Region 2 attendees celebrated a successfully gathering and met for a photograph outside the Westin Pasadena before departing.
Region 2 Student Rep Sterling Cerda
To open the event Lisa Paz, AISES managing director of engagement and advocacy, welcomed everyone and introduced the emcee for the evening, Region 2 Student Representative Sterling Cerda.
The evening officially began with a land acknowledgement of the Gabrielieño-Tongva and Kizh Nation peoples. Montoya Whiteman, managing director of editorial and special projects at AISES, explained her family connection to Southern California and Pasadena in particular, and offered a blessing. She also thanked JPL for the tour (see “Tour of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory”) and for being role models and teachers for so many aspiring Indigenous people in STEM.
Cerda reviewed the conference schedule, the AISES Safe Camp standards and Code of Conduct, and encouraged everyone to connect and mingle during the event. He then introduced Bianca Coller from Stantec, a conference sponsor. She explained that the professionals at Stantec — designers, engineers, and scientists — are focused on supporting healthy relationships with individual communities. The company is serious about diversity and actively recruits at AISES. “I’ve experienced being the only one, and that needs to change,” she said. “Stantec wants to see you grow.”
Keynote speaker Aaron Yazzie, Diné, was introduced as a mechanical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he designs mechanical systems for robotic research missions in space. His work has included the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover, the Mars InSight Lander, and the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover, which is searching for signs of microbial life by drilling cores in the surface of Mars and collecting samples. Yazzie was the lead engineer for the rover’s critical drill bits. Currently his work involves handling the samples and working on the team that will bring them back for study. (See “Tour of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.”)
Yazzie talked about how the concept of walking in two worlds has taken on a new meaning in his life. “I’m sitting here on Earth and thinking about outer space all day,” he said. He described how his grandparents lived close to the land and how his grandmother would kneel in the dirt to cook traditional corn bread in an underground oven. “It was the best thing to eat,” he said. “My grandparents were the first example of scientists in my life because they understood how to live on the land. To be able to create delicious, nourishing food in a harsh environment is engineering.”
He explained that to be Navajo is to care about understanding your origins and the world around you. “I am studying the origins of life. Maybe not the way my grandparents did, but that’s what I’m doing. In my 15 years at NASA, I am doing what my grandmother did — I strive to understand the world,” he said.
He gave an overview of his role at NASA and the importance of the drill bits he works on not only to possibly establishing that there was microbial life on Mars but also offering clues to other planets. “Mars and Earth are cousins,” he said. “The planets grew up on a similar timeline. Water on Mars means there may be a chance that life started to form on that rocky planet — rocky like Earth.”
Yazzie also pointed to his long involvement with AISES: he was a four-year AISES scholarship recipient and president of the College Chapter at Stanford University, where he earned a BS in mechanical engineering. While in college he pursued AISES internships at two NASA research centers: the Goddard Space Flight Center and the Glenn Research Center. In his senior year he went to the AISES National Conference as the Region 2 representative, met a JPL recruiter, and was offered a job. He is now a professional member and an AISES Sequoyah Fellow who actively recruits other Native professionals to work at NASA. In 2021 he received the AISES Technical Excellence Professional Award. “I know what it feels like to be blessed by AISES,” he said. “Now I want to give back and come full circle.”
The gathering for the closing Conference Dinner was convened by emcee Sterling Cerda, who asked Montoya Whiteman to give the blessing. She began with a few remarks about the conference day and the sessions she attended. “Everybody’s absorbed in the experience, and that’s what I really like about it,” she said. “The AISES family is there across the lifespan, from our elders to babies like Juniper [referring to keynote speaker Georgia Sandoval’s one-year-old daughter]. This is what the AISES family is all about.”
“I thought my life would be a straight line,” Georgia Sandoval told attendees. “But it’s not like that.” She shared her story with the audience, relating that she is Diné from Tuba City, Ariz. After high school she started at Diné College, then earned an associate degree in general science at Coconino County Community College. She always liked math, so from there she decided to pursue a math major at Arizona State, where she was president of the AISES College Chapter. “AISES has played an important role in my life,” she said. At a point where she didn’t know what to do with her major in computational math, she landed her first internship at Raytheon at an AISES conference and had her first exposure to software engineering.
