Student Organizations

Wunk Sheek pro­vides edu­ca­tional and sup­port­ive ser­vices to the UW cam­pus and com­mu­nity. Its pri­mary goal is to expose, edu­cate, and enlighten the cam­pus com­mu­nity about the unique cul­tural iden­ti­ties of its Indige­nous stu­dents. The orga­ni­za­tion is open to all stu­dents, Native and non-Native, grad­u­ate and under­grad­u­ate, fac­ulty, staff, and community.

Wunk Sheek orga­nizes two annual Pow-Wows as well as many events in cel­e­bra­tion of Novem­ber, Amer­i­can Indian Her­itage Month. These pro­grams include speak­ers, work­shops, films, and a tra­di­tional Native feast. Through these pro­grams Wunk Sheek brings Indige­nous issues and cul­ture to stu­dents on cam­pus. Thus, Wunk Sheek helps bal­ance stu­dents social and spir­i­tual well-being.

For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Wunk Sheek at wunksheek@gmail.com, or visit them on Face­book.

The Indige­nous Law Stu­dents Asso­ci­a­tion (ILSA) exists to pro­vide an orga­ni­za­tion and forum for Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin law stu­dents while con­tribut­ing to the advance­ment of indige­nous peo­ples. ILSA fos­ters com­mu­ni­ca­tion between all law stu­dents, the UW law fac­ulty and staff, and the com­mu­nity at large. Addi­tion­ally, ILSA pro­vides sup­port to its mem­bers by main­tain­ing study groups, assist­ing with job searches, and host­ing monthly social activities.

For more infor­ma­tion on meet­ing times and events, please con­tact AIS at ais@letsci.wisc.edu or visit the ILSA web­site.

AISES is a national orga­ni­za­tion that was founded in 1977 by Amer­i­can Indian sci­en­tists, engi­neers and edu­ca­tors. In view of the high dropout rates and low col­lege enroll­ment and grad­u­a­tion rates of Amer­i­can Indi­ans and the severe under-representation of Amer­i­can Indi­ans in the sci­ence and engi­neer­ing fields, these Native pro­fes­sion­als resolved to cre­ate an orga­ni­za­tion that would iden­tify and remove bar­ri­ers for the aca­d­e­mic suc­cess of Native students.

The UW-Madison chap­ter of the Amer­i­can Indian Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing Soci­ety (AISES) is a stu­dent run orga­ni­za­tion on cam­pus. We have Under­grad­u­ate and Grad­u­ate Stu­dents, as well as com­mu­nity mem­bers and staff. We have stu­dents major­ing in var­i­ous fields from Graphic Design to Bio­chem­istry to Mechan­i­cal Engineering.

For more infor­ma­tion on meet­ing times and events, please con­tact AIS at ais@letsci.wisc.edu.

Alpha Pi Omega Soror­ity, Inc., is the country’s old­est Native Amer­i­can Greek let­ter orga­ni­za­tion. Founded at the Uni­ver­sity of North Carolina-Chapel Hill on Sept. 1, 1994, the soror­ity has more than 400 sis­ters rep­re­sent­ing more than 70 tribes nation­wide and 13 char­tered chapters.

For more infor­ma­tion on meet­ing times and events, please con­tact AIS at ais@letsci.wisc.edu.

The Wunk Sheek Drum is an oppor­tu­nity for young singers to learn to sing on a Native inter-tribal drum. They meet bi-weekly to sing and drum and include stu­dents, fac­ulty, staff, and com­mu­nity members.

For more infor­ma­tion on meet­ing times and events, please con­tact AIS at ais@letsci.wisc.edu.

The Anishi­naabe­mowin Group is geared mainly for stu­dents, as well as com­mu­nity mem­bers, staff, and fac­ulty, who are Ojibwe lan­guage learn­ers and first lan­guage speak­ers, as well as those who have an inter­est in the lan­guage. Their focus is to main­tain and con­tinue learn­ing with peo­ple of all lev­els of Ojibwe lan­guage abil­ity, to high­light the impor­tance of lan­guage main­te­nance and use in daily life through expe­ri­en­tial based approaches, and to help build a net­work of Ojibwe lan­guage learners.

For more infor­ma­tion on meet­ing times and events, please con­tact AIS at ais@letsci.wisc.edu.