Transcript for 2018 Tribal Energy January Webinar: Office of Indian Energy: Advancing Future Leaders through STEM

James Jenson:            Welcome, everyone. I'm James Jenson – a contractor supporting Western Area Power Administration and the Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs Tribal Energy Webinar series. I'm filling in Randy Manion as today's webinar chair. Today's webinar, titled Office of Indian Energy: Advancing Future Leaders through STEM is the first webinar of the 2018 DOE Tribal webinar series. Let's go over some event details.

                                    Today's webinar is being recorded and will be made available on DOE's Office of Indian Energy Policy and Program's website, along with copies of today's Power Point presentations in about one week. Everyone will receive a post-webinar e-mail with a link to the page where the slides and recording will be located. Because we are recording this webinar, all phones have been muted for this purpose. We will answer your written questions at the end of all the presentations, however, you can submit a question at any time by clicking on the question button located in the webinar control box on your screen and type in your question. We will try to keep this webinar to no longer than two hours.

                                    Let's get started with opening remarks from Lizana Pierce. Miss Pierce is a senior engineer and deployment supervisor in the Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs duty station in Golden, Colorado. Lizana's responsible for managing technical assistance services, implementing national funding and financing programs, and administering the results in tribal energy project grants and agreements. She has more than 20 years of experience in project development and management and has been assisting tribes in developing their energy resources for the last 18 years. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Colorado State University and pursued a master's in business administration to the University of Northern Colorado.

                                    Lizana, the virtual floor is now yours.

Lizana Pierce:            Thank you, James, and hello, everyone. I join James in welcoming you to the first webinar of the 2018 series. This webinar series is sponsored by two US Department of Energy organizations – the Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs and the Western Area Power Administration. The Office of Indian Energy, as charged by Congress, is to direct, foster, coordinate, and implement energy planning, education, management, and programs that assist tribes with energy development, capacity building, energy infrastructure, and energy cost and electrification of Indian lands and homes. To provide this assistance, our deployment program works within the Department of Energy across government agencies and with Indian tribes and organization to help the tribes in Alaska Native villages overcome the barriers to energy development.

                                    Our deployment program's composed of a three-pronged approach consisting of financial assistance, technical assistance, and education and capacity building. This webinar series is just one example of the electricity and capacity building efforts we offer. This series is part of the Office of Indian Energy's efforts to support economic development, decision making, and information sharing among tribes. It is intended to provide attendees with information on tools and resources, and to provide – to develop and implement energy plans, programs, and projects to highlight energy case studies, and identify business strategies tribes can use to expand their energy options and develop sustainable local economies. Recently, DOE joined the American Indian Society Science and Engineering Society – AISES – in its campaign to raise awareness and facilitate dialogue around the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics studies and careers in Indian Country.

                                    In concert with these efforts, today's webinar will highlight the Office of Indian Energy's college student internship program which offers native students the opportunity to be immersed in the energy project planning and development activities with experts in the field and at DOE National Laboratories. Applications are now being accepted through February 19th for the summer 2018 internship. So, if you know of any young people who might be eligible and interested for this unique experience, please share this information with them. Again, the due date is February 19th. And with this, we hope that the webinar series is useful, and we welcome your feedback.

                                    So, let us know if there are ways we could make this series better, and I look forward to hearing from all of the speakers today. We've had the program since 2002 and I think it's had an impact. So, with that, I'll turn it back over to James, and he'll introduce the speakers for today.

James Jenson:            Thank you, Lizana. Today, we have four speakers. I will introduce each of them now. Our first speaker is Sandra Begay. Ms. Begay is a principle member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories, where she leads Sandia's technical effort to assist Native American tribes with their renewable energy development.

                                    Sandra manages and supervises Sandia's Indian energy internship program for the Office of Indian Energy. Sandra received a Bachelor of Science Civil Engineering degree from the University of New Mexico. She worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories just before she earned a master's of Science in Structural Engineering from Stanford University. Sandra has been with Sandia National Laboratories for 26 years. Sandra is a recent recipient of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society's Lifetime Achievement Award, the University of New Mexico's 2007 Zia Alumnus Award, the 2005 University of New Mexico School of Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Award, and she received the Stanford University 2000 Multicultural Alumni of the Year Award.

                                    She was also selected as a recipient of the Governor's Award for Outstanding Women from the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women. Sandra is recognized in a book profiling women engineers titled Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers. Begay is included in the chapter "Women in Power", which describes her efforts to provide electricity through solar panels and other alternative energy sources to hundreds of remote tribal members on the Navajo reservation. Following Sandra, we will hear from Sarah EchoHawk. Miss EchoHawk is an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and has been working on behalf of native people for over 20 years.

