Being Native American in today’s world can come with many struggles. From the many statistics placed on us, generational trauma, and living in two different worlds, there is a lot for younger generations to overcome. I am from the Te’Moak Western Shoshone tribe and was raised in a very traditional home while living in the city and traveling to the reservation for everything cultural. I played rez ball for eight years, am a part of the Nevada Native American Youth Council, where I have been able to advocate for many things, such as MMIW and cultural appropriation, and am also a jingle dancer. Seeing life on the reservation versus life in the city throughout my life allowed me to understand the struggles of both. My mom was brought up as a ward of Te’Moak, per ICWA, which allowed me to understand the importance of being raised within our culture among our youth and the mental health struggles that come from being in the system. Mental health has always been significant to me. I am currently double majoring in psychology and social work with the goal of intertwining my cultural traditions and beliefs with my degrees. I want to become a licensed clinical social worker, working with my people to make a difference for our youth. I want to be able to make a difference by helping Native youth be able to receive the mental health help they need while also being able to tie in our culture. Seeing a non-indigenous social worker can be challenging as they do not understand us on the same level. I want to be able to advocate for our youth and make a difference. In the future, I would like to be able to start a program for Native youth to provide them with a place to receive mental health help, resources and necessities, and also knowledge of our culture. Teach about our medicines, language, stories, traditions, and history. I would like to tie all of this in with mental health, with the most significant focus being our youth having a safe place to express their emotions and receive guidance. Overall I want to be able to make a difference for our people as a whole. It is very important to be understood and have someone to relate to and talk to that understands where you are coming from. No one truly understands us and our situations more than we do with each other. With not many Native Americans in the line of work to be social workers and psychologists I want to be able to use my culture with my career to make a difference for our youth and be an advocate for our people. By receiving my education and going into the career that I have chosen I am going to be able to make a difference for others and reach all of my dreams as well as be a role model for our youth.