This summer, Spruce Root welcomed Carter Lewis to the team as our Sealaska Philanthropy and Development Intern. Carter was born and raised in Corinth, Mississippi, and is a rising senior studying finance at Mississippi State University. The Sealaska Internship program offered him his first opportunity to return to his Tlingit homelands in Southeast Alaska.
During his internship, Carter has worked alongside Kaylah Duncan, Spruce Root’s Development Manager, and Kayla Roberts, who manages the Sinew Fund. These two leaders at Spruce Root were especially excited for the opportunity to mentor Carter, because they both began their own careers as Sealaska Interns.
Sealaska internships give participants the opportunity to explore career interests, build professional skills, and connect with the cultures of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples. Interns spend the summer learning alongside peers who share Alaska Native heritage, building relationships and community along with their careers. Learn more about the Sealaska Internship program here.
Elsa Sebastian, our Communications Manager, hopped on a Zoom call with Carter in his last week to hear more about his summer working for Spruce Root in Áak’w Ḵwáan, Juneau.
Thanks for taking the time to chat, Carter! Mississippi is a long ways away, had you been to Southeast Alaska before this internship?
No, this is my first time, also my first time flying. First time doing anything like this. It’s a really big step for me, and a big thing culturally, getting to learn about my heritage, learn about where I’m from, and just really connect with a community that I hadn’t known before. It’s been a great experience.
Learning about your heritage is a big part of the Sealaska internship, right? Can you share a little bit about how that looked like in this program?
The first week of the internship is called Connect Week. You learn about Sealaska, what your internship expectations are, as well as doing cultural activities, like the tináa I’m wearing I made during Connect Week. This is one of my favorite items personally for me, just because I made it with my own hands. It’s something to be really proud of.
Have you made friends with other folks who are part of the Sealaska internship program?
I’ve made a ton of friends, and funny enough I was able to connect with three of my cousins who I had never met before. One of them’s from Louisiana, one’s from Kentucky, and the other one’s from the Washington area. I got to hang out with all of them especially during that first week, like we really got to connect, it was almost like having some siblings for a little bit.
I didn’t realize how many of the folks who are involved with the Sealaska Internship program are living outside of the state – it seems like it’s a great opportunity to return to Southeast?
Yeah, and especially because Sealaska made it so easy to come up here. Housing is covered, and the pay is great. They really took a lot of the headache and financial pain out of trying to find a place to live. So that’s really why I’m up here. I like learning and especially doing this type of work in the philanthropy nonprofit sector. It’s my first time working in this area, and it’s something I’ve considered for my actual career when I get out of college.
Tell me a little bit about what you’ve been working on this summer.
So I’ve been building a lot of tracking systems, which means it’s a lot of Excel work. I’ve built three different spreadsheets that all do different things. One of them is a Spruce Root and Seacoast Trust tracker, which basically tracks all of the funders who have supported Spruce Root and the Seacoast Trust. I’ve also built a spreadsheet for the Sinew Fund, where we’re sending the money out and where it is going. It’s basically just these little pipelines that track performance and where we’re at in certain levels. My third excel project is a segmented donor list for Spruce Root. I’ve also gotten to work on a grant application to support Business and Client Services, and supported about $500,000 worth of grant agreements for the Sinew Fund. I’ve gotten to see both sides of it, both development and philanthropy.
Do you plan to come back to Southeast Alaska?
It’s really one of my favorite places on earth, and the beauty of it can’t compare, especially from being in Mississippi, like it’s just a total stark difference. I find myself lost looking outside my window every day. I just want to be able to come up here a lot, maybe for vacation, to see family, or maybe I’ll get a job offer here.
What was the most memorable experience of your summer that you can share?
There’s so many. The one I like referring to the most is one of the earliest. It was day two, right after we’d gotten off the plane, it was my first time hearing a land acknowledgement. But the traditional dip itself is probably the most memorable, just because it was really cold water, but I wanted to dive in completely. Like I wanted to just fully go for it. So I went all the way in, and I was freezing. But it was like as soon as I got my head under the water, I closed my eyes for a second, and then I was warm instantly. It was almost like a hug. That’s the way I like to describe it.
I like to think of it as a spiritual experience. It was like I got a hug from my ancestors or the land or something like that. It just felt really special to me. It’s something I’m gonna remember for the rest of my life. It was a sense of belonging for sure.
Thanks Carter, we’ve loved working with you! Best of luck with senior year.
