Improve and enhance the health and well-being of our communities and environments through outreach programs and in collaboration with our constituents and partners.
Husband and wife Lee and Reinette Tendore moved their family to Laramie from the Wind
River Indian Reservation to pursue their degrees at the University of Wyoming, where
they have both become campus leaders.
Lee, a Marine Corps veteran and Eastern Shoshone tribal member, is originally from
Fort Washakie. Reinette, an enrolled Northern Arapaho tribal member, is from Ethete.
Eventually, the Tendores plan to take their education back to the reservation and
make a difference there.
“I hope to return back to the Wind River Reservation and help my tribal people out
in any way possible by using my degree,” says Lee, a Native American studies major.
“I hope to inspire others to further their education and show them that is possible
to attend college no matter your age or if you have a family and children.”
For Lee, UW’s affordability, scholarships, proximity to home and ease of transferring
were all factors in his decision to come here.
“UW attracted me because it was easy to transfer to coming from a Wyoming community
college,” he says. “I also had received scholarships at UW, and that was the big deciding
factor. I am a married father of three, and I needed all the help I could get.”
Reinette, who earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 2009 and just
completed a master’s degree in social work, served as the coordinator of UW’s inaugural
Native American Summer Institute in 2017. The institute brought 28 Native students
to campus for a week of a activities with a goal of helping the young people become
acquainted with Wyoming’s university—and encourage them to attend college.
“It’s exciting to have this program to show Native students what college is like and
why UW is a great place to go to college,” she says.
The institute coincided with UW’s opening of a Native American Center, where classes,
lectures, research, performances, exhibitions, meetings, collaborative work, traditional
meals and traditions of Native peoples will be celebrated.
“It’s nice knowing that the Native kids who come to UW will have a place to go for
support and community,” says Reinette, who earned the 2017 Willena Stanford Commitment
to Diversity Award at UW. Both Lee and Reinette were involved in UW’s Keepers of the
Fire registered student organization. The group’s mission is to keep Native American
culture alive and strong while promoting culture and diversity.
Reinette hopes programs like the summer institute will help more Native Americans
choose to come to UW: “If I had known more about UW in high school, I think I would
have come here right after graduation, because it’s a great university, and it’s not
far from home.”
Can home gardening improve health? While most would guess yes, Christine M. Porter, Wyoming Excellence Chair in Community and Public Health, is studying this very topic in the first randomized control study on the subject.
This new five-year, National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded project comes on the heels of her previous project, Food Dignity, which focused on communities creating sustainable food systems that build food security.
Read the full profile for Wyoming Excellence Chair in Community and Public Health Christine Porter
Christine Porter
Wyoming Excellence Chair in Community and Public Health, is studying the health impacts
of gardens with Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho families in Wyoming.
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