 "Photo: Asher Swan")
Lori Arviso Alvord’s seeked to inspire the convocation audience to achieve greatness in all pursuits at Tuesday’s combined convocation celebrating Native American and Women’s Week.
“Follow your dreams, use your resources, and work, work, work,” Alvord told the audience.
As a Stanford School of Medicine graduate, Alvord weaves her knowledge of modern Western medicine with her heritage of Navajo culture.
Her main goal is to not only administer proficient healthcare, but to treat the whole patient through traditional healing.
Alvord has spent her entire life balancing her two passions, her education and her strong heritage.
She grew up in humble circumstances in Crownpoint, New Mexico and as a child faced many struggles.
She often referred to her home as an “uncertain place.”
Alvord’s father faced a continuous battle with alcoholism.
“I never knew if he’d come home or not, or if he’d be injured, or have injured someone else,” she said.
Despite her challenges Alvord said she pressed forward with great determination.
From an early age she said something just clicked in her mind and she knew she had to be prepared for the future.
“I needed to get an education and be able to support my family,” she said.
Alvord excelled in school and pursued her education.
She left the familiar dusty roads of New Mexico to continue her education and pursue a career that would provide for her family.
She said she often questioned if she could continue.
“I felt I wasn’t smart enough, I just didn’t have what it takes,” Alvord said.
She said being a doctor was never in her dreams as a child, that as a Native American and a woman, it just didn’t seem like a reality — now that dream is her reality and she wants other students to do the same with their dreams.
“I would have never dreamed of being a doctor,” she said.
Alvord published a book in 1999 titled The Scalpel and Silver Bear: A Navajo Woman Surgeon’s Story. The book retells the journey that she has traveled between her two worlds of medicine techniques.
Alvord eloquently describes her struggle with merging her spiritual beliefs with her medical practices. The book has sold thousands of copies and gives an in-depth look into the Native American culture.
Shobha Gurung, assistant professor of sociology said the book was insightful.
“It is a wonderful insight into another culture. She talks about the balance and harmony in the respect of the family,” she said.
The audience seemed to walk away inspired and motivated after Alvord’s convocation.
Josh Gardner, a senior hotel, resort & hospitality major from Whiterocks, said Alvord’s speech opened his eyes “to see how today’s modern practices are beginning to combine with traditional ways to complement each other.”
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