Leadership in the World of Stem and Beyond
Mechanical Engineering
AS A YOUNG BOY, JJ Jones III loved building. He spent hours playing with Legos and k’nex and never tired of creating something new and different. What started as a young boy’s passion has become a young man’s goal. Now in his third year at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., Jones, Navajo, is majoring in mechanical engineering and minoring in Native American historical studies with plans to become a mechanical engineer, helping to keep his community — and nation — safe.
Born in Phoenix, Jones and his family moved to the suburban town of Tracy, Calif., when he was five years old. Surrounded by miles of farms and orchards, Jones found a lot to like about his new home. “My town is rather small by California standards, and many families have known each other for a few generations,” he says. “But it’s still just big enough where you have opportunities to meet plenty of new people.”
Jones also found the town to be accepting and supportive of him and his entire family, who are not the average family of four. “My brother, Jacob, was diagnosed with autism and fragile X syndrome and has been nonverbal since he was a child,” explains Jones. “My family hasn’t had your typical experience. Although my brother’s conditions made our family different, it didn’t make us any less of a family.” His brother’s conditions also served as a driving force for Jones, who became committed to making his family proud.
Now in his third year of a five-year mechanical engineering program, Jones has not only found his footing on his desired career path, he’s had the opportunity to further explore his Native American roots.
Jones threw himself into his studies at the Space and Engineering Academy at Merrill F. West High School. While he initially went in thinking he wanted to be an architect, Jones soon found himself drawn to civil engineering and then, ultimately, to mechanical engineering. “I’ve really liked the CAD (computer-aided design) side of engineering and the use of 3D design software,” he says. “This software has combined my love for drawing and building. I can get lost for hours designing and assembling parts in the program because of how much fun it is to see an assembled device come from a blank document.”
If such a rigorous course load wasn’t enough, Jones was also a member of the high school football and baseball teams. Learning to juggle AP classes, practices, and games led to many late nights, early mornings, and days without much sleep. “Sometimes I had to sacrifice going to social events because of the time required for school and sports,” says Jones. “Some of the most difficult times were having multiple games a week, getting home, scarfing down food, then starting the hours of physics, calculus, history, and every other type of assignment that you can imagine.”
While it wasn’t easy, Jones is thankful for his family, friends, teachers, and coaches who supported him and helped him get to the next stage in his academic career at an Ivy League school. Although being 3,000 miles away isn’t always easy, Jones mostly takes it in stride. He has enjoyed being on the football team and connecting with other Indigenous students in his classes. What he did find difficult was learning how to manage entirely on his own. “The hardest adjustment when I first got to college was actually learning to just function as an independent adult and maintaining a certain level of responsibility without a parent or teacher around,” says Jones. “Learning to set aside specific times during the day where I could ensure I would handle all my school, athletic, and personal responsibilities has been extremely valuable in managing a busy life.”
Now in his third year of a five-year mechanical engineering program, Jones has not only found his footing on his desired career path, he’s also had the opportunity to further explore his Native American roots. “Some of the most interesting courses I have found at Dartmouth were not engineering courses at all,” notes Jones. “Native American studies classes have been the most interesting, which led me to pursue a minor in that discipline.” Through these classes and his membership in AISES, Jones has found new ways to connect with his heritage, including creating relationships with other Native engineers, becoming a role model for others, and participating in more Native programming.
Thanks to his schooling, an internship at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the careers of his family members, Jones knows where he wants to go, and what he needs to do to get there. “My ultimate career goal is to be a high-level engineer at a government facility or private business, like NASA or Lockheed Martin, developing new defense and weapons technology and systems,” he says. “My father, many uncles, and grandfathers have served various military, law enforcement, and other service careers. Through this field I would be able to play my part in preserving our country’s national security.”
Jones never loses sight of this goal, and knows that he would not have made it this far without the support of his family. “My parents have always taught me to overcome adversity and never quit because when you quit once, it makes it easier to quit the next time,” he explains. He also feels strongly about pushing himself outside his comfort zone, and encourages others to do the same, noting, “I would say the best thing is not to be scared to try something new. There is a lot of value and learning when trying something new and stepping out of your comfort zone.” Jones is in the habit of doing just that.
