My name is Kallie Karlsvik and I am a DVR intern at Futures NW. I wanted to share my story of how I got here. I had a pretty typical childhood until I turned 16. When I was 16, my parents who were commercial fisherman at the time, lost their tribal spousal permits. This meant that they were not able to run their own boat anymore due to other people breaking our treaty. One person ruined this for the entire fleet. My parents lost their house, boat, vehicles, and everything they knew. I then had to fully financially support myself while in high school. I started attending running start as a junior, worked full time, and finished high school credits as well.
By then, my parents only had enough money to support themselves and my younger brother. I had to fully make those ends meet at sixteen. By then, my most cost efficient option was to do running start. Running start is when you can take college classes in high school. The high school usually pays for this and everything is paid for. By my senior year, I was graduating with my diploma and my Associate’s Degree of the Arts and worked a full time job. I felt like I was ready to take on the world, except I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I realized there was nobody in high school who talked to us about post-secondary plans after high school. I ended up taking a gap year to explore different college and different career paths on my own. Once the year ended, I discovered my ultimate goal is to become a substance use disorder counselor and work for Indian health services. I started my journey by attending Western Washington University. I am currently a human services major and will be graduating by spring of 2022. After I graduate, I plan on going to Northwest Indian College to pursue a degree in substance use disorder counseling.
I am now juggling the difficulties of going to university and the struggle of the Covid-19 pandemic. I wanted to share my story to show other Native Americans and all other students that they can do anything they set their minds to. Anything is possible if you work hard enough, and I wanted to share my living proof of that. Thank you!