“Culture is Wisdom” – Board Spotlight: Dr. Star!

In order  to better understand ourselves, we at Cultural Coalition, Inc. want to give the public a deeper look behind the scenes. So we started the Board Member Appreciation blogs. This week’s inaugural board member is Dr. Mark Sorensen. Dr. Sorensen has been a board member since 2018.  He lives in Northern Arizona and makes the trek down to the Valley to attend our regular board meetings. Dr. Sorensen is the founder of a ground breaking tri-lingual (Diné/Spanish/English) school near the Navajo reservation. Mark told us about himself and his background. 

“How I introduce myself depends on who I am talking to. I have spent the past 40+ years living and working in Navajo country, so if I am introducing myself to Navajo folks, I generally will say, in Navajo, where I come from, or in closer translation, ‘where I walk around’. Which is this area near the edge of the Navajo Nation, surrounded by ancient volcanoes, where my home and the school are located. I grew up in an urban environment just outside of Chicago, but I came out to the ‘rez’ in my early twenties, and have been a principal or CEO of tribal schools most of that time. I have three adult children and five delightful grandchildren. I live in an off-grid solar powered house I built.

The focus of my doctoral studies was in the area of Indian self-determination in education and in my career I have helped to start several schools serving indigenous communities around the country. I was the co-founder and Principal of the STAR (Service To All Relations) School, which opened its doors in 2001, and where I am now the CEO/President.

The STAR School is an off-grid, solar powered charter school with 150 students preK through 8th grade. Nearly all of our students are Navajo. Our school is well known for being self-sustaining, emphasizing place-based and culturally informed education. We also emphasize healthy, locally grown food,  including food we grow in our own greenhouses, and clean water for students and staff. In addition to serving these foods in our cafeteria, we do outreach into the surrounding Navajo communities to provide families with greenhouses to grow their own food and water filtration units to reduce contaminants in local wells.

I am hopeful that the work I/we are doing is inspiring to people in other indigenous communities throughout the country. I have published a few articles and chapters in books about the various culturally- informed practices we do in our school and the feedback I have received indicates that people are hungry to see signs of hope in ways of education in indigenous communities.
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“In my own view, the work of Culture Coalition is to remind everyone, through experience in the arts, of the deep knowledge, wisdom and celebration of the indigenous roots of Chicano and Mexican American culture.  By providing these artistic experiences within our Indigenous and Chicano communities, I think Culture Coalition can help revive the sense of community that will make Arizona stronger and more vibrant.”

I would like to tell others that there is nothing more valuable than investing in your own community. I honor what Carmen and Zarco have done in this way over the years and I believe a big part of our job at Culture Coalition is to make the vision shared by Carmen and Zarco sustainable.”

Dr. Sorensen has been instrumental in the shaping of Cultural Coalition’s growth and we look forward to his continued service on our board. 

For more information about STAR school please visit: http://www.starschool.org/