Progress 08/01/21 to 07/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Indian Resources Development at New Mexico State University and its tribal college partners, Navajo Technical University, Southwestern Indian PolytechnicInstitute, and Dine College reached out to Native American students attending thoseschools and pursuing degrees in agriculture, natural resources, food, or human sciences. Students were presented with paid internships or research experiences with a duration of 8 weeks and for up to 40 hours a week. Changes/Problems:One of the major problems we faced was lack of participation from students and faculty from partnered tribal colleges. We expected to have many student applicants from Navajo Technical University, in particular, and at least two to three from SIPI and Dine College, and only one applied. The student who applied was not only late on the application but she was pursuing a major in an unrelated area of focus. Another issue we faced was that IRD partners did not use all the means at their disposal to advertise for the experiential learning opportunity so we do not think all the students who could have been interested in the opportunity, heard about it because when speaking with students from that institution, they said they did not apply because they never heard about it. To address these promotional issues, IRD is posting this year's student testimonies to the web site to encourage other students to try it out; enlisting the help of other student support programs at the various institutions; and continue to partner with tribes to help advertise. NMSU-IRD will continue to hire students from other colleges to participate in the NIFA-funded experiential learning opportunities because tribal colleges say that their colleges will not let them establish contracts because of liability issues from the placement of students in internships/research experiences. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?IRD provided four research experiences where students had the opportunity to learn and practice technical and scientific skills. They also learned how to work alongside with community volunteers and others colleagues; make work plans and report to a supervisor; and network and collaborate with professionals from tribes, national or regional organizations, and other agricultural science centers. Intern orientation took place at each of the respective sites and IRD provided a logistics orientation via email and a Zoom meeting. Following is a summary of what participated students reported they learned through the experiential learning placement. One of the students reported to have learned how to use a p-XRF, collect & gather soil samples from a pivot on site, organize & interpret data for soils, build greenhouse tables and fence lines for a vineyard, toured a U.S. Geological Survey lab and worked with a group from that lab while doing sediment sampling. Another student reported learning about setting up and collecting data for a grow study of tomatoes by comparing different levels of shade, learned to install a drip irrigation system, learned how to rest nutritional content of alfalfa, visited forage pasture projects on tribal lands to analyze yield and quality, began learned about which insect species are beneficial to which specific plants and helped plant some of those test plants. This student also helped with a Southwest beef comparison study and as part of it, she collected forages to estimate forage utilization from oryx grazing. The same student assisted in conducting field measurements to estimate biomass productivity to develop a way of using drone and satellite imagery for managers and producers to attain real-time information on pasture forage productivity. The other student reported learning about the impact of aphis on pecan orchards and the utilization and application of pesticides to prevent and control. She learned about production and management of pecan orchards. She is in the process of obtaining her pesticide application certification from the New Mexico Department of Agriculture. Overall she reported having acquired experience and certification on pesticide use, on entomology by observing insect patterns on pecan leaves, and on the overall health and management of pecan orchards. At the end of the eight-week experiential learning, students presented about what they have learned, what they had enjoyed the most, what they had found most challenging, and how the opportunity had contributed to them staying in schools and finishing their degrees. At the same session, they heard from two Native American PhD students from Santo Domingo Pueblo and the Navajo Nation whose research projects focus on food sovereignty and buffalo migration patterns; a Pueblo Extension Specialist from Pueblo of Laguna, and a natural resource advocate and leader also from Pueblo of Laguna. At the end of the internships, IRD solicited feedback and summaries from project team members and collaborators. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The testimonies from the internships are being prepared to be posted on the IRD so other students learn about the opportunities and the benefits, and get encouraged to apply for an experiential learning opportunity. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?IRD will continue working with one the Native American high schools in New Mexico to offer a one-week natural resource, agriculture and food academy for high school students; and five- to six-week internships with tribes, natural resource or ag state agencies, or universities. We also will be working on revisiting potential internship sites and recruiting new ones. We will schedule meetings with Dine College, SIPI, and NTU to establish a recruitment schedule for spring and summer experiential learning opportunities. IRD will revise the promotion materials and work at promoting the experiential learning opportunities broadly through the various contacts at college campuses as well as through tribal education departments, workforce development reps at the tribes, and the NM higher education-Indian education meetings. We will finish working on surveys and schedule meetings with NTU, SIPI, Dine College, and NMSU to define the time line, what findings they will share with IRD, and define the institutional unit (i.e. land grant office, student services, Native American program) who will send the survey link to their students. IRD will continue attending and helping organize presentations, workshops, and college fairs for high school students to continue to bring awareness about the education opportunities in food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences available at land grant institutions in New Mexico. IRD will also continue to meet with high school and tribal liaisons about IRD resources and education opportunities in NM in the priority areas of focus.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: IRD and NTU developed the format of the experiential learning as an 8-week, 40 hr/week internship or research opportunity at a tribal nation in New Mexico, including the entirety on the Navajo Nation; land-grant college; or non-profit organization working with tribal entities and groups. We developed a presentation for potential placement sites, drafted expectations list for mentors and participating students. IRD and NTU met with 28 potential internship sites which included 10 tribal nations, 10 not-for-profit organizations, and 4 agricultural science centers. IRD and NTU developed promotional materials to be used by the 4 land-grant institutions to promote paid internship and research opportunities. Seven students applied interested in participating in experiential learning opportunities. Objective 2: the answer to this objective relates to the second question on this list, please refer to it. Objective 3. IRD and NTU developed the surveys and questionnaires to gather feedback from Tribal students, faculty, and staff from land-grant colleges and universities to identify the most effective institutional practices and student services. We shared the draft surveys with the advisory committee members and solicited their feedback. Their feedback was incorporated. The surveys are being converted into fillable forms that could be accessed via a web link. Objective 4. Will not be done until the project is completed, however the results from the surveys will be shared with pertinent representatives from the specific school from which they surveys were gathered. Objective 5. IRD has provided 5 presentations about higher education opportunities in New Mexico, in collaboration with the NM Public Education Department-Indian Education, NM Higher Education Department-Indian Education, NM GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness & Readiness for Undergraduate Programs), and NM MESA for counselors, district coordinators, school liaisons, science teachers, and tribal education representatives. IRD has met individually with representatives from 19 tribal nations (Acoma, Sandia, Santa Ana, Santa Clara, Pojoaque, Ohkay Owingeh, Picuris, San Felipe, Santo Domingo, Nambe, Tesuque, Zuni, Taos, Jemez, Isleta, Laguna, Navajo Nation, Jicarilla, and Mescalero) to share information about higher education opportunities in NM, especially at the land-grant institutions in the state. IRD has facilitated information sessions with high school students at 8 high schools who serve Native American students (Native American Community Academy - 22 students, Santa Fe Indian School-130 students, Albuquerque Public Schools-30 people, La Cueva HS-12 students, Farmington HS-10 students, Dulce HS-170 students, and Zuni HS-8 students). IRD has participated in two (La Cueva and Albuquerque Public Schools) and helped organized college and career fairs (Dulce HS), and other types of conferences and events such as American Indian Science and Engineering Society regional conference to which 26 high school students participated, and the Water Symposium where 17 high school students participated.
Publications
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