                                    She has been chief executive officer of the American Indian Society Science and Engineering Society since 2013. A national American Indian non-profit organization founded in 1977, AISES' mission is to substantially increase the representation of American Indians, Alaska Natives, native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, First Nations, and other indigenous peoples of North America in science, technology, engineering, and math – also known as STEM studies and careers. Today, AISES has rapidly expanding membership of more than 4400 individuals, 190 college and university chapters, 15 professional chapters, and 158 affiliated K through 12 schools. Since its inception, AISES has awarded of $10.8 million in scholarships towards American Indian STEM students through scholarships and internships, workforce development, and career resources, national and regional conferences, science fairs, leadership development, and other STEM-focused programming. AISES is the leader in STEP opportunity for American Indians.

                                    Ms. EchoHawk currently serves on multiple boards and is currently the vice chair for Native Americans in Philanthropy, the chair for the Native Ways Federation, and the chair for Red Feather Development Group. She also serves on the Champion Board for the National Girls' Collaborative and is a former member of the Oregon Native American Business and Entrepreneurial Network. Ms. EchoHawk has a master's of non-profit management degrees from Regis University and an undergraduate degree in political science and Nation American studies from Metro State University of Denver. She attended law school at the University of Colorado and completed additional graduate course work in applied communications at the University of Denver. Following Ms. EchoHawk, we will have a presentation from Duane Matt.

                                    Mr. Matt is a member of the Duane Matt is a member of the Confederated Salish Kootenai and Pend D'Oreille tribes located on Flathead Indian reservation in western Montana. Mr. Matt currently works as a geologist with the Division of Energy and Mineral Development – or DEMD – in Lakewood, Colorado. DEMD is part of the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development. He previously worked as both a reclamation specialist and technology coordinator with the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement in Denver. Earlier in his career, Duane helped several geologists and fire fighters/smoke jumper jobs.

                                    Duane also worked as a school teacher on the Laguna-Acoma reservation in New Mexico. He holds a master's degree in geology and a bachelor's degree in both geology and English secondary education. Mr. Matt was a member of the University of Montana cross-country and track and field teams from 1986 to1990 and is a founding board member of the Society of American Indian Government Employees. Our final presenter's Doctor Thomas Jones. Doctor Jones is from Jones, Oklahoma and is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Naknek Village Council, and a Native shareholder of Bristol Bay Native Corporation.

                                    He received separate bachelor’s degrees from Oklahoma City University in biology and Spanish. He received a master’s degree on tropical conservation biology and environmental science at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and received certifications for Administration and Management of American Indian Natural Resources and Native Nation Building from the University of Arizona. Most recently, he received his Ph.D. in Natural Resources Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona. The focus of his research analyzed the relevance of Native Nation Building Theory with regard to the development of renewable energy projects on tribal lands and the analysis of the barriers and challenges to renewable energy development on tribal lands. Tommy has been working as a contractor for the Office of Indian Energy since August of 2016.

                                    So, with that, we will start with our first presentation from Miss Begay, and I will load it here.

Sandra Begay:            Great. Thank you.

James Jenson:            Miss Begay, the floor is yours.

Sandra Begay:            I appreciate that. So, real briefly, I'd like to lay a little bit of the foundation of why there's such an emphasis in the STEM or science, technology, engineering, and math fields – particularly for American Indians and Alaska Native communities. This short presentation will just sort of lay a baseline – or the current state – of where American Indians and Alaska Natives have had some accomplishments within those degree fields. Next slide. Thank you.

                                    So, when we look at the educational attainment for the minority group for American Indians and Alaska Natives, they are among the lowest rate amongst all the minority or underrepresented populations of the United States. As you can see from these demographics in the chart, that there's very few that receive high school diplomas, that graduates. There's a little bit of bump in those percentages, but very few have the attainment of some college, let alone a bachelor's degree from a high education institution. So, if we look at the specific numbers, there's only about 47 percent of these students that attend public schools where there's a full range of math and science that are offered, and this really indicates that to go into the STEM field, you have to have enough background as a high school student to be able to start a curriculum in the STEM programs from page one of those curriculums. Most of those can start with calculus.

