In 2012, Mary Hudetz, the vice president for the Native American Journalists Association and reporter at the Associated Press, reached out to me to invite me to join the host committee for the Native American Journalists Association’s 2013 national convention to be hosted in Phoenix and Tempe, Ariz.

After agreeing to be a part of the committee, I was then recruited to be the photo editor for the student projects, overseeing 19 high school and college students on their visual projects, and the overall visual presentation for the student projects. I chose to take the screenshot above because the image featured in the carousel was taken by one of my high school students who, before the project, had never taken photos using a professional digital single lens reflex (dslr) camera. Autum did a terrific job photographing the opening ceremonies, as did the other students who produced photo essays, and photographed during the project.

Click the image above to visit the site.