Integrative Graduate
Education and
Research Traineeship

Highlight

Haskell Summer Internship Program

Haskell Interns at the Living Earth/Living Waters symposium

Projects:

IGERT: C-CHANGE: Climate Change, Humans, and Nature in...

Institution:

University of Kansas Center for Research Inc

Primary Strategic Goal:

Learning: Build the Nation's research capability through critical investments in advanced instrumentation, facilities, cyber infrastructure, and experimental tools.

Secondary Strategic Goal:

Discovery: Foster research that will advance the frontiers of knowledge, emphasizing areas of greatest opportunity and potential benefit and establishing the Nation as a global leader in fundamental transformational science and engineering.

Achievement/Results

During summers 2009 and 2010 a total of 12 IGERT Trainees and Associates and 16 tribal college undergraduates from Haskell Indian Nations University and Dine College participated in the Haskell Indian Nations University Summer Internship program: the HERS Institute on Climate Change in Indigenous Communities. Each IGERT trainee partnered with HERS Institute interns on their undergraduate research projects. The summer program continues throughout the academic year. In August 2010, Haskell Interns traveled to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian to present their research projects as posters during the Living Earth/Living Waters symposium. One Haskell Intern, Ma’Ko’Quah Abigail Jones (Prairie Band Potawatomi) was invited to be one of six speakers during the symposium. Her talk was entitled, “Oceanic Manifest Destiny: Climate Change Forced Relocation and Indigenous Peoples.”

Address Goals

The HERS Summer Internship program is designed to introduce Native students to climate change research being conducted in a variety of STEM disciplines typically not offered in tribal colleges. By partnering with IGERT students, HERS undergraduate interns gain access to a broadened scholarly toolkit to develop their individual research projects examining climate change in Indigenous communities. As a direct result of generating research projects during the HERS Institute program and with the mentorship of IGERT Trainees, Haskell Interns were prepared to participate in this opportunity to present their work in a highly visible national venue.