Richard Gomez: Chumash Tribe builds new future with education

We are in the process of collecting this year’s graduation numbers. But, for 2012, we had 46 of our family members graduate, from the high school to doctorate levels.

We’ve had our students admitted to a number of four-year universities, ranging from Michigan Technical University to the University of San Francisco to the University of Hawaii. Others have transferred to four-year schools such as California Lutheran University and California State University, Long Beach.

We’ve had our family members accepted to graduate schools from New York University (fine arts) to Tufts University and the University of Virginia (medicine).

In all, we have 67 community members pursuing higher education — 60 enrolled in colleges and universities, and seven enrolled in vocational and trade schools.