“I was a single mom, so school and internships were a struggle,” Sandoval said. “After Raytheon I went back to ASU, then back to AISES and got an internship at Boeing.” As she was finishing her degree she met a recruiter from Intel, also through AISES, and was offered a full-time position. “I found myself a single mother in my first real job at Intel in Oregon, away from my family. It was challenging,” she said. But she was not without support. “When I look back on my path, I see women, especially Native women, who were my mentors.”
One of these mentors, who was also her supervisor, encouraged her to take a personality inventory test to identify her strengths. “It’s important to play off your strengths,” she said, telling the audience that her strengths are “harmony, because I create balance in my life and with my team; relator, because I enjoy bringing people together; beauty, because I try to find beauty in the world around me; and restorative, because I enjoy problem solving.”
Sandoval says she reached a point where she felt good about her career, then COVID happened. “I had been going so fast and never had time to reflect on my life,” she said. “Then when COVID slowed it all down, I found myself in a mental health crisis. I took a leave of absence to think, and once I stopped moving it all came crashing down — the passed-on trauma, COVID losses, and a close friend’s attempted suicide. Talking to my mom helped me through it, but that was the scariest moment in my life.”
She then turned her experience around to help her audience, “I learned you’ll always find yourself asking questions. Have you ever found yourself at a crossroad where you didn’t know what to do? AISES can help guide you. They helped me find direction. I appreciate everything I received from AISES.”
She pointed out that by coming to the conference, attendees were on the right path. “Just sitting here, you have taken a step toward your goal. As you go on to other conferences, you will meet many people who want to help you, and at some point you need to give back. Your life will be a busy zigzag but remember to stop and reflect. Remember to ground yourself, and you will go far.”
Dr. Franklin Dollar, presenter, and Georgia Sandoval, keynote speaker, are pictured with their daughters Maria and Juniper.
How Undergraduate Research Experiences and Internships Will Impact Your Future Career
The presenter of this practical session, Dr. Franklin Dollar, is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where he runs the Dollar Research Group focusing on the physics of ultrafast laser plasma interactions. He began his session focused on undergrads by asking attendees what they want from their own degree program. More than one indicated they wanted knowledge to help their communities, including a student who said, “I dropped out during the pandemic. I wasn’t going to go back, but I talked to my Apache great-grandpa, and he said I should go back and bring knowledge to my community.”
Dr. Dollar then described his own background, coming from a small high school on his reservation, the Dry Creek Rancheria, to UC Berkeley, where he struggled both academically and with imposter syndrome. “I had clouds of doubt, thinking ‘maybe you shouldn’t be here,’” he said. He eventually found support in other Native students and student groups.
After attending a session on summer research opportunities, he was able to find a paid assignment, and from there he found more. “I went from working at a drugstore for minimum wage to working in a national lab for the summer,” he said. “Assume what you want is out there and look for it.” He urged his listeners to look for their own sources of support for paid research, such as AISES and the NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates, the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, and the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation. “Don’t be afraid of contacting the program directly,” Dr. Dollar said.
He emphasized that in addition to a paycheck, a paid research opportunity gives participants the benefit of experience in a field and experience in how the real world operates, plus a window into the range of opportunities out there. “Internships expose you to fields you might not have thought of,” he said. “You’ll also meet potential mentors and observe different work styles. In fact, taking more classes instead of interning may be the worst thing you can do with your summer.”
Urging his listeners to consider internships as a prerequisite for their next step, he explained that hands-on experience is widely expected for those heading to a full-time professional position as well as those going on to graduate school. For both groups, a principal potential benefit of summer research opportunities is meeting a mentor and lining up future letters of recommendation. “When you go to the next step after undergrad, you’ll need more than a transcript: you’ll need those letters of recommendation,” he said. And after eight weeks on a project, you may well be able to create a poster of your work and participate in the poster competition at the AISES National Conference.
Dr. Dollar listed other potential benefits of summer internships: a stipend, living expenses, tutoring and GRE prep, professional development, books and supplies, poster printing, and planned social activities.
He also offered advice on how to choose a summer opportunity. “It’s not just about the stipend,” he said. Also consider all the costs and benefits, the location (opportunities are offered around the country and even internationally), the research focus and flexibility, and the length of the program. “No two programs are alike, even if they have the same name,” he said. Among the examples of possible opportunities, he cited an REU in imaging sciences at UCI, and one in nanoscience and microsystems at the University of New Mexico.