                                    So, if they don't have enough of the mathematics or science, they're behind the curve to start and get a degree in a four-year time frame, and they may have to take at least one or two semesters of what used to be called "remedial" math courses or science to be able to get right up to speed with a college course. The next statistics – it will be repeated in a little bit later in this webinar, but please, remember this as something that should stick within all of our memory – that only 7 of 100 American Indians or Alaska Native kindergarten students will earn a bachelor's degree. And if you focus in on that effort, it tells you why there are so few Native Americans that go on for an education, higher education, but also in the STEM fields. And if we look at more about the rigor of math and coursework, they don't have access to the type of coursework that's necessary to go into the STEM fields. Next slide.

                                    So, if we could focus in on those that do attain a STEM education, that would mean a Bachelor of Science or higher degree. It's a very small amount of professionals that are out and practicing. So, when I serve on some of the National Science Foundation committees that focus in on underrepresented minorities, there's always a position that has to be held strong that when you look at the data for American Indians and Alaska Natives in these STEM fields – and in particular, the numbers you see here are for engineering – those numbers cannot be forgotten. The way it's usually stated in the tables are the footnotes of these large data sets of STEM related degrees, it says that these numbers are statistically insignificant, which means they're so small in number, that they're hard to track. And, as you see, we actually have the percentages pulled out for the engineering workforce.

                                    There was a study done by the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, and they update the report periodically, but the numbers are still relevant. So, when you think of that, 3 out of 1,000 of our students are in the US Engineering workforce. And when you break that out by gender, there are only 1 out of 13,000 US engineers that are American Indian women. And that's within the United States. And when you look at the charts on these graphs, but also the numbers – when you took a particular year of degrees from 2001 to 2013, you can see that there's only 300 bachelor degreed engineers that are American Indian or Alaska Native, 75 masters in engineering, and 10 Ph.Ds.

                                    And the Ph.D. ranking – that's about the same number for all the STEM related fields, but in particular here, we're highlighting engineering, so there's only 10 Ph.Ds. So, all in all, what I've stated in some numbers is that the American Indians and Alaska Natives are severely underrepresented in the science and engineering at all of the degree levels – bachelor's, masters, and doctoral levels – and that this is shown in the pie chart. And when you see those small percentages, that's why sometimes, the numbers, when they are pulled together in a chart comparing African Americans, Hispanics, and then Native Americans, that's what I mean by there's a very small river chart, over time, of the number of students that have graduated and gotten these technical degrees. Next slide. And last, when we look about the workforce.

                                    So, first we talked about how many kindergarten students that will get a bachelor's degree, then I talked about where are they attaining those degrees. This last, and my final slide for this part of the presentation, focuses on the workforce itself. And so, when you hear from the next presentation, the number of American Indians and Alaska Natives in engineering or the STEM fields will not prevalent. There just will not be very many. And, although you see that there's a total population of American Indians and Alaska Natives are 1.2 percent of the US population, they only represent a very small – less than 1 percent of all the bachelor's degrees – 0.3 specifically – of the engineering workforce, and even a very, very small number of .1 percent of engineering faculty.

                                    And that's an example of students who have a Ph.D. in the STEM fields – and particularly, engineering – just are not available to take on the jobs that may be there. And so, they are the smallest of all the underrepresented minorities in academia. And I have notes on each of these slides for the data, just because sometimes, people don't even know that this type of number accountability is out there, that I thought it was well served to pull together this current state of where American Indians and Alaska Natives are with regards to STEM. And Jim, I think that's my last slide.

James Jenson:            Thank you, Sandra. That was interesting and excellent. We'll hear from you again shortly, but next, we'll hear from Sandra EchoHawk, CEO of AISES, and I'll bring your slides up right now, Sandra – or, excuse me, Sarah. All right. Go ahead.

Sarah EchoHawk:       Great. Thank you. Good morning – or good afternoon, depending on your location. This is Sarah EchoHawk, and I am the CEO of AISES. I appreciate being on this webinar today. If you want to advance the slide...

                                    So, today, I'm gonna talk a little bit about AISES, why STEM is important, and what we're currently doing to increase the number of Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and First Nations' peoples in STEM, which is, of course, our mission. And, I just wanted to point out that AISES has been around for over 40 years now. Last year was the 40th anniversary, so, we've been doing this work for a long time. And Sandra is definitely one of those people who has helped build AISES, and I think has done pretty much every major role there is of AISES, so, it's always good to be presenting with Sandra. So, if you want to go ahead and click the link there, I just wanted to show a quick video.

                                    It's 30 seconds. It's a public service announcement that was produced for AISES by Comcast NBC Universal to help raise awareness. Thank you. So, again, that was a public service announcement that was produced for AISES, and you might see it playing on various channels throughout this year, so, watch for that. So, why STEM matters and why we do this work.

