PBHS student to be featured on MTV

Dec 18, 2014

A Poplar Bluff High School student will be featured on a popular MTV doc film series for the role she played in a Native American panel discussion that recently took place in Washington, D.C.

Darian Sales finds the Choctaw flag in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

Darian Sales finds the Choctaw flag in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

Darian Sales interviews Bill Mendoza, executive director for the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education, for the MTV series “Rebel Music: Native America.”

Darian Sales interviews Bill Mendoza, executive director for the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education, for the MTV series “Rebel Music: Native America.”


Accompanied by guidance counselor Tamara Day, Darian Sales—a senior—was one of 36 Native American teen correspondents invited to attend the Tribal Nations Conference on Monday, Dec. 1, at the White House.

Sales has distinguished herself with her leadership in Graduate for Mas, which is an academic and college-readiness program sponsored by Get Schooled in partnership with the Taco Bell Foundation for Teens.

“My whole team knows that Poplar Bluff has been one of my absolute favorite schools to work with this fall, and it was no question that Darian would be a student we would select for this opportunity as soon as it was presented to us,” Get Schooled manager Fiona Yung wrote to Day in an email.

Pictured in front of the Washington Monument, Tamara Day and Darian Sales get in some sightseeing while visiting the U.S. Capitol for the first time.

Pictured in front of the Washington Monument, Tamara Day and Darian Sales get in some sightseeing while visiting the U.S. Capitol for the first time.

Get Schooled, a national education nonprofit, was developed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Viacom. MTV, a division of Viacom, covered the conference for its “Rebel Music: Native America” series which, in a future episode, will feature Sales exploring her Native American heritage.

Sales, who discovered she was part Choctaw Indian four years ago, plans to attend Haskell Indian Nation University in Kansas upon graduating.

“She lit up the room with her smile and positive attitude,” wrote Day on Facebook about her trip with Sales. “I think this small town girl really impressed MTV… She represented PB well!”