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.  

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.

When Rita Rabbitskin was a little girl, bush planes were the primary link between her Cree community in Northern Quebec and the outside world. She watched the skies with fascination, dreaming of one day flying herself. “That was the world I wanted to be part of,” Rabbitskin says. “I used to go see the pilots and crews that worked back home, learning what my options would be. The initial dream was to be a bush pilot.”

As a young boy, JJ Jones III loved building. He spent hours playing with Legos and k’nex and never tired of creating something new and different. What started as a young boy’s passion has become a young man’s goal. Now in his third year at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., Jones, Navajo, is majoring in mechanical engineering and minoring in Native American historical studies with plans to become a mechanical engineer, helping to keep his community — and nation — safe. 

Growing up, Denise LeBeau Bois felt it best to downplay her Native heritage because of reactions she received early in her school life. She also felt judged for being from a divorced family, her mom of Western European ancestry and her father, Cheyenne River Lakota (Sioux). As a result, she had the sense that most people outside her family did not expect her to amount to much. 

In late 2019, when Mechem Frashier, Diné, heard about a virulent coronavirus spreading in the city of Wuhan, China, she paid attention. She knew from her decades-long career as a nurse that viruses like this don’t respect borders and that soon it could be in the United States. She was right. 

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.