— Alexa Panza
Basketball is such a popular sport on the Navajo Nation that it’s known as “rezball,” and several high schools on the reservation field games in actual arenas, rather than more typical gymnasiums. Fans will stand in line for hours to get tickets to be in the large crowd cheering the fast-paced action on the floor.
Astrophysics
JULIA BLUE BIRD IS CURIOUS about a lot of things. She has earned three master’s degrees, one in electrical engineering from the University of Southern Florida and two from Columbia University in philosophy and astronomy and in astrophysics. But these days her curiosity is focused on galaxy evolution over cosmic time as she completes her PhD in astrophysics at Columbia.
With her engineering background, Blue Bird is well equipped to explore the specialized field of radio astronomy. Her dissertation is on the relationship of the spin of galaxies to the underlying structure of the universe. “In my current role as a research scientist, I use powerful telescopes to study how galaxies evolve,” says Blue Bird, Oglala Lakota. “This is done in radio frequency band, whereas the Hubble Space Telescope is in optical band.”
Even as a little girl, Blue Bird was curious about how things work and demonstrated an aptitude for math, which she believed could be her ticket to see the world.
The newly upgraded Very Large Array Radio Telescope she relies on is located outside Socorro, N.M. “It has amazing capabilities,” says Blue Bird, who also notes that other telescopes are being built in places such as Chile, South Africa, and Australia.
Her research is tied to a much larger survey of the universe called CHILES (the COSMOS HI Large Extragalactic Survey). “We use our data to give us an understanding of the extended outer parts of hundreds of galaxies,” explains Blue Bird. “We don’t know that much about how galaxies evolve. With these powerful telescopes we are able to study galaxies back 5 billion years, which has never been done before.”
Blue Bird believes her desire to know more about the universe is a link to her Native roots. Born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, she returns annually to participate in ceremonies and strengthen her connection to her family and her heritage.
Even as a little girl, Blue Bird was curious about how things work and demonstrated an aptitude for math, which she believed could be her ticket to see the world. “Growing up in such a small, rural area, the thought of seeing other places was something I dreamed about,” she says. “My first trip on an airplane was in college when I traveled to my first AISES conference.”
When she was 17, she moved to Rapid City, S.D., then she headed to college at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. But college got off to a rough start. “I was working full time and really wasn’t focused,” Blue Bird says. “I had poor study habits, and that didn’t help. I felt lost.” But then she met Dr. Jack Weyland, a professor involved with AISES. “He became my mentor and completely changed my life,” she explains. “He was understanding and encouraged us Native students to stay in school.” Blue Bird soon became active in AISES, served as chapter vice president, and ultimately became a Sequoyah Fellow.
After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering, Blue Bird moved to Denver, where she worked as a radio frequency engineer for a national phone company. “We built networks in remote, rugged terrain,” she says. “That job was filled with adventure as we climbed gigantic towers and hung huge antennas that shot across mountains.”
Blue Bird also worked for a venture capital startup that helped build the world’s first 3G networks — the backbone for broadband wireless. “Because it involved the development of communications systems, that job helped lay the foundation for my next opportunity with NASA,” she says.
Her role with NASA brought her in touch with AISES co-founder J.C. Elliott High Eagle, a veteran of the Apollo program who became her mentor. “I was hired to develop a broadband communication system for the moon’s surface for tracking astronauts and lunar vehicles,” she explains. From there she worked on the primary communication system on the Orion spacecraft.
It was during her eight years at NASA that she transitioned her role from radio frequency engineer to aspiring observational radio astronomer at Columbia. With just a year and a half until she completes her doctorate, Blue Bird is considering her future path. She may stay in the U.S., or she may explore opportunities with those radio telescopes in other countries. No matter where she ends up, her exploration of the universe won’t stop.
— Kimberly Durment Locke
Previously known as the Oglala Sioux Tribe, the Oglala Lakota make their home on the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, the site of Wounded Knee.