He concluded with a message about the particular contributions Indigenous scientists can offer. “There is a strong need for Natives in STEM with the same value set,” he said. “We are pushing back on the narrative that you can be Indigenous or you can be a scientist. We are bringing values that make the field better.”
Talofa Fe'a delivered an informative and emotionally stirring session that received high praise from participants.
From the Coasts of Pasifika: Going Beyond the Data with Pacific Island Perspectives and Stories
Presenter Talofa Fe’a, from American Samoa, explained that “Pasifika” is a term coined to describe the peoples and communities of the South Pacific Islands. She described her role with two research teams as a scholar in the undergraduate Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions (EPP/MSI) at NOAA (the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).
Her aim in the presentation was to show how researchers can incorporate stories from communities in their work with data and bring in their voices through models such as an ESRI Story Map. “I just want to talk stories with you all,” she said. Citing the example of the 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai submarine volcano and ensuing tsunami, she showed a story map that incorporated several features and community impacts from water-level data. Tonga felt the most effects, with four fatalities and more than 2,000 displaced people. Talofa Fe’a explained that she encouraged NOAA scientists to do more than record the data and damage, but also to tell the story of the resilience of the people. She pointed out that many in Tonga didn’t wait for an official alert: they watched the ocean and left for high ground. “There is a need for more resilient critical infrastructure that combines community stories and data,” she said. “Meanwhile, we will rebuild. It’s where we live and what we do.”
The Biology of Land Back
tongva.land.com
As the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy (TTPC) Land Return coordinator, presenter Samantha M. Jackson explained that this community-led effort is working to acquire and care for lands in Tovaangar, the traditional Tongva region that encompasses the greater Los Angeles basin. A principal goal for her presentation was to show the science behind this example of land back and land restoration in progress to Native people interested in STEM. Jackson, a science illustrator and ethnobotanist with a degree in marine biology, has been adapting her ecological knowledge to address the myriad ecological problems encountered in returning land to native species in the midst of climate change.
Before they could deal with the challenges, the conservancy needed title to some land. After seven years of conversations with a landowner, the conservancy was able to acquire some property near Eaton Canyon, a traditionally significant location. They named the land “Huhuugna,” the Place of the Bear. The first step was clearing out “colonial junk” — about 40 tons of trash — with the help of many volunteers. Step 2 was conducting a survey of the plants. “I found it to be about 90 percent non-native,” said Jackson. “The biggest issue was eucalyptus trees, which are highly invasive and flammable ‘fire bombs’ in wildfires.” Now the conservancy is actively involved in the restoration phase of removing the invasives, restoring the soil, and returning the Native land to the “natives” of all species, all while creating community and practicing ceremony.
Region 2 Student Caucus
Professional Chapter Meeting
An important part of any Regional Conference is the meetings of the constituent chapters, where officers are introduced, chapter and AISES updates are shared, announcements are made, and plans discussed for chapter activities and outreach.
After an opening blessing at the Student Caucus, AISES Engagement Officer Kaitlan Lyons and Region 2 Representative Sterling Cerda shared news with the members. Lyons described an app in the works that will be useful for connecting student and professional members and described the chapter mini-grants available for a variety of discretionary expenses. She also gave updates on deadlines and encouraged everyone to apply for travel scholarships to the National Conference. “You don’t have to be Native or in STEM to be in AISES,” she said. “There are opportunities in many fields at the National Conference.” Lyons also explained that the regional conferences will be changing in that AISES will be taking over the organizing tasks from the chapters, but the members will be involved in the planning.
Presenters Colin Rambo (left) and Curtis Alcantar look on as an attendee experiences a VR demonstration of the Pleito Creek Project.
Inspiring AISES Interns Beyond the Classroom
Sometimes internships are life changing. After a stint at Bonneville Power as an AISES intern with a focus on archeology, Curtis Alcantar took those skills and filled the role of tribal cultural resource specialist (tribal monitor) for his community, the Tejon Indian Tribe. In that role he was mentored by his predecessor, Colin Rambo. Accessing artifacts and protecting cultural resources is central to this role, and Rambo, a professional archeologist himself, persuaded Alcantar to pursue a four-year degree in that discipline. Presenters Rambo and Alcantar explained one factor that was instrumental in moving Alcantar along his professional path: a creative partnership with the University of Central Lancashire in the U.K. Together with the university, the tribe is using virtual reality and 3D modeling to highlight some of their cultural resources, like baskets and cave art from a site along the Pleito Creek in south central California. Session attendees also had an opportunity to experience the Pleito VR project for themselves. Alcantar reported now that he has finished his degree, he and Rambo are working together again, this time at Stantec. Rambo emphasized the importance of internships and mentoring, and together they recommended that attendees look into AISES opportunities to work with tribal governments beyond cultural initiatives, such as government services, tribal committees, and educational programming.