                                    So, overall, STEM employment is growing faster than any other sector in the economy in terms of jobs. So, that's where the jobs are. That's gonna continue to be the trend, and so, we know that we need to fill those jobs, and we definitely have a difficult time filling those jobs domestically. So, there's great opportunity and great need for it. STEM workers, in terms of – from an economic standpoint – those that work in STEM fields make nearly double what those making in other occupations make. So, from an economic standpoint, not only are you benefiting the US as a whole in your tribal nations, you're also then gonna see a higher salary where you're able to support your family.

                                    We're – as I mentioned – we're not producing enough STEM workers here in the United States, and so, while we have new jobs – 60 percent – that are opening up, we only have 20 percent of the workforce in terms of who has the skills to fill those jobs. So, again, we need to, to Sandra's point, increase the number of Native American students that are in those fields, getting those degrees, and going into that workforce. We have a lot of work to do. Overall, in the US, we were ranked 17th in the number of science degrees that we award, so, we've definitely got work to do, and that's, again, what AISES is working on. And I'll talk a little more about that in a minute.

                                    We're also losing our competitive edge in terms of innovation and competitiveness. So, you can see we're ranked 6th among 40 countries, and then, World Economic Forum ranked us as 48 in the quality of our math and science education, which is just – is not acceptable. So, again, what we're working on. If you want to advance the slide... So, when we're talking about Indian Country – I just talked about the United States as a whole, but why does it matter to Indian Country?

                                    And, you know, AISES perspective is that one – if we're building that STEM workforce, even within non-Native companies, government agencies, and other things, that really does help provide tribal nations a broader influence and input, right? So, if we're able to put Native people in those jobs, then we're gonna have more influence in those government agencies and corporations. And also, then, building student capacity within tribal nations will provide tribes greater decision making by avoiding or reducing non-Native outsourcing or contracting with non-Native companies to help us develop our tribal economies or tribal infrastructure. So, again, it's really about, in my mind, as I say in the last point here, is it's really about tribal sovereignty – another way to reinforce that. It also is a great way to generate entrepreneurial opportunities, create business within tribal nations.

                                    Next slide, please. So, AISES has four strategies that we've adopted that we use to try to increase the number of Natives in STEM. Our first strategy is working at the K through 12s – so, kindergarten through high school. Starting that pathway, providing Native students, parents, and educators, just quality curriculum, programs, access, and really, just information so that they understand the importance of STEM, they know how to access resources, and they can begin to get students engaged in STEM early. And the key is early.

                                    Because by the time we get to strategy two – which is to increase access and success in STEM through higher eds, we're getting into the colleges then graduate school to continue that pathway. We want to make sure students are prepared to undertake a STEM major when they get to college. 'Cause often, what happens is by the time our kids get to college – which is already, as Sandra pointed out, a challenge – once they get there, often times they're not prepared to undertake a STEM degree. They don't have the prerequisites. And so, by that time, when they look at going into a STEM career, the issue becomes that they may have to go back and take classes in order – that they don't have; the classes that they should have had in high school that they don't have.

                                    And that, of course, takes extra time and extra money, which a lot of students don't have. So, at that point, we often see that we lose students who may have been potentially going into a STEM major. So, we try to provide, again, that K through 12 support, and then, once we get into college, through our college chapters and scholarships and other opportunities, we really try to support students in their STEM studies when they're in college. And as what's mentioned in the introduction, AISES is a scholarship provider, so, if anybody's interested in scholarship, I encourage you to look at the AISES website. We did open the application in December, and we're accepting applications for scholarships for the next academic year, as well as internships.

                                    And then, the third strategy is to work with professionals like Sandra and others who are already working in these careers, and primarily to provide mentorship, but also to help support them in their career with resources and other career development resources. The final strategy – and this is a newer one – but it's to identify and leverage strategic partnerships and conduct research in STEM issues specific to Native Americans. _____ we call "Illuminating the pathway." And really, that is trying to bring more data around Natives in STEM. For example, one of the projects that we're working on with the National Science Foundation is to take all of AISES data – and we're almost done – that we've collected over those 40 years, digitize it, make it accessible in the database, and try to understand what makes Native students successful with STEM. What are those factors, and how can we identify those and share those more broadly so that we can all work together in implementing that and increasing the workforce and support Native STEM?

                                    There are other partnerships that we also work on – like, with Department of Energy and other agencies and corporations, to try to increase the number of Native students. So, that's where the partnerships come in. You want to go to the next slide? And then, this was in the introduction, so, I won't spend a lot of time here, but we do have over 4,400 individual members. That's about almost double the size we were in 2013.

