SAC Student Spotlight - Tukwot Gollette
Find Your Wings: How an Indigenous Student Found His Voice in Two Communities
Santa Ana College student Tukwot Hamalu Momt Naka Gollette balances being the Inter-Club Council (ICC) Treasurer (2024-2025), the Treasurer for Student Senate for the California Community Colleges (SSCCC) Region VIII: Orange County, and a prominent member of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians Acjachemen Nation.
Where were you doing one year ago? And how is it different than what you are doing now?
One year ago, I was starting to try to improve my life. After getting sober, I began trying to do better things, and I started going to school. I had never gotten an A before and I was a straight C student. Starting at school here, it was the first semester that I finally got straight A's just because I pushed myself and I believed in myself. I kept going from there.
What does it mean to you to be where you are now, highly active in two communities (student government and the Acjachemen Nation community), and a student leader that people look up to?
For me, it's important, because, being a first generation student, and also a student of Native American descent, it helps other people see that it's possible to do this.
I come from a family of gang violence. I come from people with drug addictions. I also am a year and a half sober from an alcohol addiction from when I was young.
I graduated high school with Mckinney-Vento, so I graduated with a homeless act for students. I never really saw myself getting to this point. But, being able to walk with my class on time, being able to get more involved in my community, just like my dad did, it really helped me see a different path for myself, and that there is a different way that you can go when you're starting off in such a dark place.
Being where I am now is something that I've dreamt about for a long time so just getting to pursue my goals and my passions is something that I'm really happy I've been able to do.
When did you first get involved with ICC?
I always wanted to be involved with student government. I knew that there were bigger opportunities for me, and that I could do more.
I kind of was just a student who just came to school and was just trying to get A's and go to my class and say nothing, you know? But I knew that there was more waiting out there for me.
I went to club rush in the fall, and I talked with Litzy (Chevez), the ICC president, and she was telling me “You know, there's an election today, you should show up."
And perfectly enough, there was a position for treasurer, and accounting is something I'm passionate about. So, I showed up to the election. I got elected on the spot. I had no speech or anything, but it just showed me that if you just push yourself to do those things, it'll work out for you, if it's meant for you.
How did ICC and your indigenous community play a role in your transition to SAC?
I was reconnecting when I started ICC, and ICC was a leadership thing. Then, I got into a management position at Del Taco. So, that for me was something that inspired me. And I was like, how can I bring that to school? Because I know business has a lot to do with leadership.
Reconnecting is really hard for somebody to do when it's in the native community. There's a lot of trauma– you're dealing with the trauma of your ancestors, and that transfers to your elders. So, I pushed myself to do bigger and bolder things, so that I could take that leap to come into reconnecting with an open mind– knowing that it's not gonna be easy to reconnect and get back to being involved with my community. SAC opened that up for me with student government. The opportunities that I had here that I didn't feel like were as easy to obtain at my old schools, I was able to get here (at SAC).
Reconnecting: In the context of a Native American community means actively engaging with one's tribal heritage and culture, often after a period of disconnection.
What was something difficult you faced and how did you overcome it?
So both my parents were in a facility of some kind until they were 18 years old. So, my dad got out of jail at 18, my mom got out of juvenile hall. They met in the Sun Dance community. There was a lot of trauma there– I was like a child of pain, almost. I got handed down that trauma and was the oldest son. So, I was made to deal with that as the oldest out of eight children.
I was kind of pushed into a position of leadership, forced to put myself out there. I struggled a lot. I had the addictions that were passed down to me, and the trauma that was passed down to me and my siblings. But just kind of forcing myself to see the light in that, you know? And seeing that there's other opportunities there when you have that dark situation because it's almost like a diamond in the rough. The diamond is always going to come out looking better than it did before because those challenges are going to push you to look better, and do better.
What is your next goal?
My next big goal in life is to use the opportunities that I've gotten in student government, and with SSCCC, to push myself to do bigger things in the native community as well as in business.
I hope to, in the future, start businesses that will benefit the native community and the Acjachemen community as well. There's only about 2000 Acjachemens in Orange County. And, you know, it's kind of small. So I'm pushing myself to do things that are going to directly benefit the tribe. Potentially using my student government skills to be in the tribal council someday of the Acjachemen nation. And just trying my best to follow in my dad's footsteps of what he wanted to do before he passed away.
What advice do you have for people?/What can your story help teach people?
Even if you're handed something in life that is not the greatest, everybody starts off somewhere, and it doesn't mean that you are going to fail. Even if you're scared, just push yourself to do it. You don't have to be confident to do something. You can do anything as long as you're just pushing yourself to do it. Some of the greatest people in life, they didn't start off well either. You know, like Steve Jobs started in his garage or something like that. I believe in pushing yourself to adopt that mindset and seeing yourself in that light. If nobody's going to see it for you, you have to see it for yourself.
