A frybread fundraiser is considered to be both a social and cultural way for our organization to raise funds on campus. Students volunteer their time to make traditional frybread tacos a couple of times a month. We purchase all the ingredients ourselves and sell the frybread tacos to CSM students, faculty, and staff at reasonable prices. When sponsored, AISES frybread fundraisers generally raise sufficient funds for social events, cultural events, and our general meetings.
Our student chapter holds bi-weekly meetings during the school year. We have our meetings at noon and to ensure our members are not missing lunch, we provide food at our meetings. We use our meetings to inform members of upcoming social, professional, and academic events that are held on campus. In the past we have used our meetings to showcase corporations with interests in recruiting on campus. We also use our meetings to plan further social and cultural events for AISES students.
The majority of students in AISES are not Native American. For this reason, our main goals will revolve around bringing Native American awareness not only to our members but to CSM as whole through planned cultural events. The events will be anything from showing Native American movies on campus to attending Native American poetry readings at local Indian centers. We will be working with the Denver Indian Center to generate more culturally aware events to achieve this goal.
This year in addition to professional and academic development of our members, we plan to host more social events for our AISES members. These events will be both individually sponsored by AISES or in combination with other minority groups on campus. These events will include attending local concerts, attending local sporting events, and going to local gaming centers such as a bowling alley.
This year we plan to host the 2nd Annual Paint Ball Tournament. AISES is a small group on campus and in an effort to recruit more members, we are trying to involve more of the CSM campus. Sporting events are a great way to network, socialize, and recruit more AISES members. We plan to host the 2nd Annual Paint Ball Tournament at a local paint ball venue, and it will be open to all CSM students.
In November 2007, David Nelson, an AISES member, passed away from long term illness. David was an active member in AISES as well as the CSM community. In lue of gifts and flowers for his funeral, his family requested that people donate to our AISES chapter. AISES hosted a Friendship Powwow in remembrance of David Nelson.
Last spring we hosted the second traditional powwow on campus with over 200 people in attendance from the CSM community as well as the Native American community using the donated funds. Additionally, using the financial support from CSM and other corporate sponsors, the event was free to all those in attendance.
The powwow showcased traditional tribal dancing and Native American culture. The event also included free Navajo tacos made by AISES students as well as the Nelson family.
To honor David's memory, our organization plans to host this powwow annually, officially named "The CSM AISES Friendship Powwow."
The 3-day event includes a Career Fair, nationally recognized speakers, panel discussions, and workshops geared towards students, teachers, and professionals. Last year we sent eleven students to the AISES National Conference, hosted in Anaheim, CA. This is the most students we have ever sent to a national conference from the CSM chapter.
We plan to send 15 students to this year's conference hosted in Portland, OR. Students are responsible for their own meals and up to $100 out of pocket expenses to cover registration, hotel, and flight. The majority of costs are incurred by AISES.
This year AISES is going to implement an American Indian History Month event to increase awareness of North American Native culture within the CSM community. The events we are planning include a special presentation from the Denver Indian Center along with a performance by a group of Native American dancers.
AISES hopes that these events will inspire members of the CSM community to learn more about Native American culture, and realize the impact that Native Americans have had on the United States.