Photo at right: NISBA Executive Director Carmen Cornelius-Taylor (L), hands Summer Gokey, 8th grade student in the LCO Ojibwe School, the award for National Elementary School Student of the Year, as her social studies teacher Linda Schuyler looks on.

Photo by Rick St. Germaine

by Rick St. Germaine

Oneida, Wisconsin (Akiing)

Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe School eighth grade student Summer Gokey was selected by the National Indian School Board Association at its annual summer education conference as Student of the Year: Elementary Level.

The 14-year-old strode calmly across the stage of the Oneida Convention Center on July 20 following a reading of her accomplishments, and accepted the award from Carmen Cornelius-Taylor, the organization’s executive director.

Cited by NISBA for her superb academic achievement, motivation, and resiliency in overcoming life’s obstacles, Summer thanked everyone in the Ojibwe language and paused as the audience applauded for one who has early set her goals high.

The young Ojibwe student has taken on ambitious academic and personal challenges as she works her way through life’s mysteries on a small, forested northern Wisconsin reservation.

Summer declared to a teacher last year that she would complete the academic year with a 4.0 point grade average despite physically handicapping conditions that might stop most youngsters before they even got started. She didn’t accomplish the lofty objective but she came close, and in the process, put everyone on notice that she expected no special breaks and intended to perform academically with the best in her school.

Diagnosed at one year of age with cerebral palsey, Summer has undergone multiple medical surgeries in her young life to improve her ability to walk independently and to see much better. The medical treatments delayed some of her school work but that didn’t stop her from winning the Outstanding Elementary Student of the Year award from the Wisconsin Indian Education Association at its April 2004 conference.

Not one to rest on prior achievements, she is enrolled this summer in a creative writing course at the LCO Ojibwa Community College, to strengthen skills in her interest areas – writing, expression, communications, and leadership.

“Her poetry has been read to students at school assemblies and she expresses feelings and emotion,” said Linda Schuyler, Summer’s middle school social studies teacher.

Schuyler, Summer’s favorite teacher, encouraged the entering high school freshman to pursue her dreams and do her homework.

“She’s a very independent person,” noted Schuyler, “and she’s a student who gets her homework done.”

Summer’s passion is the Ojibwe language and culture. Asked to name her favorite teacher, she quickly listed Schuyler and the language and culture staff of the LCO Ojibwe School.

“Her bedroom walls are covered with Ojibwe words and phrases,” said Schuyler at the NISBA award ceremony, “and she practiced her WIEA award thank you speech in Ojibwe for days before the conference banquet.”

“I want to be an Ojibwe language and culture teacher,” Summer replied in response to a query about her career goals following the awards ceremony, “and I want to serve on the Tribal Governing Board.”

There was a certainty to her words and in her voice. Summer Gokey, nationally recognized as the outstanding American Indian student, is on her way.