Natalie will be preparing to graduate on May 2010 with a BA in Theatre with emphasis on performing and directing from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. She will be the first in her family to graduate college and is very excited to set an example for her young nieces and nephews. Natalie is of Native American and Mexican Heritage and was born on and raised on the Navajo Reservation located in Arizona and New Mexico. Natalie’s latest credentials have been performing in the Fort Lewis College’s production of the musical Chicago, currently in its second week of performances, and playing Columbia in Henry Strater Theatre’s production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Natalie has performed in other various Fort Lewis College theatre productions. She has been a dominant Native American presence in the Fort Lewis College Theatre department for the past three years and enjoys working with her fellow colleagues and professors. Aside from theatre, Natalie is also a hip-hop dancer, who dances and choreographs for Fort Lewis College's Dance Co-Motion Club, a student dance organization which performs a dance show every semester of the year. She loves to dance other styles such as Salsa, Break-dancing and Krump and wishes to learn more dance styles in the years to come. As a Native American woman, Natalie experienced firsthand the struggles and problems Native American youth face on the Reservation everyday. The issues of alcoholism, drug addiction and domestic violence plaque the Navajo reservation and there are no outlets in which the youth can channel their feelings and thoughts. Her one true goal is to help the Native American youth by teaching them how to express themselves artistically rather than turning to the alternatives of alcohol, drugs and violence. Natalie feels the experience in Ecuador will give her a start on how she can use theatre to communicate with troubled Native American youth on her reservation. She wishes to gain knowledge from her fellow artistes and return home to the reservation with a determined spirit to help change her piece of the world.