13 Mar Finding Her Way Home

Brittany Vo’s journey with citc

Brittany Vo grew up spending summers and winters in St. Mary’s on the lower Yukon River with her family. But as her grandparents got older and moved to the city, those trips stopped, and she began to feel disconnected from her culture. By the time she reached high school, that rift had taken root. “That’s where my disconnect came with my culture,” she says. “I wasn’t going back to that familiar place that I knew.”

As a Yup’ik and Vietnamese adolescent, she struggled to find a sense of belonging. As she headed towards college, she began to take a deeper interest in her Native identity. After some difficult times in college, Brittany applied for an internship at Cook Inlet Tribal Council. Almost immediately, she felt at home. “I felt more belonging as I started to work in this environment,” she says. “It felt familiar. I could bead, I could learn about what I wanted to learn.”

She joined the Youth Education department, where she worked first in inventory and later in the Fab Lab alongside instructors and students. Being around kids who were dancing, drumming, and enthusiastically learning their language moved her in ways she didn’t expect. “That was healing for me,” she says. “Looking at a new generation that’s proud of who they are, instead of feeling shame like I did. It’s almost like waking up to a new world that’s more vibrant.”

Brittany grew into a leadership role, eventually becoming the Fab Lab program manager. Now she’s stepped into a new position as CITC’s cultural events manager, where she’ll oversee Native Youth Olympics and work to expand cultural programming across the organization. It’s a role she once couldn’t have imagined for herself. “Growing up and thinking that I could never see myself in a role like this—now I’m in it and doing it,” she says. “For someone who felt so disconnected in the past, reconnecting with culture gave me strength and direction in life which brought me here. It’s quite an honor.”

Brittany hopes to use the position to make culture more accessible across CITC—managing NYO events, building a central resource hub, and recruiting and supporting culture bearers.

Much of her motivation comes from Miss Ann, CITC’s longtime cultural advisor, whose warmth and knowledge shaped Brittany’s time in Youth Education and set a standard she now aspires to carry forward. “She’s such a strong cultural figure,” Brittany says. “Expanding the type of energy that she gave within our department, and making that more accessible across the organization, is something I really want to do. I want to make her proud.”

Brittany says that infusing culture is so important to our work at CITC because “culture is one of those things that grounds individuals. You want to feel like you belong in that space—that your culture is honored, no matter where you’re from.”

Congratulations, Brittany, on your new role as cultural events manager, and quyana for all you do at CITC!