Whether you’re in high school or college, there will be times when learning feels amazing, and times when it’s a humbling experience. But it will always be worth the effort. So what’s the secret to achieving your personal best? While there’s no simple formula, most teachers agree that certain qualities are essential for academic success. Here are some of their pro tips.

Show Up and Manage Your Time

Opportunities to connect and learn abound at National Conference sessions.

For many conference-goers, opportunities to learn from session presenters sharing information on specialized topics is one of the best parts of a National Conference. Here’s a sample of just some of the many sessions attendees could choose from.

AISES members are extraordinary, and pausing to recognize the achievements and contributions of some outstanding individuals confirms our collective determination to forward the AISES mission. 

ELY S. PARKER AWARD WINNER 
The highest AISES honor, the Ely S. Parker Award is given to an educator, scientist, or engineer who has made a difference for Indigenous people, especially in the field of STEM education.

Destress, get organized, and accomplish more

New to campus or just finding it tough to plan your time? Check out these helpful tips to get your life in balance.

When Steven Just takes stock of his high school experience, he admits that because of some personal struggles, he did not achieve the highest grades or have the best attendance. In fact, sometimes he clashed with the principal and teachers. But the advice he gives today — even to students who aren’t enjoying high school — is apply to college. “College is so different from high school,” he points out, “and you can choose to study subjects that you find interesting.”  

For Dr. Henrietta Mann, stressing the importance of education has been a lifelong mission. At a very young age, she developed a passion for learning that blossomed into an unrelenting quest to promote education — for Natives and non-Natives alike — and led to a career of teaching at the pre-college, community college, undergraduate, and graduate levels.

As a little girl Kaitlin Russell had a big imagination. Her father fueled it by sharing his love of science-fiction movies, so for young Kaitlin, colonizing Mars wasn’t far-fetched and, she reasoned, there would have to be pets on Mars when people lived there and someone had to take care of them. “I knew I wanted to do something with space,” she recalls. “Space veterinarian?”

It was well after midnight when Corey Gray got home from work at the California Institute of Technology’s and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Hanford, Wash. After getting some sleep, he checked his emails and one jumped out. His first thought after reading it: “It must be a test! This can’t be real!”

Indigenous people have long planned for the seasons. Whether storing food for winter, burning strategically to clear debris and ensure continued habitat for both wildlife and humans, or migrating between winter and summer camps, Native people think — and plan — ahead.