2019 Indigenous Communities Fellowship

The Navajo Nation....Dreams Taking Flight!

Team Leader

Sam Bouchard

Our Solution

Our tagline:

The youth of the Nation will soar into the future.

Our pitch:

Providing a trade and employment where the younger Navajos could work from within and around their homes. We are proposing to bring in training programs, provide cutting edge resources and facilities where students can learn the skills necessary for flying drones. This could be anywhere from software development to technical teachings. This will change the community both economically and historically for providing this culture, that has famously struggled, a way to merge their history with the 21st century. Our biggest barrier to reaching new people is just the finances and the people needed to carry out the dream.

Our solution's stage of development:

Idea

Where our project is located:

Bluff, UT, USA

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Bluff, UT, USA

How we use technology in our project:

Existing technology. Our proposal isn't exactly using technology in a new way so much as it is providing resources to train the youth surrounding and on the Navajo reservation on technology that could provide them with the ability to work here and therefore add to their community. Our solution would also resources for new technologies to be developed.

What makes our project innovative:

We see this place and these kids that we have grown up with in a future where they may become the research center, knowledge providers and experts on drone flying, building, repairing, and innovating for the future of our country. All this in a place and a way that would employ us (them) and allow us (them) to stay where we (they) grew up and add to our communities. We see this as being a creation for jobs and self sufficiency for the youth on the Navajo nation.

How our project will be accessible and affordable to our community:

There are many grant opportunities for native students to attend schools. Bluff Utah is just North across the river from the Navajo reservation. If this training center was successful we could see grants being made available for these students.

We grew up attending Navajo elementary schools and recognize fist hand the struggles within this culture. We can only dream of solutions for many of the difficulties this culture faces. Some of these difficulties stem from local opportunities.

Our future project goals:

This project is in the dream stages. Our goal is to provide resources, trainings, opportunities, and a way to come to be known. Why shouldn't the Navajo youth come to be known as the pilots, experts, trainers, innovators, knowledge base and training centers for drone technology while paving the way to forge America into an untold future. They are a face of our future and should be a strong one. The Navajo youth would be provided with jobs and opportunities as well as a future within their community and our country would once again support the real American dream!

Highlights from our project:

Our project is an idea, a dream. We are local boys that are growing up here and have dreams of facilitating opportunities for those in this place that is our home. We do not have the resources or support and have not started working on this yet. Maybe one day this could become a reality for my friends and this culture.

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Why we are applying to Solve:

I grew up in Navajo elementary schools because my mom was a teacher and we live right across the river from the navajo nation. I have seen first hand the struggles these individuals face. I believe that SOLVE could help us realize this dream by putting us in connection with by helping us make connections with the people we would need to have connections with to help turn this dream into reality.