Learning how to smoothly transition from learning in a classroom to navigating a workplace can be tricky. At her internship with Boston Scientific, University of Oklahoma student Alexis Keeling learned how to be a working engineer. Besides picking up a lot of company-specific procedures and tools, she was able to see how what she has learned in school applies to real-life manufacturing. Keeling, Cherokee, says that as an intern you are expected to do true project work that applies to your education, as well as learn how a company functions, outside a textbook.

Indigenous traditional knowledge of the lands, waters, sky, and long been dismissed by Western science as anecdote , mythology, or even superstition. But thanks to the efforts of Indigenous and non-Native scientists and educators, that perspective is changing.

It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that a single question changed the direction of Joshua John’s life. He was studying for his undergradu­ate physics degree at Northern Arizona University when he took a quantum mechanics class. “I asked the professor how this would be used and what the applica­tions were,” recalls John, who graduated in 2005. “My professor said those are questions an engineer asks, not a physicist. He encour­aged me to go into engineer­ing after graduating.”

Deanna Burgart’s decision to change careers came about suddenly and unexpectedly. She was attending a luncheon for women in the oil and gas industry when one of the speakers quoted author Steve Farber. “She said, ‘Do what you love in the service of people who love what you do,’” remembers Burgart. “I burst into tears. I realized I wasn’t doing either.”

You’ve heard it before: getting solid internship experiences on your resume is important. And with good reason — internships provide practical workplace exposure and marketable job skills, not to mention a chance to find a mentor, earn glowing letters of reference, and maybe even come away with a full-time job offer