It was a night of pride, reflection, and new beginnings as Scottsdale Community College's Class of 2026 celebrated graduation at Salt River Fields. Among the evening's most resonant voices was SCC alumnus Dwayne Manuel, an O'odham artist, educator, and proud member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. He opened with a greeting in his native O'odham, addressing the graduates as old friends and fellow Fighting Artichokes.
Dwayne's path is one shaped by courage, perseverance, and the willingness to face down fear, a theme that threaded through his entire address.
"I had to make a decision, probably one of the most important decisions of my life. That decision was to go to college," Dwayne told the graduates. "For me, college was the unknown."
Long before that decision, art had already taken root in Dwayne's life. He grew up on the field lands of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, where his mother, Alice Manuel, a traditional O'odham basket maker, planted the seed. Her artistry and cultural knowledge instilled in him a respect for storytelling, cultural expression, and integrity in craft, values that still shape his work today.
The year was 2002. He had just graduated from high school and stood, in his words, at the edge of 17, staring into the abyss. "Rez kids, such as myself, weren't exactly first in line to sign up for college classes," he recalled. But he enrolled at SCC that fall anyway, on a mission to prove that he “could graduate high school and go to college and do something more than what was expected."
That first leap launched a 24-year journey. Dwayne went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona School of Art. Today, he serves as a faculty member at Tohono O'odham Community College in Sells and Phoenix, where he teaches painting and drawing and mentors a new generation of Native artists, encouraging them to ground their creative work in cultural knowledge and personal identity.
His professional resume reflects the same range. Nike selected Dwayne to design the Desert Journey Collection, a Super Bowl XLIX apparel line honoring the O'odham and the ancestral Huhugam culture of central and southern Arizona. He has collaborated with the Phoenix Suns, designed the medallion for the University of Arizona's Regents Professor Award, and has exhibited or been commissioned by the Heard Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art, Mesa Arts Center, the Anchorage Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. His murals stretch from Arizona to California, New Mexico, Colorado, South Dakota, and Alaska.
But some of the work Dwayne values most is closer to home. He has designed T-shirts for departments within the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, many of them given away to community members. Seeing those designs worn around town, he has said, is among the most meaningful parts of his career, a living reminder of the connection between art, identity, and community pride.
Dwayne has stayed close to SCC, too. His artwork is displayed in the American Indian Program inside the Indigenous Cultural Center, helping create a space that reflects Indigenous identity and creativity on campus. He has also returned to SCC as a judge for student-centered projects, sharing his expertise with the next wave of artists.
On graduation night, however, Dwayne returned to the feeling that almost stopped him before he started. He recalled walking into his very first college art class with Professor Roger McKinney, a friend to this day, and feeling shy, out of place, and scared.
"You've all felt that before," he said. "That feeling of fright stops a lot of people from doing a lot of things. So every time you get a chance to prove that fright wrong is a win."
Now 41 and looking back, Dwayne said the choice to begin at SCC shaped everything that followed. "If it wasn't for SCC, I really don't know what else I would have done with my life. I don't want to know, really."
He closed by welcoming the Class of 2026 into the SCC alumni community and encouraging them to point others to this campus, just as he was once pointed toward it.
"You've come a long way, but have further to go," he told them. "Be thankful to be a Fighting Artichoke."
Dwayne's story is a reminder that SCC is more than a starting line. It's a foundation for a lifetime of work, identity, and service. We're proud to call him an alumnus, and his words will echo well beyond commencement night.
To see some of Dwayne’s art, visit his website here.