There are many good reasons why one hundred Phoenix-based AISES members are active participants in the city’s Professional Chapter. For many, the most important is the opportunity to make a difference for Natives in STEM. Chapter members mentor individual students and offer guidance to the College Chapters at Arizona State, the University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University.

Why I disrupted a White House panel at the U.N. climate talks

Like many members of my Indigenous family, I watched the events at Standing Rock unfold with a daily struggle of emotions ranging from heartache to pride to anger to gratitude. Physically, I was 1,200 miles away. I felt powerless, stuck behind a desk at Ohio State University pursuing my PhD. My Indigenous community played a significant role in propelling me through higher education to that desk. I knew I had my own role to play to support my relatives and their struggles at Standing Rock.

If you leave work every day feeling smart and productive, chances are you’re employed at an organization that attracts and retains an inclusive staff. Research on workplace teams shows that when the members represent a diversity of race, gender, and sexual orientation, they are likely to be more creative when it comes to finding solutions. In fact, according to Diversity Inc., teams with a mix of backgrounds and approaches to problem-solving often outperform even more experienced homogeneous teams. And being intellectually engaged is a great way to feel good about your job.

Meet the Council of Elders. Focusing on the mission: The Council of Elders Keeps AISES Grounded.

You’ve been on your current career path for a few years — or maybe it’s only a few months — and you suspect this isn’t where you want to be long term. Maybe you don’t find the work rewarding, or you aren’t making the meaningful connections you expected. If the nagging dissatisfaction is persistent and growing, it may be time to consider switching careers. Especially if you’re looking for more personal satisfaction, a career change to teaching is something to consider.

It’s winter. The holiday break is a memory, and you’re settling in to the new term. And while it may seem that having been gone for a few weeks shouldn’t make a difference, we all know it does. So it’s important to think about things you can do to gear up for a great spring semester.

For most students, the prerequisites for academic success include more than intro courses. To do well in a rigorous campus environment, students need a strong safety net of support that includes like-minded friends, effective mentors, and cultural affirmation. 

The student debt crisis has been in the headlines lately, and for good reason. Student loans are now second only to mortgages as the country’s principal category of consumer debt. There are more than 44 million student borrowers with a total of $1.45 trillion in debt — the average graduate from the class of 2016 entered the workforce with more than $37,000 in student loans.

“Every day we work toward solving hard technical problems that matter.”

Not long ago, Ginger Hernandez and her husband, Emmanuel, went to a social gathering at a neighbor’s house. When a woman there asked Hernandez how her day was, Hernandez told her it was “fantastic!” Hernandez, Cherokee, says her answer was delivered with such enthusiasm that it prompted a little skepticism. “The woman said, ‘Really? It was fantastic?’ And I told her yes, it really was.”

The first Native Hawai’ian woman to earn a PhD in science, Isabella Aiona Abbott was one of the world’s foremost authorities on limu, or the more than 70 edible varieties of seaweed. Her work won Abbott the accolade “First Lady of Limu.” Also considered the foremost expert on central-Pacific algae, Abbott navigated an ocean of “firsts” for indigenous people through her 90 years (1919–2010).