If you’re like most students, you’re not exactly looking forward to the high stakes college application process. How do you write the perfect essay? How do you share with reviewers everything you want them to know about you? Will sharing your Native heritage help make your application stand out? Here are some tips for telling your Native story on a college application.

Stories are powerful and provide a sense of culture, history, and personal identity. A person’s story is a compilation of life’s journey, packed with experiences and lessons learned along the way. A few Intel employees wanted to share their stories through open letters to their younger selves, offering advice and encouragement.

Dear Georgia,

We’ve all heard it: workplace feedback, constructive or otherwise. Sometimes we’re expecting it, and sometimes we’re not. Whatever the circumstances, receiving criticism — or praise, for that matter — is a significant skill that can almost always be improved by applying some thought and practice. With companies and organizations spending millions every year on employee engagement programs — and workplace engagement levels at a record high in the United States — feedback conversations are in your work life to stay.

Intel’s engagement with Native American communities spans more than two decades, dating back to the early 1990s when Craig Barrett, Intel’s former CEO, commissioned Marilou Schultz, a Navajo weaver and math teacher, to weave an image of the Pentium microprocessor into a rug. During Barrett’s keynote speech at the 1994 AISES National Conference in Santa Clara, Calif., he presented the weaving as a gift to AISES to commemorate Intel’s relationship with and support of AISES. The rug is still on display at the AISES national headquarters in New Mexico.  

A Q&A with Dr. Michael “Mike” Smith

What is the National Gem Consortium and how does it benefit students?

Charles Mokhtarzadeh, PhD, Synthetic Chemist, Components Research, Intel Corp.
Tribal affiliation: Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians 

As I have progressed through my life, asking for help has only become more critical to my success. Be it under professional or personal circumstances, I’ve learned that seeking guidance is a skill to be honed as opposed to a crutch to stumble over. It is not always easy to ask for help but in asking problems are solved, challenges are championed, and relationships are built. It is a powerful skill set to seek and cultivate.  

As part of Intel’s commitment to provide contributions in support of coronavirus relief efforts in communities, the Intel Foundation contributed $50,000 to the AISES T3 (Together Towards Tomorrow) Fund, which provides scholarships to Indigenous undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in an accredited U.S. college or university who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sarah Harrison, Intel Campus Relations Manager

If you’re a college graduate — or soon will be — there are reasons to consider earning an advanced degree. While it’s not the path for everyone, for career-minded students who are deciding to enter postgraduate programs, certain facts are persuasive. Indeed, the number of graduate students in the United States has tripled since the 1970s. According to a CareerBuilder survey of employers, 33 percent are hiring candidates with master’s degrees for positions that had been primarily held by professionals with four-year degrees.

It’s a sad reality. Hackers around the globe continuously threaten the computer networks and personal information that individuals, companies, and governments rely on not only to do business but also to deliver everything from health care to the basic water and energy services a functioning society depends on.