                                    So, we are growing rapidly. We now have 15 professional chapters, 190 college and university chapters across the country – anywhere from tribal colleges all the way up to – like, we have a chapter at MIT. So, we have chapters at [Inaudible] college students. We also have – it's actually 159; I have 158, but 159 K through 12 affiliated schools; about 55,000 Native students. So, we work with those as well, and then, as was mentioned again, the scholarship number.

                                    Next slide. AISES is broken into seven regions. So, here are the seven regions. We do work in Canada. This is currently being updated.

                                    The Canadian regions will be a little bit different coming out this year, but, for the most part, this is the way that it breaks down in terms of how we work across the nation. We break it into regions to make it more manageable. Next slide. We have advisory councils that guide us in our work. Some of the pictures there that's in there are some of the members of our Elders Council who help advise AISES in terms of culture and tradition, because, of course, we want to weave that into everything that we do and show students and professionals that it is possible to Native and to be a STEM professional.

                                    And so, that council advises us on those and supports our students and professionals by culture and tradition. The other councils that we have and inform our work are the Academic Advisory Council – those are tenured professors across the nation. The majority of the are also Native or working with Natives in STEM, and so, they advise us primarily on our research grants and research projects. And then, we have our Professional Chapter Advisory Council – so, those are all at the professional chapters, and they work with AISES to identify the needs of the professionals and help support them. The Corporate Advisory Council – that's made up of a number of Fortune 100/Fortune 500 companies who are looking to support Natives who are interested in working in STEM careers in that industry.

                                    And then, the Government Relations Council, of course, which Department of Energy participates in – again, very similar agencies that are interested in supporting AISES in trying to increase the number of Natives in STEM, and also recruit Native people to work in those agencies. And then, I just wanted to mention there are two new councils that were developed in 2017 and theirs are getting off the ground. One is the Tribal Nations Advisory Council – which is very similar to the other advisory councils, except that it is for tribal leadership and that doesn't necessarily mean Tribal Council – but it can be – but those that are working in tribal communities for their tribal communities to advance STEM. So, that council's coming together to advise our work in Indian Country. And then, finally, the Canadian Indigenous Advisory Council.

                                    Again, AISES has Canadian members, but what we recognized – and actually, folks from Canada came here to let us know – that while they're part of AISES and they want to be part of AISES, they want to see more communities for their students and professionals. So, that council has been developed and is working on that. Next slide. Sorry, I'm getting over the flu, so I still have a little bit of a hoarse voice. The Government Relations Council, as I mentioned – and these are two elders from our – I think they were participating in a STEM day event. I just love this picture.

                                    But this, again, as I mentioned – and if anybody is certainly is interested in any of these councils that apply, I encourage you to contact me and let me know. But this is, again, what the Government Relations Council does specifically. And I just mention it again, since this is a Department of Energy call. The Department of Energy is a member of our council. Next slide, please.

                                    And more about the Tribal Nations Advisory Council, again, for those who are interested in thinking about how to bring AISES into their communities and to their tribal communities. Again, we welcome. It's an open council and welcome participants who are interested. So, again, if this is something that applies to you, we'd love to hear from you and get you involved. Next slide.

                                    And I just wanted to provide some examples of what that looks like when I say, "Oh, we work in Indian Country." Well, what does that mean? So, I just provided two examples here. One is the Native Youth and Community Project, which was funded by the US Department of Education with a significant grant to work at Cheyenne River in South Dakota. So, we're working with the Tribe – that's tribal leadership as well as the K through 12 schools there, and some on the ground non-profit organizations to bring STEM programming and to help provide resources to students and teachers and parents to get students engaged in STEM.

                                    So, this has been moving along, and there's pictures. That's what the pictures on the right are. So, that's one example of how AISES can come in and provide support to a tribal community who's interested in getting students and parents and educators engaged in STEM. So, the other example is the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, which is an Eastern band of Cherokee at North Carolina. Very similar program, but the Tribe is actually funding that through their foundation, and we're doing very, very similar programming in terms of getting students, teachers, and educators access to STEM resources and programming.

                                    Next slide. And to wrap up – I could go on for hours about AISES, so I just figured – I just dropped in some visuals here about other projects that we have. Down in the lower right corner's the Energy Challenge, which I'm not gonna talk about, 'cause I know somebody else is gonna address, which is a partnership with Department of Interior. But I'll let the other panelists discuss that. Above that is the Leadership Summit.

