Week 9 of the Internship at NSF was good. I got all of my data entered for the NSF. The project I am working on is for the Geosciences Directorate overall as well as OCE/AGS/EAR Divisions respectively. I am monitoring who is applying to the REU Undergraduate Programs and what colleges and universities they come from. That is all I am allowed to say. Beginning tomorrow I print off the graphs and begin analyzing my data. This is to see what trends I can find among the data sets. Also, this week we went to capitol hill. I had a wonderful time.
My favourite part was when we got to go into the Committee For Indian Affairs Hearing Room. I also got to talk to "Chase Comes At Night" who is a intern for the Montana State Congressman. He is 19 years old. He is a Blackfeet Indian from the State Of Montana. It was nice to see another Native American (besides myself) as an active Intern trying to further themselves. He was one of the only Native Americans that I have seen since I have been here. Sometimes I get lonely as Native American's only make up 1% of the U.S. Population. It was also exciting for me to be able to participate in a professional development oriented space and structure as 75% of the events, meetings, structure is centered around and geared towards African Americans at the QEM. There really isn't anything that is geared towards Native Americans. We have a totally different set of issues and I feel like because I am the only Native American in the QEM, I get left out alot of times (because almost everyone is African American).
That is fine, but it doesn't help me in where I am trying to go with my life. I feel like the events and structures need to be minority neutral instead of being "minority specific". As smaller minority groups will get left out (like I have often times been). So this event at capitol hill really made me happy! I am going to include a few pictures of myself and the others in the Committee For Indian Affairs Hearing Room. I am glad I got to have the experience on Capitol Hill this week. I am also looking for alternative ways to fund my second dual Master's degree at The University Of New Mexico (for my second dual master's degree in Biology). I found out that UNM will accept all of my Biology/Ecology coursework and that I would only be 1 year from completing a second dual degree masters when I graduate from New Mexico State University.
I also found out that I will not be eligible for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (as apparently your not allowed to use the GFRP on a second dual master's degree). This is quite tragic as #1: I don't plan on pursuing a PH.D after I graduate, #2: There are alot of people at my university who participate in Dual Degree Graduate Programs. I feel like the rules of the GFRP need to include those individuals who have chosen a dual degree track. As it stands, the NSF GFRP is excluding those graduate students who have chosen a dual degree master's program. I am still proud of myself,
as only 5% of all Native Americans have either a Master's or a PH.D. Because we only make up 1% of the U.S. Population, that equates to about 0.005% of the population.