UNITY Youth Highlight
Mahiya Ramirez’s experience at the 2024 Reservation Economic Summit expanded the circle of people she could learn from and connect with through UNITY. Attending March 11–14 in Las Vegas with fellow executive committee members and UNITY staff, she valued conversations with organizations, youth leaders, and people encouraging the committee’s service.
Ramirez, a Muscogee youth leader, served as Southern Plains Representative in UNITY’s 2023–2024 National UNITY Council Executive Committee cohort. The cohort connects regional councils and individual members, represents Native youth perspectives, and develops leadership through cooperation and community service.
“This was an awesome opportunity that was presented to the Executive Committee!” Ramirez wrote. Her enthusiasm reflected the range of relationships she encountered through the gathering.
She highlighted “the ability to network with all the amazing organizations present at the conference” and the opportunity to talk with youth leaders involved in American Indigenous Business Leaders. Those exchanges connected UNITY representatives with peers developing leadership in another organizational setting.
Ramirez also valued “all the encouraging words shared with the executive committee throughout the conference!!” Recognition and encouragement from others were meaningful parts of the experience, alongside the opportunity to introduce herself and make connections.
Her related spring reports place RES within a continuing pattern of outreach. At February’s UNITY Midyear Conference in Phoenix, she drew inspiration from youth working to help their communities. At the Potato Dance World Competition at the First Americans Museum, she met former UNITY participants and groups interested in the organization.
RES broadened that pattern into a gathering with organizations and emerging leaders from across Indian Country. For a regional representative, engaging with that wider network supports the communication and relationship-building at the center of the executive committee’s purpose.
The experience connects with UNITY’s social and leadership development goals: learning alongside peers, encountering different forms of service, and building confidence through participation. Ramirez’s account emphasizes the people who made those opportunities memorable.
“It couldn’t have been a better trip!” she shared. Behind that reflection was a week of conversations and encouragement that added to her experience representing Southern Plains youth within a national leadership network.