                                    That's a smaller event that we have every spring. This year, it's going to be March 15th through 17th at Viejas, which is a tribal property located just outside of San Diego. That's a two-day – two-and-a-half-day summit that provides leadership development. So, yes, it has a STEM focus, but it's more applicable to developing leadership skills for students and professionals. So, something to consider.

                                    Above that, the 2018 National Conference. Every year, we have a National Conference. This year, we'll be in Oklahoma City, October 4th through 6th. And the National Conference has sessions, has the largest college and career fair in Indian Country, so I think a lot of people don't realize that. We have over 2,000 participants. It's a large conference.

                                    Lots of resources, opportunities for students to talk to potential colleges or potential employers, get help with resumes, interview skills, college applications, also get professional support. We also have a number of research presentations and research contests. So, certainly something to look into, and it's a great way to kind of get launched into STEM, if you're interested. Winds of Change magazine – we have six issues a year. Four are prints and then we have two digital only, and then all are available on digital format.

                                    You can view those on the website. Again – resources and stories about successful Native STEM students and professionals and a lot of good resources, so that's a thing [Inaudible] might look into. There's something called Hack AISES every year during the year during the conference. This is a hack-a-thon. We know CS would say this is an area where there are several jobs opportunities for students and professionals, and the number of Native Americans in computer science is low, so we're trying to increase the interest and awareness around that, so we've added that.

                                    Next to that is NAIVSEF, which is a long acronym for basically our virtual Native American Science and Engineering Fair. We are trying to bring that to being an in-person and a virtual component. Right now, it's just virtual. And students compete, showcase their science fair projects. Everything, at this point, is done online, and then, winners go to the larger INTEL IVSEF science fair.

                                    So, that's something to look into as well. I already mentioned one of the projects with NSF, but have a number of them. One of them is also trying to increase the number of Native STEM faculty at universities across the country. So, that's called the Pathways Program, and that's currently in session. I think we are on our fourth cohort now, so, that's highly successful.

                                    Down in the corner there is the National Native Health Research Initiative. That's a project with Indian Health Services, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, and the Native Research Network, and that's around – obviously around health, research, and Native communities. So, that's a conference. The next one will be in August, so, watch for more information about that. And then, finally, we work with the COBEL Scholarship Fun to administer AISES scholarships, and that's a new partnership this year.

                                    So, when students apply for AISES scholarships, you also will find other scholarships that are available through the COBEL Scholarship Fund. So, it kind of simplifies the process and provides students more opportunities to apply in a kind of one-stop-shop for scholarship support. And just to close out, I think what I'd like to just show a brief video, and that should wrap me up, and that link right there. And this –

                                    [Break in audio]

Duane Matt:               I can definitely reference those because myself, when I went through college, I'm an AISES member, too, and realize the importance of AISES and what it did for me. So, I can definitely speak on AISES very well just because of that fact. It's great to have these national conferences. They really open your eyes to the world out there, and you realize that there's actually other Natives out there actually in the STEM fields and working towards getting degrees and maybe going back and working out there in that workforce. But, that being said, you look at the statistics and there still isn't that many Natives working out there in the workforce, and this is pretty troubling just for the main reason that if this is the case, tribes can't really be competitive or even really be involved in something like the energy game, which my office deals with, without STEM trained tribal members in the workforce.

                                    And, just mentioning my agency here really quick – we deal 100 percent with tribes out there, and these statistics are really driven home today to me, because dealing with every tribe that I've dealt with, there's not that many tribal members, when we deal with a tribe, discussing renewable and non-renewable resources out there and how we can assist and how our office can help. There's not very many tribal members out there to talk to. It's usually consultants or someone else, and that was a little troubling to me. So, this kind of brings me back to my presentation today and why something like the AISES Energy Challenge is important. And the reason being is that we can get students started at a young age involved in these fields and have them go out and work in these fields and help better their tribes out there and actually give them a leg up and get them into the energy game out there.

                                    So, James, if you go to the next slide... Sorry for that lengthy introduction, but the more I listen to this, the more I started to get fired up about this. So, on the next slide there, I had to just put a couple of links up there and James, if you could, if you could just click on the first one – the AISES link. I just wanted to show that really quick. I know not everybody's always looking at websites, and we're kind of inundated by websites, but they do have good information on them.

                                    And, on this website in particular, it talks about the Energy Challenge and specifically, if you're able to actually scroll down and look at this, there's a set of tabs in there. And the reason I wanted to show you this is that when a student wants to apply for this challenge, all of the tabs on there – it goes through a step-by-step process of how this program works, eligibility, how to participate in this program, the guidelines for participating in this program, and even how these projects are going to be judged. It's all listed on there. So, I just wanted to make you aware of that. You can go back out of there and back to the Power Point now, James.

