Notre Dame graduate Tazbah Yazzie became the first Diné principal of St. Michael Indian School, a distinction that helped her gain recognition from her alma mater.

Yazzie, a 2010 graduate, was featured in an article in Notre Dame Magazine. She became president of the Native American Student Association by her senior year.

The Navajo Times noted her distinction at St. Michael when her appointment was announced July 30, 2018. Yazzie replaced Tom Sori, who relocated to Syracuse, New York to be near his relatives. She was raised by a public school teacher.

Yazzie’s mother sent her to a boarding school more than an hour away from home. She excelled at Holbrook High and planned for college, she told Notre Dame Magazine. She’d never thought about Notre Dame until her mother drove her five hours to Phoenix for a college fair. They were the only American Indian family in attendance. After talking to admissions officer Gilbert Martinez, she decided to apply. But when she called him in a panic because she couldn’t afford the $500 enrollment fee, he took care of it.

She was a Gates Millenium and Balfour-Hesburgh scholar with a plan to be a doctor. That plan included living in a big city.

“I wanted to get away from here as far as I could,” Yazzie told Notre Dame Magazine. “Looking back at it now, that’s pretty sad.”

Her plans changed after freshman year, changing her major to sociology and meeting new friends. One of them was her future husband, Cody Yazzie, who also was a Navajo. They discovered that back home they lived within 15 minutes of each other on the reservation but met more than 1,500 miles away from there.

In her junior year she realized she wanted to teach. When she was a senior, a professor suggested she look into teaching at St. Michael. Cody, who attended the Catholic school, encouraged her, too. She didn't have a teaching degree and wasn't Catholic then, so she applied not thinking they'd want her. But something unexpected happened. St. Michael hired her to teach.

She first started working as a fourth grade teacher in 2010, months after graduating from college. She was promoted to a vice principal in 2014.  Currently, she leads 359 students from ages pre-K-12 as well as 35 teachers and employees.

Yazzie and her husband, Cody, live on an on-campus apartment 20 feet from her office.

“When I talk about coming here from Notre Dame, it was like a calling,” Yazzie told Notre Dame Magazine. “I felt that calling. I felt inside that this is where I was meant to be."

St. Michael has one of the highest graduation rates of any schools in the Navajo nation, with a 98% graduation rate. More than 95% of seniors go on to receive a college education. The private school has provided education to students for more than 100 years. Many Navajo children are able to attend thanks to Arizona’s education savings account program.

“This position, it’s all-encompassing,” she told Notre Dame Magazine. “Everything goes by you. The responsibility of everything – the teachers, the students, the parents.”