Joseph Washington is the recipient of Mrs. Harold Myers Texas Exes Scholarship.

A startling 28.4 percent of Native Americans live in poverty, according to 2010 U.S. Census data. Across the nation, income, employment, and education levels on Native American reservations are considerably lower than the national averages.

Troubled by these facts, Joseph Washington, a senior international relations major, co-founded The Turquoise Boy: a nonprofit that helps better the lives of those living on reservations by increasing employment opportunities.

“There are so many organizations around campus that focus on sending people to India or Africa, but there’s nobody that focuses on a group that’s been marginalized so close to home,” Washington says. “I don’t think it registers to the American people that there are people in our society that live at that level of poverty.”

Washington is also very involved on the Forty Acres. He has worked with Texas Student TV as a producer for the current events program The Current and the comedy news show TNN (Totally Not News). He has also served as an assistant editor for UT’s Undergraduate Research Journal and as an editorial intern for The Alcalde.

As a TEA scholar, Washington says being involved with the Texas Exes has been rewarding because he has been able to meet and network with amazing professors and alumni.

“Being a part of this family as somebody whose parents are not from the state of Texas has been a really eye-opening experience into what it really means to be a Texan,” Washington says. “I think that Texas Exes are a special breed. They’re really close to each other.”

After graduation, Washington says he plans to go to graduate school to study public policy. Although he’s not sure what he’ll do in the future, he knows that he wants to work in communities around Texas.