                                    And then, the other link on there, of course, is just to our website. It actually explains what our program does and how we're involved with the AISES and Energy Challenge. And that – it's got some good, helpful information on what we're doing out in Indian Country. So, if you're interested, please look at that. Next slide, please.

                                    So, as I stated earlier, our agency is very proud to be involved and sponsoring the AISES Energy Challenge. We're under the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, Indian Energy and Economic Development, and I'm personally with the Division of Energy and Mineral Development. And we partnered with AISES a few years ago and made a concerted effort to be part of a program we knew that was really, really good that not only helped students move into the STEM fields, but of course, eventually, may even help our program, too, but hiring more Natives into federal government, working with a program like ours. And for them to even come work here, they would need to have a good STEM background. So, this works out well for everybody.

                                    Right now, to be involved in this, you need to be an American Indian/Alaska Native. As of this last year, we've moving into – it was just high school at first; now, we're involving middle school and high school students in this program. They will work on projects, and they are energy specific projects for a science fair, and we'll see later slides here just how detailed these get. They may compete as an individual or as a team of up to three. I didn't put that on the slide, but you can have a team of up to three.

                                    They have to have an adult sponsor, obviously, 'cause – we'll see in later slides – if they're able to travel somewhere, they can't travel by themselves yet. And I'm gonna explain that we have a two-phase system here on how they progress to eventually being the champion of the AISES Energy Challenge. I do want to notice, too, right before we went to the next slide, that the students must register as AISES members. And again, going back to that website I mentioned earlier, there's a link on there on how to become an AISES student member. So, go to the next slide.

                                    So, this is a two-phase project. And right now, we're actually about to the end of phase one. Everybody that got notification of this to apply, the due date's been actually bumped up just to next Monday. So, we are at the end of phase one, and what the students had to is they had to identify an energy related problem. They assess the problem, identify the possible solutions to that problem, and then, they have to show what type of research and development that they would have to do to come up with a solution to the problem they identified, and they get to work with a total budget of up to $2,000.00.

                                    Now, if you look at this, this is actually pretty detailed. I mean, I don't know about everybody else out here on the call today, but that is pretty detailed for a middle schooler or high schooler to be involved in. This is – I mean, you're looking at not only problems and solutions, but you're also dealing with a budget. This is a real world, hands on situation, and that's why we really, really back program, because it's a very good preparation for the real world. So, it's really exciting.

                                    Next slide, please. So, then, after phase one – which again, like I said, is finishing up here this Monday, we actually have a team of judges here. We participate here in the office with some of our former STEM students, and we look over those proposals. And we actually have a criteria that we vote on these to go on to phase two. If they're selected, then they get to move forward with their project.

                                    Again, they got up to a $2,000.00 budget to work on this, and then, they work on this through a certain time period. It's actually not a very long time period. They get up until April 30th, I think, is what the cutoff date was once they're approved in phase two to actually finish that project. And they are able to go ahead and present those results when they're done with that. Next slide.

                                    And out of all of this, of course, there will eventually be a grand prize winner, which that grand prize winner will be selected to travel to Washington, D.C., which is great. A lot of these kids don't ever get to travel, so they get to travel all the way across the country, most likely, for this. And they get to see the monuments, and not only that, one of the individuals here in our office that participated in this last year – her name's Bobbi Wells – she also toured with the students last year and participated in this. They got to meet representatives from the senate, from the house. They walked through the halls of all the government offices.

                                    I think it was good for both sides – not only for the kids to be there, for the winner to be there, but also for some of the representatives to see that we have some natives out there doing something like this. I was pretty excited to hear about this when I heard this. And, not only that, they get to present their project to the staff and leadership of Department of Interior and Assistant Secretary _____ Affairs. So, pretty big honor and pretty exciting. If you're a student and you get a chance to do this, I think this is just amazing.

                                    Next slide, please. And I just wanted to just briefly show this in that some of the projects that have been approved in the past, you can go to the AISES site and actually see some of these previous winners. But look at the titles of those. Just looking at the titles of those, you would think that maybe somebody like a college Ph.D. might have done this. I think I'm just blown away by once a student has the opportunity to participate in something like this, what they can do.

                                    So, I think it's just amazing. Next slide. And so, I just kind of showcased – I put a picture of a couple of our last two winners in here. This – our first person here that's shown on the site is Jake Uyechi from Hawaii, and he did analyzing bacteria in microbial fuel cell energy generation. And then – next slide, please – and then, our other winner was Kelly Charley and she – her title was Utilizing Solar Technologies to Heat a Traditional Home.

