Ayden Clytus

Background

About Ayden Clytus

Ayden is a person who enjoys understanding history and appreciates learning from the past plan better for the future. She is someone who is passionate about serving her community and protecting our environment. Her greatest strengths include the ability to organize, time manage, be solution oriented, and learn from her experiences. Ayden is a person who is passionate about serving the American Indian community, protecting the environment to ensure happier, healthier communities, and enriching the lives of Native youth by igniting their interests in culture, education, and language. While her professional goals include becoming an attorney with an emphasis in Environmental and American Indian Law, Ayden aims to work with others to build a world better for the generations to come. Throughout her time at ASU, Ayden sought involvement with the Indigenous community in and around ASU, while connecting to her own Navajo language and culture. She built a community around her endeavors and was encouraged by her peers to run for Facilitator of Programming for Alliance of Indigenous Peoples (AIP) and Miss Indigenous ASU 2022-2023. Ayden’s passion for the community led her to intern for Public Citizen to lobby and organize for the “For the People Act” and the “John Lewis Voting Rights Act” in Spring 2021. Her interests in protecting the environment then led her to intern for EPA for 8 weeks to better understand climate change and its impacts on Children’s Health, the Arctic, and Tribal Nations. In her last year at ASU, Ayden would continue her efforts to serve the American Indian community under her new title of Miss Indigenous ASU 1st Attendant 2022-2023 under the platform of “Empowering Indigenous Youth”. After graduation, Ayden would represent the Navajo Nation as a Udall congressional intern working on Capitol Hill for the Office of Arizona Senator Mark Kelly as a Legislative Intern. There she provided Arizona constituent services and focused on issue areas related to Environment and Public Works, Energy and Natural Resources, and Indian Affairs. Working for Senator Kelly’s Office exposed the concerns of Arizona residents and increased her understanding of Federal government functions as well as its relationship with Indigenous Nations in U.S. These experiences revealed the growing support for and recognition of Indian Country, fueling her passion to assist Indian Country in enacting Tribal sovereignty and building Indigenous Nations for the future.