When Sandra Begay was an 11-year-old attending boarding school, she knew she wanted a career in engineering. It wasn’t that she was taking an engineering course in elementary school, but rather it was when she realized there was a problem that could be solved.
“We had to get up early in the winter and march to the dining hall, which was a football-field length away through the cold,” recalls Begay, this year’s winner of the Indigenous Excellence Award. “Maybe it was because of a trip to Disneyland, but in the back of my mind I knew there was a better way. What if I could get into a tram and get to the dining hall nice and warm?”
To be clear, a boarding school monorail was never actually constructed. But the idea that she could use science and technology skills to figure out the answer to a complicated problem became firmly embedded in Begay’s mind.
Today, she is a research and development engineer at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., a place Begay has worked on and off for 27 years in a variety of capacities. But her journey from precocious young student to being featured in a book about pioneering women engineers and serving on the University of New Mexico Board of Regents has not been as quick and easy as an imaginary tram ride to the cafeteria.
The very reason she was at a boarding school near Gallup, N.M., was that Begay’s mother (Navajo matriarch) was the first member of her family to pursue a college degree — enough of a challenge that she needed to focus her attention on her studies full time. While it meant sacrifices for her family, the example her mother provided and the direct advice her mom gave about the struggles involved made an impression when it was time for Begay to consider higher education. “She said it’s going to be a hard path and college is challenging, but you have to do it,” says Begay, a member of the Navajo Nation. “My dad, who was a tribal leader, always wanted me to think big and figure out how to use my degree to help other people, especially Navajos.”
Begay also got a practical lesson from her mom, who worked as a public health nurse after finishing school, about the most financially efficient way to get a college degree. Like her mom, Begay went to a University of New Mexico community college campus before earning her BS in civil engineering at the main campus in Albuquerque.
Even before she graduated, Begay attended an AISES National Conference and met an employee from Sandia, who told her what a great place the lab is to build a career, especially for Native employees. “I knew that is where I wanted to work,” she says. “But I also knew that a bachelor’s degree was not enough.”
With the vision of eventually securing a position at Sandia, Begay earned an MS in structural engineering from Stanford University — a school she chose for its vibrant American Indian community. (She was named to the school’s Alumni Hall of Fame in 2000.) Before landing a position at Sandia, Begay worked as a facilities structural engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory and as a plant civil engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
With the exception of a two-year stint as executive director of AISES, Begay has worked at Sandia since 1992. Her positions have varied from project manager to assisting senior executives with business development and corporate planning and, most recently, leading a technical assistance team supporting the development of renewable energy on tribal land. In 2009 she was recognized with the Ely S. Parker Award, the highest AISES honor.
Begay’s first name, Sandra, literally means “helper,” and though her positions and responsibilities have changed over the course of her career, that fundamental mission of helping others has remained constant. Begay created the Indian Energy Program at Sandia, which includes an internship program. Through that program, Begay had the opportunity to mentor 42 American Indian and Alaska Native college students, over half of whom are women. One of her former interns, JoDonna John, is the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority’s renewable energy engineer, overseeing the completion of the second-largest solar installation on tribal lands.
In many ways, the same attitude and perspective that Begay has shown as an engineer have guided her in everything else she has done, including encouraging young Indigenous students. “It’s not about pondering how challenging or hard a situation is,” she says. “It’s figuring out what I can do about it. How can I help?”
