3. Danielle Forward

Native Affiliation: Pomo

Danielle Forward is a Product Designer at Facebook, designing for emerging markets on Internet.org. She was born and raised in Santa Rosa, California, and moved to San Francisco, where she graduated as valedictorian with her BFA in Interaction Design from California College of the Arts. During college she had two internships at Facebook, both on separate teams for Internet.org.

She is also the founder of Natives Rising, a website dedicated to highlighting Native American role models in tech and fostering mentorship connections for Natives in tech and Native students.

What’s a challenge you’ve faced, and how did you get through it?

It took me 10 years to graduate college with my Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA.) When I say this to people, it’s not immediately obvious why, but there’s a lengthy historical reason. I’m at the end of a long line of inherited poverty and trauma, when only a few generations ago, everything was forcefully (and many times, violently) taken from my Native American ancestors. As a result, my great, great grandparents grew poorer and poorer as immigrant Caucasians grew richer from the gold they stole from this land. All laws and government institutions were biased in favor toward the Caucasians that forced those systems to exist here, and my relatives were forced into poverty, violence, and despair. I’m at the end of that line. My family inherited that poverty as their very starting point, at birth — and they struggled to slowly reclaim decent standards of living for decades since. My mother worked hard for this progression, raising my brother and I on her own.

“I’m at the end of a long line of inherited poverty and trauma, when only a few generations ago, everything was forcefully (and many times, violently) taken from my Native American ancestors.”

Now in the present day, we all know how expensive a good college education is. I did a lot of research to see how I could incrementally make progress towards my education while keeping costs low. My mom couldn’t help me, and my dad wasn’t in my life. So I used every strategy possible. I went to community college first and transferred to a 4-year college later, because at community college if you use the BOG waiver in California, it’s basically free. I lived with my mother to save on rent. I worked full-time while I took one community college class or two at a time. I kept focused on each checkpoint and all the prerequisites, slowly, until I reached the next milestone. When you’re forced to go to college as slowly and incrementally as I did, working full-time to pay for yourself — it takes double, triple the time.

Years and years went by. Things started to get easier as I started building more skills, work experience, and a broader network of friends and colleagues. I found that because I was kind to people, they wanted to help me — bend the rules so that my intense schedule would be a bit easier. I found that when I showed my passion and sincerity, people wanted to give me opportunities. Many times, by showing people who I really was, showing compassion, being a good friend, and showing my determination for my goals, people would offer me opportunities that weren’t there before.

Because I was always short on time, balancing work and school, I started finding ways to maximize every second. I picked up zen buddhist philosophy and started learning about meditation to improve my focus, decrease anxiety, and decrease my attachment to things that kept me distracted. It helped immensely, almost more than any other strategy I’ve ever practiced. Specifically, I read a lot of books by Thich Nhat Hanh. Most importantly, as a woman, Zen Buddhism helped me detach myself from patriarchal constructs in my mind. I had found out a lot of my time was spent thinking about boys, dating, or my physical appearance as a female — and it wasn’t serving me, and it wasn’t serving my goals. Zen Buddhism helped set my attention free, and as a result, I reclaimed more of my time. Eventually, during design school, one of my best friends helped me get my first design job (again, by trying your best to be a kind person, people want to help you.)

After working a few years as a product designer, I started attending my first semester at CCA when I interviewed for a product design internship at Facebook. I accepted the offer and started the following summer in 2015. I did absolutely everything to get another offer from them. Literally, my life depended on it. I couldn’t afford to keep going to college without the money I earned from that internship. I couldn’t afford to not be the absolute best. I gave it everything I had, and I got another internship offer — which meant I could keep going to college, for my last and final year of the BFA I had been working on for 9 years. During my time at California College of the Arts, I didn’t hang out with friends very much, if at all. I didn’t have time to go out. I was always studying or working. I had to make the most of every day, because I took too big of a risk on myself to not deliver on the promise that I was worth investing in.

“I had to make the most of every day, because I took too big of a risk on myself to not deliver on the promise that I was worth investing in.”

Design school is expensive as hell, and I had taken out student loans in my name, by myself — my mother was only able to sign for one loan for two semesters. Everything else was out of my pocket. I had over $100,000 in student loans in my name, along with thousands in credit card debt that financed a lot of my early twenties. Most of my peers did not have this problem. As a result, I had to keep working full-time, or pick up contract work here and there during the school year. I used low income housing. I used food stamps. It was because of my two Facebook internships that I was able to finally focus on school full-time at CCA, and not have to split my attention with work like I always did. I lived on the money I earned from my internships so I could focus on school full-time. It was everything to me. I was so grateful, and still am, for Facebook. I received a full-time offer last summer in 2016, and just completed my final year of my BFA this May. After 10 years, I finally graduated with my BFA in Interaction Design — as valedictorian.

“After 10 years, I finally graduated with my BFA in Interaction Design — as valedictorian.”

What’s something you’ve done that you’re really proud of?

I am incredibly proud to have graduated valedictorian from CCA after working so hard for a decade to make college a reality for myself, and pay for it on my own. I started with one or two community college classes at a time.

I am incredibly proud to work at Facebook, especially on a team I fell in love with since day one.

I’m proud of my dedication, my determination, my resolve to never give up on investing in myself, even if it takes the rest of my life.

I’m proud that I made my interaction design thesis about economic empowerment for Native Americans, and that I told my entire class that’s who I was.

I’m proud I got to meet and interview so many wonderful Native people in tech and hear their stories, and use my thesis work as a place of inspiration for other indigenous people.

What’s something that’s been on your mind this Native American Heritage Month?

I love that we’re reclaiming this month. “Thanksgiving” is pretty problematic for me — you know, the completely false narrative about the pilgrims and Indians in peace and all that. When I was doing my thesis on economic empowerment for Native people, my professor started calling it “Thankstaking,” which is way more accurate. I’m really disgusted with the false history that’s taught in the US. As a Native girl, growing up, I heard from my mother and grandmother the real horrific stories, the real history, because we passed it down in our family. We knew what happened because it happened to us. But other kids at my school didn’t have that experience. All they knew was the propaganda in the textbook and on TV. I think we need to reclaim more of that truth.

We need to read about what really happened on this land, everyone does, but especially Native people — because we need to reclaim our pride.

We need to know that we’re not bad, worthless, or any less intelligent and talented than anyone else.

We need to see what really happened to our people — because then, you’ll finally understand how your family and your circumstance became the way it is today. You’ll know it’s not because you’re inherently lesser, less capable, or less intelligent, but that things were taken from your family, and you were forced to start at the very bottom.

Right now, I’m in the middle of reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which I highly recommend. It is both the saddest and most liberating book I’ve ever read. It is true Native American history. Finding out what happened to your tribe, your ancestors, reclaiming the truth — that’s how to celebrate Native American Heritage Month.