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| Home : Volume 31 : Winter 2005 : | |
| Building community | |
| American Indian group helps students feel at home on campus |
American Indian and Alaska Native students participate in many team-building activities via the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. |
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Even as a kindergartener, Tyriina O'Neil knew she wanted to get her college education at UW-Madison. "I didn't even apply anywhere else," says O'Neil, an Osage Indian from the small town of Hutchinson, Minnesota.
But for other American Indian students, she says, the decision to leave their homes and families to pursue higher education isn't quite so easy. "A lot of times, what happens is that Indian students grow up surrounded by people of their own culture on the reservation," says O'Neil. Once they're on campus, she says, they often experience culture shock. "American Indian students often feel alone, and don't have the close support network of family that they would have at home," she says. "And in Indian culture, family is very important."
At UW-Madison, American Indian students can find friends and surrogate-family in the campus chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), a national organization. "We try and really support our members in any way possible," says O'Neil, a biochemistry junior who co-chairs the organization with molecular biology junior Lauren Hensley, a Colville Indian. "We try to give them opportunities."
AISES members gather twice a month — great food, such as pizza or Thai cuisine, is always provided — to listen to speakers from industry or internship recruitment programs, to learn how to dress in the science or engineering world, or to build more effective resumes. They discuss group issues and vote on results. In addition, they use the meetings to plan the retreat weekend and the Native American Health Symposium, the group's two major community-building events.
Each spring, AISES invites all American Indian high-school students who have been accepted at UW-Madison to attend the retreat weekend, an all-expenses-paid introduction to the university and to future friends. The visiting students meet faculty, staff, UW-Madison students and each other, tour campus, spend time on Madison's funky State Street, attend a powwow hosted by campus American Indian group Wunk Sheek, participate in team-building activities, and play games and bowl at Union South. The weekend culminates with a closing ceremony in which students hear a tribal elder speak. The message, says O'Neil, is simple: "Even if they choose not to come here, they should continue in their studies."
Sometimes, the event helps students decide whether UW-Madison is right for them. Such was the case for Arrielle Opotowsky of New Orleans, whose college offers included a full scholarship to Louisiana State University. She attended the retreat weekend in 2003, and, says O'Neil: "She had so much fun that she decided to come here."
An engineering mechanics and astronautics major whose passion is space exploration and whose dream is to work for NASA, Opotowsky now is the AISES representative to Polygon, the engineering student council. In addition, she tutors a Native high school student each week. "When I got here, I realized exactly how good the school was and what it had to offer," she says about the retreat weekend. "I couldn't give that up."
Chris Caldwell, a member of the Menominee Nation, was the first American Indian student to take part in a program that enables students who earn two-year degrees in sustainable development from the College of the Menominee Nation to complete a bachelor's degree in the field in two additional years. When he arrived, Caldwell proposed inviting other students in the program to the retreat weekend, so that they, too, could visit campus and begin to build community before transferring to the university.
And O'Neil, who first volunteered at the retreat weekend as a freshman, learned how much AISES members care about their peers. "It really struck me how awesome this was and that these people are doing something amazing," she says. "AISES was actualizing an idea and had flown students from across the country just to be here."
For other American Indian students, particularly those interested in the sciences or engineering, choosing a university might be tied to understanding how the fields apply to their own lives, says O'Neil. That's why AISES and the Native American Working Health Group co-sponsor the Native American Health Symposium for high-school students. "We try to expose these kids to the different programs that are available to them and encourage them to continue in their studies, as well as expose them to health and science issues that are related to them," she says. "Sometimes that's a problem. In popular culture, often the only references to Indian culture are mascots or movies like Pocahontas. These images are not accurate or respectful. The symposium tries to provide images of Indians that are both accurate and respectful."
AISES members haven't always been so active. Although the organization began on campus about 20 years ago, its numbers dwindled and in 2002 only two members remained.
Those two — Amanda Bruegl, a junior in biochemistry, and Dana Miller, a returning adult student studying mechanical engineering — decided to turn the organization around. So they contacted American Indian and Alaska Native students in science or engineering, recruited new members, solicited donations from companies such as Kimberly-Clark, and asked a facilitator to help the group revise its focus. Plans for the two major events resulted from that discussion, as well as a new mission: to encourage success for members through community, mentorship and opportunity.
Today AISES has about 25 members — in part, because high schoolers who attended the group's events now have joined AISES as UW-Madison students. "They feel connected to AISES, so they want to be involved, and that's really important," says O'Neil.
And while no organization can shield its members from discrimination — which still occurs both on campus and within the Madison community — AISES members' involvement is key to building and sustaining the American Indian community here. "We're trying to build this huge support network for them before they get here, which will encourage them to come here and help to improve retention rates," says O'Neil.
For more information about AISES or its programs, visit aises.rso.wisc.edu or E-mail aises@cae.wisc.edu.
Content by perspective@engr.wisc.edu
Date last modified: Tuesday, 26-Apr-2005 17:06:42 CDT
Date created: 26-Apr-2005
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