and largest Native scholarship program, recently celebrating their 50th anniversary (in 2020 but deferred because of pandemic). AIGC just went through a rebranding to Native Forward Scholars Fund (NFSF). Angelique Albert is the CEO who has been linked to JSF through American Indigenous Business Leaders, Salish Kootenai College and Gonzaga MBA-AIE. We visited the new office building for NFSF which they purchased and moved into this past November. It is beautiful space and meeting the staff and learning about their programs for Native students was so heartwarming and inspiring. We were able to meet one-on-one with Christa Moya, Director of Scholarship Operations; Michael Bates, Scholarship Operations Manager; and Sara LaBarge,
Director of Strategic Partnerships. As a reminder, JSF funded an endowment for scholarships for Accounting and Finance include undergraduate, graduate and professional training and certification. The most recent reports show that over the last two cycles, NFSF awarded nine scholarships and awarded scholarships to five for the CPA examination tests. Bobby and I were also able to have dinner with Angelique and Sara. Note: Angelique will be in attendance at the March board meeting.
28