During spring commencement this Saturday, Jaydee Weatherwax — a member of the Blackfeet Tribe from Browning — will become one of the first Native Americans to earn a master’s degree in social work from Carroll College in Helena.
And while the college plans to honor her with its first-ever graduation drumming ceremony, the accomplishment hasn’t quite hit her yet. Her journey through higher education, she said, was far from easy as she faced past trauma and self-doubt as a student.
“I was exposed to things in one way or another throughout my entire life,” Weatherwax told Montana Free Press. “I’ve always been negatively impacted by being exposed, whether it’s domestic violence or drugs, addiction, alcoholism … coming from loved ones, just people who surrounded me. I feel like that’s a huge part of my journey.”
Weatherwax recalled a negative experience with a therapist provided by the Indian Health Service when she was in high school. It was a moment that both challenged and motivated her.
“I remember a comment that made me feel so dumb and uncomfortable and not believed,” Weatherwax said. “I never went back. I thought, ‘Well therapy [is] dumb,’ like I just had a huge stigma against counseling.”
Around 2015, Weatherwax took a position as a behavioral specialist for the Great Falls Public School District where she worked closely with a young student who was experiencing issues. Weatherwax said the student’s own traumas reflected back to her own childhood, and she realized that what an individual is exposed to when they’re young can affect them as adults, which left an impact on her.
“It’s the first [time] that I seen it through a different lens, and I was ready to give it another try,” Weatherwax said. “I think once I got into therapy, and I continued to work alongside of that, I always said, ‘This is what I want to do.’”
That decision to seek counseling again ultimately helped her earn an associate’s degree in chemical dependency counseling and a bachelor’s degree in social work from Salish Kootenai College in northwest Montana.
After earning her bachelor’s degree, Weatherwax, with the encouragement and support of family and peers, decided to pursue a master’s degree and applied to the program at Carroll College. The idea was admittedly intimidating.
Because Carroll is a private, Catholic school with a smaller Native population than other Montana colleges, Weatherwax was unsure how her learning experience would unfold.
“I started at Carroll, and let me tell you, it was the scariest feeling,” she said. “I felt like such a small fish in a big sea with everybody.”
Erin Butts, an associate professor for the social work program at Carroll, was one of the faculty that supported Weatherwax and assisted her in applying to the school. Butts has a background in working with Indigenous communities in Montana, and while Carroll is working to become more welcoming to Native students, she said, it still has a ways to go.
The college’s master’s in social work program was recently accredited and received grants from the Montana Healthcare Foundation and Indigenous Collaborations that funded tuition and other costs for three Indigenous students, including Weatherwax.
“We’re on land that does not belong to us, that will not be given back because that is our colonized society,” Butts said. “I think Carroll uniquely represents all of that. And we also, I think, are in a time where people are wanting to be part of shifting that too. But it has to happen thoughtfully, authentically. It matters. Jaydee’s experience this last year really matters.”
James Petrovich is the chair of the department of social work and director of the master’s program at Carroll. He said Weatherwax’s participation has influenced the program in many ways and what he sees for the future of the social work program.
“It needs to be an environment where people feel supported and that they can thrive and then they feel like they can pursue their goals and dreams of being a social worker with the goal of going back and serving their communities,” Petrovich said. “That to me is the best thing, and Jaydee is paving that way.”
Carroll will host its 2024 spring commencement on Saturday, May 11, at 1 p.m., to celebrate the school’s 265 graduating students. After graduation, Weatherwax plans to continue her career in social work in Missoula.
“I hope I can be an example to others from back home and throughout Indian country,” Weatherwax said. “Insert yourself in those situations, in these types of places. Insert yourself where you actually want to go and don’t let fear hold you back.”
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