Ashlyn Adakai, a student at Northland Pioneer College
At around 1 p.m., Adakai and her dad, a mechanic, get in the car to leave home on a Navajo reservation near Page, Arizona. They drive about three hours, or 150 miles. When they reach campus and Adakai joins her class, her dad waits in the car until she finishes, often not until 9 p.m. The two drive three hours back in the pitch-black night, past silhouettes of canyons. Around midnight, they arrive home.
“I’m always strict with not wanting to miss a class,” said Adakai. “I get a little emotional thinking about everything my family has done for me. They have been a big part of my college education. They will drop anything for me just so I can go to my labs.”
Adakai is one of six siblings and the first in her family to go to college. She also receives a Pell Grant, federal aid that supports students from low-income households. The few times Adakai’s dad can’t drive his daughter because of his work, her older brother has made the trek.
Adakai explained what drives her and her family to keep going.
“There is hardly any accessible health care where I live on a Navajo reservation,” said Adakai. “You need to drive hours to get to a hospital. I’ve had personal experience with that problem in my family. They have been through a lot. My dream is to hopefully be a doctor and come back to serve my community.”
With the expense of gas only rising, Adakai has been able to afford her commute thanks to an NPC scholarship that covers students’ travel costs. But Adakai said that she would not have known about that aid if she had not felt comfortable asking an NPC staff member for help.
