Steve Denson had never ventured outside of the Chickasaw Nation in rural Oklahoma, even for his undergraduate degree. That was about to change as he headed to Pittsburgh to pursue a graduate degree at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College. In addition to the opportunity to study public management and policy, he says, he couldn't wait to take advantage of the culture in an urban city.

His first week away from home, he attends the ballet.

On his way back to his off-campus apartment he shares with three roommates, a man jumps from the hedge and beats him with an empty whiskey bottle, stealing his $17. Denson, clutching his bleeding face, staggers home.

His roommates and neighbors try to comfort him. One, a classical musician, picks up a violin to play some soothing Vivaldi. Another, whose parents own an apple orchard, bakes an apple pie. Meanwhile, Denson wonders if he made the right choice in coming to Pittsburgh. When a university administrator finds out what happened, he implores Denson not to give up and invites the graduate student to his church, where the elders give Denson plenty of home-cooked meals and boost his spirits when he misses Chickasaw Nation. "You might say a Chickasaw was adopted by the African American community in Pittsburgh," recalls Denson. "They kept me going."

Not long after graduation, he becomes director of diversity for Southern Methodist University, where he spends a decade helping minority students attend college, enacting the outreach he experienced at Carnegie Mellon.

Denson's impact now spreads beyond higher education. He has been appointed to the U.S. Department of Labor's Native American Employment and Training Council. The 20-member council develops strategies to help Native Americans succeed in the nation's workforce.

—KATY RANK LEV