KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority is partnering with Haskell Indian Nations University for a pilot program.
It's a business internship for Native American and other minority students in an effort to give them a realistic look at the business and construction workload, MBE/WBE bidding processes, marketing and to help students rebuild infrastructure in their communities.
Chantel Yazzie is in her fourth year at Haskell. She's been a part of the internship for about three weeks now and says it's been going really well.
"The biggest takeaways that I have learned is learning to lead with the heart, and being able to lead and have people who want to follow you and not being afraid," Yazzie said. "I know that's a lot when you want to start your own business as well. That's the biggest thing. And I know that, yes, I'm learning all this stuff about KCATA, which is really, it's amazing it's very knowledgeable. But in reality, the biggest thing that I'm taking is how to lead with heart."
Yazzie, who is Native American, says what she learns here in Kansas City, she'll take back to her Navajo Reservation in New Mexico to address the construction deficiencies.
"There aren't many houses, aren't many homes, I've experienced that I know growing up. My mom had the hardest time finding housing," Yazzie said. "You see houses that haven't been painted correctly, broken windows. And I just want to be able to make the Navajo Nation full of housing because it's a beautiful place to be. I'm not too sure if you've seen it, but there's beautiful mesas. It's a beautiful place, and I want people to be able to stay in be there with their families, be retired and come back to their to our community as well."
KCATA President, Robbie Makinen said the internship is a win-win for both interns and KCATA.
"Not only are we giving her the benefit of some on the job experience when it comes to either finance or accounting or HR or that kind of thing, she's giving it back to us, with talking about the Navajo nation and traditions," Makinen said. "And that's just as much value."
Makinen's goal is to get interns actual real work-life experience in management, supervision and work development.
"I hope that she gets the opportunity, and she's going to learn about certification for MBA web disadvantaged businesses," Makinen said. "She wants to go back to the Navajo Nation and be able to build some homes for people on the reservation, and hopefully she can get the skills that she needs as a part of this partnership because we're definitely getting value out."
One of the key internship goals is, "Native American students are encouraged to share their Native American history and business knowledge to support KCATA's employee diversity and leverage vendor diversity and DBS/SBE Certification of Native firms."
For Yazzie, she's looking forward to taking what she's learned in Kansas City back to her Reservation in New Mexico, while also spreading awareness about her culture.
"Being a Navajo is very beautiful. We have a beautiful language. We have a beautiful land that we live on. And that's just who I am, everything's beautiful about who I am. I am full of Native blood, and I think that's very, I think that's very exciting," Yazzie said. "KCATA is the one who gave me the chance to learn all this and be the start of my future. That's what it will be for me, and not only for me but for the people that I am wanting to help."