Alex "Panda" Armendariz and Jacob Sansur Linarez come together to celebrate Cody the Space Coyote's epic journey.
Living on the Edge: Creatures on the Event Horizon
What do Indigenous traditions have in common with theoretical physics? Jacob Sansur Linarez offered a session that integrated Navajo creation stories with theoretical physics through a creative presentation inspired by graphic novels. Linarez, a student at California State University, San Bernadino, and co-founder of Quantum Acoustic Innovations, invited attendees to “explore the mysteries of the universe through the eyes of Cody the Space Coyote, who embarks on a cosmic journey.”
He discussed how diverse knowledge systems can address the mysteries of the universe and inform each other. “Pay attention to the paradoxes in the narrative,” he said. “Ancient narratives have a unique perspective on explaining concepts like hypothetical black hole critters.” In Linarez’ telling, Cody symbolizes the spirit of exploration, beginning his quest with two questions: what is life? And what is a particle? “The paradox of “life” and “particle” lies in their duality,” said Linarez. “Both are finite and both are infinite. The scientific term “cosmos” refers to the interconnectedness of the universe, which goes with the Navajo creation stories.” Linarez explained that the goal of presenting his research through the story of Cody’s journey of exploration is to demystify the Grand Unified Theory and emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration. “There’s a new type of science that combines traditional ways of knowing with hard science,” he said. “It’s our science.”
UCLA students celebrated their collective achievement at the Region 2 conference with a moving display of unity that resonated with the audience.
Indigenizing Higher Education: Empowering Native Students Through AIR at UCLA
Reaching Indigenous pre-college students with information about options for their future is a goal of AIR (American Indian Recruitment), a student-led initiative at UCLA that aims to increase the representation of Native students at UCLA and beyond. Presenters Deniale Urbina, Amiee Scott, Anjeliq Pinn, Bri Sobrero, Cadence Benally, Elia Kohler, Jaeden Wesley, Sage Hatch, and Toipureenah Orozco, all undergraduate students at UCLA, told their personal stories and described resources available through AIR and at the university to help students succeed and Indigenize their experience.
JPL Professionals Lauren Denton, Catherine Rice, and Aaron Yazzie showcased their profound knowledge and experience gained through their tenure as professionals at JPL.
AMA for NASA JPL Professionals
nasa.gov/jpl
jpl.jobs/blogarticle/nebulas-growing-community
Jet Propulsion Lab engineers Lauren Denson, Catherine Rice, and Aaron Yazzie facilitated the “Ask Me Anything” session sharing their personal career journeys at NASA JPL. They gave professional tips on how to get a job, internships, and interviews, and spoke about their college and professional journeys. Walking in both Worlds, Yazzie said he “likes people who are leaders who can pull respect from people on their team.” For 15 years Yazzie has been able to live by this core principle as a mechanical systems engineer. Yazzie said his STEM journey started as a youth and was supported by AISES through his college years. Among Denson’s goals are to make JPS a culturally sensitive environment with a strong infrastructure that supports and accepts employee diversity. That’s where the ERG NEBULA (Native Engagement in Building a Unified Leadership Alliance) comes in as the resource group for Indigenous employees at JPL. As NEBULA members, they have learned to support themselves as a “family of professionals” while also serving as community liaisons.
A slide from Summer Harris and Pamela Allen spoke about the importance of having diverse voices in computer science fields.
CS for Everyone
khoury.northeastern.edu
Serving as the regional director of graduate recruitment at the Northeastern University Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Pamela Allen is set on furthering diversity, equity, and inclusion in computer sciences fields. Along with co-presenter Summer Harris, she led an exercise highlighting the computer science skills we use in our day-to-day lives. Harris focused on concepts of computational thinking, abstraction, and decomposition while noting that repeatable steps are the core of algorithms. Allen asked, “Why do voices matter in tech? If we’re not at the table these technologies are not inclusive or harmful. DEI allows for innovation, diversity of thought, sparks conversations, and is the opposite of group thought.”
