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On Thursday, October 31, we hosted Drs. Chris Meyer and Julie Poynsenby of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe Department of Education as they discussed colonialism and how it is deeply embedded in the social, political, economic, and environmental structures. Despite natural resources and environmental careers importance to tribes, less than 20% of Native Americans graduating from college do so with STEM degrees, with numbers decreasing in the past five years. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe faces daunting environmental challenges that threaten its ability to maintain and restore its culture, language and landscape.

Dr. Meyer previously led the collaborative ITEST Project Voices to Hear (V2H): Native American Youth Learning About Environmental Sciences, Related Careers and Engaging Their Communities through Podcasts (NSF Award #1759407) in which Tribal youth developed and shared podcasts on how their Tribe addresses environmental issues culturally and scientifically. The current project, Addressing historic and systemic racial inequities: Coeur d'Alene land-based STEM education (NSF Award # 2200838), is funded through NSF's Racial Equity in STEM Education program (EDU Racial Equity), and centers on an Indigenous Scholars program, immersing students in land-based learning to deepen a relationship with their homeland while understanding how legal and political conflicts impact environmental and community health. This tribally-led project will inform researchers how participation in a summer internship designed using critical Indigenous pedagogies of place impacts youth identities as Native STEM learners and how intergenerational mentoring and exposure to Indigenous research and scholarship impacts critical consciousness.

This event was held on October 31, 2024 at 10am Pacific/12pm Central/1pm Eastern.