Nationwide, there’s a call to broaden participation in computer science — with good reason. The lag in computer science knowledge is especially critical in rural America, where even many blue-collar jobs now require substantial computer skills. Native Americans in rural communities are far less likely than their peers to have access to advanced STEM courses. What’s more, they often lack access to a reliable internet connection outside school.

Learning how to smoothly transition from learning in a classroom to navigating a workplace can be tricky. At her internship with Boston Scientific, University of Oklahoma student Alexis Keeling learned how to be a working engineer. Besides picking up a lot of company-specific procedures and tools, she was able to see how what she has learned in school applies to real-life manufacturing. Keeling, Cherokee, says that as an intern you are expected to do true project work that applies to your education, as well as learn how a company functions, outside a textbook.

Indigenous traditional knowledge of the lands, waters, sky, and long been dismissed by Western science as anecdote , mythology, or even superstition. But thanks to the efforts of Indigenous and non-Native scientists and educators, that perspective is changing.

You’ve heard it before: getting solid internship experiences on your resume is important. And with good reason — internships provide practical workplace exposure and marketable job skills, not to mention a chance to find a mentor, earn glowing letters of reference, and maybe even come away with a full-time job offer

Why your digital reputation matters, and what you can do to strengthen it

Like many other Native students, Kenny Swift Bird was motivated to go to college. He had some great teachers at the high school in his small Nebraska hometown of Chadron, less than an hour’s drive from his Oglala Lakota Tribe’s Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. When he took statistics, calculus, and chemistry, his teachers helped him discover both his aptitude for STEM and how much he enjoys it.

A map can speak many languages, reach many audiences — and significantly support the stewardship of natural resources. Where geospatial data is needed, geographic information systems (GIS) are an important tool for building maps that locate information related to flora and fauna, cultural preservation, and recreation, among other applications. 

Elsie DuBray turns 18 on the Fourth of July. She’s headed for Stanford University after graduating last spring from Timber Lake High School in Timber Lake, S.D., where she sang in the choir, played flute in the band, participated in the One-Act Play and Oral Interpretation programs, served as student council president, played volleyball, and volunteered with the Cheyenne River Youth Project. 

Growing up on ancestral lands next to Yosemite National Park, Irene Vasquez spent countless hours hiking, swimming, biking, and attending cultural ceremonies. Over the years, she’s seen the ecological deterioration of the land that she calls home. This deterioration pushed Vasquez to realize a dream: to help influence management of public lands with an Indigenous perspective.

Patricia Bancroft gives her family a huge part of the credit for her success. In her household there was no question — skip-ping college was just not an option. “I’ll be the second of three siblings to get an undergraduate degree,” says Bancroft, a member of the class of 2018 at Northern Arizona University. “I say it every day: my degree is not only for me but for my family.”