Katsitsatekanoniahkwa Destiny Lazore, a rising senior communication and rhetorical studies major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and political science major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences (with a minor in Native American studies) and a member of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, has been named as a 2025 recipient of a prestigious Udall Scholarship in the field of Tribal Public Policy.

The Udall Foundation awards scholarships to college sophomores and juniors for leadership, public service and commitment to issues related to Native American nations or to the environment. Lazore is one of 55 students nationwide selected this year. She and her fellow Udall Scholars will engage in an orientation in August to meet one another and program alumni; learn more about the Udall legacy of public service; and interact with community leaders in environmental fields, tribal health care and governance.

Lazore’s goal is to work as a curriculum and policy consultant for Indigenous-serving schools. “I want to create educational standards that help students succeed while preserving Native traditions, history and languages,” she says.

After graduating, she plans to pursue a master’s degree in educational leadership at Hawaii Pacific University and return to her community to expand Kanien’kėha (Mohawk) language immersion programs with students across all age groups. She also wants to integrate cultural practices, such as ceremonies, storytelling, traditional ecological knowledge and bushcraft, into everyday learning.

“Elders and community leaders must have a stronger voice in shaping curriculum and school policies, ensuring that education aligns with Haudenosaunee values,” Lazore says. “I aim to incorporate the natural world and hands-on, project-based Haudenosaunee learning approaches to foster high standards of literacy, critical thinking and quantitative skills, empowering Native students for success. An educated Native person is a powerful one. Knowledge is a form of resistance and self-determination.”

As a first-generation college student who attended underfunded and under-resourced schools, Lazore often found that getting ahead was up to her. “I would go to the library after school and read, and if there was a word I didn’t understand, I’d look it up in the dictionary,” she says. When high school teachers were less than encouraging, she worked harder to prove them wrong. When she came to Syracuse University with her mom for an interview, she says she knew this is where she belonged. When she was accepted, she was over the moon. In her first semester, she eagerly engaged in academic and campus life.

Lazore has been making the most of her Syracuse experience through many research and outreach opportunities. She has worked as a research assistant to Chie Sakakibara, associate professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School, on her National Science Foundation-funded grant, Indigenous Northern Landscapes, Visual Repatriation and Collaborative Knowledge Exchange. Lazore traveled with Sakakibara to Japan, where she engaged with Indigenous communities and visited museums and archives to document environmental justice issues and foster transnational Indigenous alliance-building.

In 2022, as a first-year student, Lazore built a database composed of 40 resources for the University’s Bird Library focusing on Indigenous authors and topics such as Indian residential schools, decolonization methods, oral traditions and Native American literature. The inspiration for the project came from the idea that Indigenous history extends beyond the Euro-centric narrative often presented. “I focused on including authors affiliated with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and other Native American tribes to empower Native scholars and community members reclaiming sovereignty over their narratives,” she says.

Lazore has been very involved with Indigenous Students at Syracuse and served as director of Indigenous Affairs for the Student Association. She has also engaged in outreach beyond campus. In the summer of 2024, she organized a series of workshops at Tewatohnhi’saktha in Kahnawà:ke to empower Indigenous students through education, culture and financial literacy.

“Destiny’s academic success, significant research experiences, commitment to campus and public service, and clear focus on a future career dedicated to serving Native American communities made her a truly outstanding candidate for the Udall Scholarship,” says Jolynn Parker, director of the Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA). Lazore worked with CFSA on her application materials and to receive campus endorsement as a Udall candidate.

Lazore will study abroad in London in the fall 2025 semester. There, she hopes to visit libraries, museums and archives and engage in research on Indigenous communities.

Looking to the future, Lazore envisions working in her community with students—as a mentor, an advocate and a counselor on the college application process.

“I have flourished from all the support from my professors, my academic advisors and especially the Native Student Program,” Lazore says. “I’m glad I have never stopped believing in myself. And I want other people, other Indigenous students, to feel the same way.”

About the Udall Foundation

Established by Congress in 1992, the Udall Foundation awards scholarships, fellowships and internships for study in fields related to the environment and to Native Americans and Alaska Natives in fields related to health care and tribal public policy; provides funding to the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy to conduct policy research and outreach on the environment and related themes and to the Native Nations Institute for research, education and outreach on Native American and Alaska Native health care issues and tribal public policy issues; and provides assessment, mediation, training and other related services through the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution.

The Udall scholarship honors the legacies of Morris Udall and Stewart Udall, whose careers had a significant impact on Native American self-governance, health care and the stewardship of public lands and natural resources. Universities may nominate up to eight students for the Udall Scholarship each year. The Udall selection process at Syracuse University is administered by CFSA. Interested students should contact CFSA in November. Applications are due in mid-March.

By Kelly Homan Rodoski