{"id":77867,"date":"2026-05-04T08:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=77867"},"modified":"2026-05-04T11:35:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:35:36","slug":"a-legacy-of-lumberjacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/a-legacy-of-lumberjacks\/","title":{"rendered":"A legacy of Lumberjacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the Mitchell family, NAU is not\u00a0just\u00a0a place of learning, but\u00a0a part of the\u00a0family\u2019s\u00a0history. Three generations\u00a0of Mitchells\u00a0have sat in its lecture halls, spent time\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0North\u00a0Quad\u00a0and\u00a0found lifetime\u00a0connections.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Leslie Mitchell<\/span><\/b>, NAU\u00a0alumna\u00a0and program manager for the Sanghi College of Engineering,\u00a0has a\u00a0family full of\u00a0Lumberjacks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy uncle was homecoming king,\u00a0my brother graduated from NAU, my sisters-in-law\u00a0are both alumnae\u00a0and\u00a0work here\u00a0at NAU\u2014even my mother-in-law is a Lumberjack,\u201d\u00a0Mitchell\u00a0said. \u201cI met my husband at NAU.\u00a0We both lived in\u00a0Tinsley but\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0meet until I moved off campus.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This spring, the family\u00a0will\u00a0see\u00a0a third generation\u00a0walk\u00a0across\u00a0the stage wearing\u00a0NAU blue and\u00a0gold.\u00a0Mitchell\u2019s\u00a0daughter,\u00a0<\/span>Jolee<\/span><\/b>,\u00a0is\u00a0graduating with a\u00a0bachelor\u2019s\u00a0degree\u00a0\u00a0in\u00a0anthropology.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For\u00a0<\/span>Jolee\u00a0Mitchell,<\/span>\u00a0NAU\u00a0is\u00a0the place\u00a0where she grew up.\u00a0With her\u00a0mother working at\u00a0the\u00a0university\u00a0for\u00a0more than10\u00a0years,\u00a0she was\u00a0familiar with the campus and knew\u00a0many\u00a0people before she\u00a0started her journey as a Lumberjack.\u00a0Fellow students\u00a0might\u00a0find\u00a0her\u00a0familiar,\u00a0since\u00a0her picture\u00a0has been hanging\u00a0on\u00a0the walls of\u00a0University\u00a0Union\u00a0for\u00a0eight years.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Jolee<\/a>\u201cThe\u00a0<\/span>Successful Transition and Academic Readiness\u00a0(STAR)\u00a0program<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is also part of the family legacy,\u201d\u00a0Leslie Mitchell\u00a0said. \u201cThe picture that hangs at the union was taken during\u00a0the Homecoming Parade\u00a0celebrating\u00a0the STAR program\u00a0in 2018,\u00a0when\u00a0Jolee\u00a0was\u00a0in middle school,\u00a0cementing her future Lumberjack legacy.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After graduation,\u00a0Jolee\u00a0Mitchell will be attending graduate school and\u00a0plans\u00a0to work in museums when she finishes.\u00a0Her work at the Bilby Research Center has\u00a0greatly\u00a0influenced\u00a0her path to continue studying\u00a0archival techniques and methods.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am\u00a0studying ceramic typology and trying to learn\u00a0all the\u00a0different types\u00a0of ceramic\u00a0sherds,\u201d\u00a0Jolee\u00a0Mitchell\u00a0said. \u201cAfter I\u00a0complete\u00a0my master’s degree, I\u00a0plan\u00a0to go into museum work and\u00a0maybe some\u00a0lab work on the side.\u00a0\u00a0Long-term,\u00a0I want to work on\u00a0Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)\u00a0projects. My experience at NAU has been fulfilling.\u00a0I have\u00a0participated\u00a0in research projects with the Office of Undergraduate Research and projects within the Department of Anthropology.\u00a0\u00a0I want to thank\u00a0<\/span>Dr.\u00a0Chrissina\u00a0Burke<\/span><\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Dr.\u00a0Kelley\u00a0Hays-Gilpin<\/span><\/b>\u00a0for their support during my\u00a0undergrad\u00a0journey.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mitchell family has been creating shared experiences across decades and even though each\u00a0generation has\u00a0had\u00a0different\u00a0memories\u00a0and\u00a0perspectives at NAU, their connection to\u00a0the institution and\u00a0to\u00a0each other offers them a sense of continuity.\u00a0Their\u00a0son is still in high school,\u00a0and there are plenty of cousins, nieces and nephews who will\u00a0likely carry\u00a0the torch and become Lumberjacks themselves in the future.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn\u00a0the family,\u00a0it\u00a0is\u00a0more about\u00a0when\u00a0you are\u00a0going\u00a0to NAU than where you are going to go to college,\u201d\u00a0Leslie Mitchell said.\u00a0\u201cWe are a\u00a0True Blue\u00a0Lumberjack family.\u00a0NAU has been a big part of our family\u00a0life,\u00a0and we\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0wait to someday\u00a0see another generation of Mitchell Lumberjacks\u00a0crossing\u00a0the stage.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a>Mariana Laas | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-5050 | mariana.laas@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the Mitchell family, NAU is not\u00a0just\u00a0a place of learning, but\u00a0a part of the\u00a0family\u2019s\u00a0history. Three generations\u00a0of Mitchells\u00a0have sat in its lecture halls, spent time\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0North\u00a0Quad\u00a0and\u00a0found lifetime\u00a0connections.\u00a0\u00a0 Leslie Mitchell, NAU\u00a0alumna\u00a0and program manager for the Sanghi College of Engineering,\u00a0has a\u00a0family full of\u00a0Lumberjacks.\u00a0 \u201cMy uncle was homecoming king,\u00a0my brother graduated from NAU, my sisters-in-law\u00a0are both alumnae\u00a0and\u00a0work here\u00a0at NAU\u2014even my…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":77868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}