{"id":16592,"date":"2023-09-29T01:18:46","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T01:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/?p=16592"},"modified":"2023-09-29T01:18:46","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T01:18:46","slug":"nike-designers-advice-just-do-it-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/2023\/09\/29\/nike-designers-advice-just-do-it-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Nike designer\u2019s advice: Just do it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nLacey Trujillo shows Window Rock High School students a Nike shoe during her presentation in Fort Defiance on Oct. 27.<\/strong><\/p>\n

BY RAVONELLE YAZZIE<\/strong>
\nNAVAJO TIMES<\/p>\n

FORT DEFIANCE<\/strong> \u2014 Being the first Native American female designer for Nike does not keep Lacey Trujillo from giving back to her former high school.<\/p>\n

Last month she shared the auditorium stage with two other Arizona State University scholars, Brian Skeet and Raveena Benally, to share their careers and educational journeys in design in hopes of inspiring Window Rock High School students to pursue their passions after high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to inspire people to get off the reservation to learn more about what this world has to offer, and to come back to teach and bring awareness to what Native students don\u2019t know,\u201d Trujillo said to the Times. \u201cSuch as design. I didn\u2019t know about it and I had to go on a long route because I didn\u2019t have anything like this (presentation) to teach me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally from Fruitland, New Mexico, Trujillo is a color designer for Nike\u2019s field sports line at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. She designs football, softball, baseball and lacrosse footwear.<\/p>\n

Her journey to becoming a designer began with when she was a little girl.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started out, you know, just really fascinated with shoes ever since I was five or six years old,\u201d said Trujillo. \u201cThroughout my life I never thought I could be a designer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trujillo\u2019s presentation highlighted the lack of design programs and classes available to her in high school. This ultimately contributed to her decision to switch her major from architecture to industrial design after her first semester at Arizona State University in 2010.<\/p>\n

Her mother and high school mentors were concerned about the change in Trujillo\u2019s career path but she was determined to be a shoe designer.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing told me inside that I couldn\u2019t do this or this was wrong so I did it,\u201d Trujillo said. \u201cThis is what I want and I fought for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nike designer said she received initial support from her middle school shop teacher, Mr. Hale, and high school architecture teachers Marilou Joson and Marcus Forrester, who saw her potential and encouraged her to pursue design.<\/p>\n

Trujillo\u2019s mother, Cynthia Trujillo, attended her daughter\u2019s presentation and added that Lacey\u2019s persistence and determined work ethic contributes to her success.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe stuck to Nike and Michael Jordan since she was five,\u201d Cynthia said. \u201cShe knew what she wanted to do and went for it. As much as I would love for her to be home, I am so proud that she is independent and just going for her dream.\u201d On top of giving advice to students about the importance of<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to inspire people to get off the reservation to learn more about what this world has to offer, and to come back to teach and bring awareness to what Native students don\u2019t know.\u2019<\/h3>\n

Lacey Trujillo<\/strong>
\nDesigner<\/p>\n

maintaining connections with teachers, network building, and perseverance in academics, Trujillo brought with her 15 Nike sports apparel items such as shoes, backpacks, clothing, and water bottles to give out to students.<\/p>\n

Students were asked to submit their best sketches to qualify for a free Nike item. Approximately 60 sketches were submitted and were judged on originality and skill.<\/p>\n

Trujillo sparked admiration after she shared her stories and had photos taken with famous athletes whom she has met through her job. Among them are NBA stars such as Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Steve Nash, and the NFL\u2019s Odell Beckham Jr.<\/p>\n

By the end of her presentation, hope seemed to have been restored for students attending a school they believe is limited. High school professional sales teacher Tyrell Harvey debunked that belief by announcing, \u201cYou have students from this school that are doing amazing things.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThey are competing with the best students in the state and they are winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

While pointing to Trujillo, Harvey said, \u201cShe determined that she was going to go places. Lacey works for Nike. She made it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trujillo is a 2010 graduate of Window Rock High and plans to give presentations to other reservation schools. If you would like for her to present at your school she may be contacted via email at lacey@laceytrujillo. com.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nA row of Nike shoes is displayed during a presentation given by Arizona State University scholars and alumni on Oct. 27 at Window Rock High School. Students submitted their best sketches for a chance to win a Nike apparel item.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lacey Trujillo shows Window Rock High School students a Nike shoe during her presentation in Fort Defiance on Oct. 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16596,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16592\/revisions\/16596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}