Melissa Rodriguez highlighted some impressive points about Caltech! It is renowned for its pioneering research and contributions to STEM fields.
Caltech Undergraduate Admission
caltech.edu/about
The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, Calif. This world-renowned science and engineering institute boasts over 47 Nobel Prize recipients. It is known for its academic rigor balanced with over 100 clubs designed to make the college experience memorable. Caltech has close ties with NASA and the Jet Propulsion Lab. With a student body of close to 1,000 undergraduates and a 3:1 student-faculty ratio, Caltech maintains an honor code that encompasses teamwork, collaboration, and support. Internships allow work alongside leading experts at the forefront of their respective fields.
Kaitlan Lyons is a dedicated advocate for AISES and its mission to support student chapter development. Her enthusiastic effort to ensure students have the necessary tools and resources for their success is making a positive impact on aspiring STEM professionals.
Getting to Know AISES and a Guide to Chapter Success
aises.org
AISES Engagement Officer Kaitlan Lyons helps to identity and develop top Indigenous STEM talent while working with the national and international AISES student chapters, as well as emerging chapters, to increase the representation of Indigenous peoples in STEM. Chapters are a gateway to forums, workshops, resources, and networks that further a student’s professional development. AISES provides wraparound services and resources like handbooks, petition to charter, faculty advisors, organizational goal setting, and more. Starting an AISES chapter requires a minimum of three members. Other startup activities include student recruitment for membership, creating an AISES chapter logo unique to the college/university, retention, and tips for success. AISES has mini-grants of up to $1,000 to support chapter activities and events for greater impact.
Click the image above to see a slideshow of the tour.
Tour of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Since 1936, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been pushing the limits on unlocking the secrets of the universe. These days the focus has moved from jet engines to vehicles for space exploration, and a group of attendees at the Region 2 Conference had the opportunity to tour the JPL campus in Pasadena for a behind-the-scenes view of this innovation incubator.
Funded by NASA and managed by the California Institute of Technology, JPL is a collaboration that’s now all about robotic space exploration. Leading the tour were members of the California AISES Professionals Chapter and the JPL Indigenous employee resource group, Nebula (Native Engagement in Building a Unified Leadership Alliance), including Aaron Yazzie, Lauren Denson, Catherine Rice, and Tyler Hudson. Among the several buildings where the guides took participants on the expansive JPL grounds were the Visitor Center, the Space Flight Operations Facility, Rover Garage, and the Spacecraft Assembly Facility.
The Operations Facility is “Mission Control,” where the computing and communications equipment needed to launch, monitor, and guide missions is housed. NASA’s Deep State Network is also operated from this control room. This facility is where NASA scientists receive data from and communicate with the rovers, and it’s known as “the Center of the Universe” because it monitors and collects data from multiple spacecraft. Mission Control was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
A stop at the Mars Yard, a proving ground where the terrain approximates the surface of Mars, gave the visitors a chance to see up close a pair of functional rovers just like Curiosity and Perseverance. Aaron Yazzie, who ensures that a rover’s sample collecting tubes perform correctly, described how rovers function and outlined the plan for returning the Mars samples to Earth. “We are looking for signs of life on Mars,” he said, “but we are also gaining information on how planets were born.”
A highlight of the tour was the giant clean room Space Assembly Area where JPL scientists build spacecraft. Tour participants were able to observe current work on the Europa Clipper, scheduled to launch in October to orbit Jupiter and conduct multiple flybys of the planet’s moon Europa. The mission of the Europa Clipper is to possibly detect conditions conducive to life. “Water is necessary for life, and we follow the water,” said Yazzie. “The Europa moon is covered with ice, so there might be signs of life.” The craft’s journey to Jupiter will take six years, with an expected arrival in 2030. Rene Dominguez, a mechanical inspector in hardware assurance who works on the Europa Clipper, described some of the different systems involved. “When Europa launches it will be the heaviest payload NASA has ever built,” he said. “The clipper will not land on Europa but will conduct research from orbit.” Those on the JPL tour will certainly be among the many Europa Clipper watchers around the world eager to see this remarkable spacecraft execute its mission. To take your own virtual tour click here.
