title: Launching native health leaders: students as community-campus ambassadors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ancient teaching styles such as storytelling can help Native students to navigate the educational pipeline, and become forces for shaping health and research landscapes. Many experience isolation on campuses where these worldviews are marginalized.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Launching Native Health Leaders (LNHL) reduces academic isolation by creating an environment where students identify with Native values while exposing them to health and research career opportunities and interdisciplinary professional and community networks. Student experiences and the LNHL mentoring approach are described through phases of the Hero's Journey, a universal mythic story of human struggle and transformation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Undergraduates were recruited to attend health and research conferences through college and university student service programs. Tribal community representatives led group discussions focused on tribal health issues, and students explored intersections of indigenous knowledge with community-based participatory research (CBPR) and their educational journeys.
  
  
  RESULTS
  LNHL supported more than sixty students to attend eight professional conferences since 2006 that included themes of cancer control, tribal wellness, and indigenous knowledge systems for health. Students pursuing higher degrees and community service careers participated in conference sessions, small group discussions, and reflection activities with professional and tribal community mentors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mainstream academic systems must include indigenous voices at all levels of leadership to shift the direction of health trends. LNHL builds capacity for community-based efforts by balancing Indigenous and academic mentoring and empowering Native students to navigate their personal journeys and create pathways to serve the needs of Indigenous peoples. Students from other marginalized groups may benefit from an LNHL mentoring approach.
authors.affiliation: Seattle, Washington, USA.
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Segrest
authors.forename: Rosalina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: James
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Madrid
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fernandes
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D005260:Female; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D008611:Mentors; D013334:Students; D014830:Vocational Guidance; D000078329:Workforce