Hola, my name is Talen, but I usually go by Tk. I’m a sophomore at Navajo Preparatory High School in Farmington and this is my second year in Evolvement. I heard about Evolvement when we had an after-school event called “Club Rush”. I heard what Evolvement advocated for and I automatically knew it was something I wanted to join. Raising awareness is something that I strongly believe is right especially when it comes to raising awareness about drug use. Then when I learned that I get to be a part of creating actual change in my community, I knew I had to join.
Our training happened back in September and we went over our responsibilities, played games, ate subway, and collected surveys. My favorite activity was the survey collecting because I was able to interact with people I don’t usually talk to and inform them on what Evolvement is. Collecting surveys is something you become very familiar with while you’re in the program. We collect surveys at every event we host so that we can compile the opinions of the people from our state. Once we have all of that information about what the people want to see changed, we can bring that information to our decision makers and educate them about what the people care about. I’ve done survey collections at games, council meetings, board meetings, and even at principal meetings.
One memorable opportunity I participated in was an assembly at Crownpoint Elementary School. For this event, I met with Evolvement staff, and worked on a powerpoint presentation. I was excited to educate the young kids on how drug use is a terrible thing to get into. They were very invested in what I had to say, and they had so many questions. It was really great to see that even young kids understand the dangers of tobacco and nicotine.
Being a member of Evolvement has opened me up to realizing there is a lot more nicotine use than I thought. It also made me realize that it is great to have young advocates striving to bring awareness to small communities and schools. I have also met so many amazing people along the way and Evolvement is something I am willing to stay in because it does not only benefit me, but my community as well.
