For the past three years Liam Puls was part of a small STEM school: the Oklahoma School of Innovation and Experiential Learning, in Bixby. He was in the school’s first class, with a cohort of only 15. Now, it has students from seventh to 11th grade. “We were able to do things that regular students don’t get to do, like travel to Peru and Boston, and visit companies like SpaceX and Boston Dynamics,” he says. “Amazing field trips!”
Now in his junior year, Liam attends Victory Christian School in Tulsa. He plans to play golf on the high school team and participate in the Oral Roberts University dual-enrollment program, earning college credit while in high school. He notes that the Cherokee Nation provides generous scholarships for dual-enrollment programs like this one.
Liam’s ultimate career goal is to teach science or math — maybe both — to Native students. His father inspired his vision for a career path. A psychiatrist in Okmulgee, Okla., his father went away to college and medical school, chose to come back to serve the needs of the community, and sees anyone with a tribal ID. “He is a good role model for me,” says Liam. “I see his drive to make our community healthier. As a teacher, I hope to come back to Oklahoma and serve my community like my dad does.”
Because Liam believes that positive experiences early on, like the ones he had, can set Native students up for success, he plans to teach middle school. He counts AISES among those experiences. “I have been a member since eighth grade — I didn’t know about it until eighth grade!” he says. He has competed in the past three AISES National American Indian Science and Engineering Fairs (NAISEF). “I won first place in the junior division in eighth grade, when my project was plastic sequestration of single-use shopping bags,” he says. “Last year I did a project studying the use of language using a computerized linguistics program and won the Oklahoma Tribal Conservation Advisory Council Award.”
Liam is grateful that his parents and teachers encourage him to get involved, take risks, and enter competitions. “Many students don’t enter because they don’t think they can win,” he says. “Believe me, I have entered many competitions that I didn’t win! But I look at it this way: if I don’t support the community activities, especially the ones for Native students, I worry they won’t last. To make sure they are around for the next generation, we have to get involved and understand that we’re making a difference just by participating.”
One competition that Liam did win is the Congressional Art Contest for his district. His winning photograph will hang in the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., where it will go up against each district winner throughout the United States. His prize shot captures his younger brother wearing his older brother’s cap from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. “Like many Native families, our family has a legacy of military service that my brother is carrying on,” he explains. “For myself, I currently am a cadet staff sergeant in the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program and am learning how to fly planes while also working through search and rescue training.”
In another competition, the art and essay Sutton Scholarship Award, with his photograph of his brother on their farm in Delaware County, Okla. “That’s where our family settled after the Trail of Tears, so the land has special significance,” he explains. “It has two springs, tall pine trees, and many types of wild animals. My dad teaches us how to keep the land healthy and preserve the habitat for future generations.”
Liam prizes his family connection to the land. “I called my essay ‘The Land of Many Mothers’ because it is through my grandmothers that our farm has been preserved and family stories handed down and remembered,” he says. “I often wonder if that is what my grandmothers imagined we would do, and I wonder if they would be surprised that seven generations later we would still be here!” Liam himself is not only still here, he plans to stay.