                                    Both very difficult topics, and they went through the whole process, they came up with a solution, and they designed it all for under $2,000.00. So, again, I'm just very proud of both of those students and looking forward to this next year's winners. That is about all I have for now, unless somebody has – are we taking questions at the end? I'm sorry, James. I didn't ask.

James Jenson:            Yeah, we're gonna take questions at the end, so just stand by.

Duane Matt:               Okay. But thank you.

James Jenson:            Thank you, Duane. That was excellent, and what an interesting and exciting opportunity that Energy Challenge is. Next, we're gonna hear again from Sandra. Sandra will now be talking about the internships opportunities, so hold on, Sandra, while I bring up your slides.

Sandra Begay:            Great. Thank you. And, as an aside, I think I see two potential interns with those Energy Challenge work that's been done, and just have to groom them a couple of years as they get through college, and then they can apply. So, I'm gonna go ahead and begin with the internship program. It's been exciting to be able to have this particular college internship program sponsored by the Office of Indian Energy since 2002, so, we've been working on this particular type of immersion into Indian Country for 16 years now, and we were lucky to be given permission to take this photo out at Sky City Acoma in New Mexico.

                                    And I love the picture because it shows sort of the horizon of where our future's lie and really grounded in the traditions where Natives put their feet and their minds and their culture, but yet, there's technology we can hold that can help service our populations in the needs that they have – particularly where the tribe and the tribal leaders are headed. Next slide. So, after these 16 years, there's some numbers to be reviewed and to present. Over these years, we've had 38 undergraduate and graduate students. Some say that's a small number, but as my first presentation unfolded, it that that's a pretty good number for the amount of students that are at the STEM fields, but also have the credentials in academia and an interest in energy in Indian Country to participate.

                                    There are 21 different tribal that are affiliated from the students, so they are members of 21 different tribes. There are different majors that have been available to be students as interns at Sandia. We do have some specific guidelines for technical interns that I'll go over in just a bit. And, of course, we do like to try to keep students at Sandia labs if their match of their curriculum – the amount of work that they have in their academic background – that we keep about 24 percent of the students as a year-round intern after the summer. And that really depends on several factors, but if we can keep them, that's a big help.

                                    And then, we also are internally focused, as many national labs are, to try to recruit students. So, we have 16 percent of the interns have been hired into Sandia National Laboratories as a full-time employee or a Sandia contractor. And the statistic that I think is just really interesting is 63 percent of the interns are female. I don't hire exclusively male versus female in numbers. I go by black and white applications, so I tease folks that I could have the name Terry – it could be T-E-R-R-Y or T-E-R-R-I and I can't assume anything, whether they're male or female.

                                    And I hire them based on their qualifications, their essays that are submitted within their application, and then, also the rigor of their school work. So, we do have a GPA requirement of those students. So, the type of work that the former interns are doing – and I'll have a slide about the details – but they all stick with what they've been studying. So, they can stay with the STEM fields in one sense, but for a great reason, half of them are sticking with the tribal work. And the others – that there are some of the students that may not be tribal focused, but they do stick with engineering or science, and that's about a third of them.

                                    And then, there's a few that are non-STEM work that may be non-profit type entities or non-government entities that they work for. And then, I have one past intern who was seeking employment. The graduation rate is very high, and that's deliberate, because we are looking at those students who have gone through and chosen a major, a curriculum, that is focused and they've been doing well academically, and they are just ready to have the enhancement of an internship where we take 90 days in a summer to have them understand what is happening in Indian Country, and have them be able to get out into the field and experience where projects are at. If the students, once they're an intern, some of them stay from an undergraduate and go on to graduate school, and there's many of the former interns that are continuing their academic work – either a master's degree or a Ph.D. level. So, when people think about where we're headed with the internship program, it's really focused on those students that are gonna finish STEM.

                                    We just want to give an enhancement of the work focused in on Indian energy type of problems or challenges. Next slide. So, part of where I think the joy of having this program go on for 16 years is to see where the students have gone. They're graduated. They're onto careers.

                                    Many of them, as I said, have been sticking with tribal work. We've had two of the engineers – a past intern who was the first renewable energy engineer at the Navajo Utility, and he has since moved on to other work, and then, we had one of the young ladies become the new renewable energy engineer for Navajo nation. We've hired two of the community planning majors as people to come into Sandia Labs itself. We also had a student come in as a procurement representative, and then, we did one hire of an engineer where we paid for his master's degree, and he's a full-time staff member. One of the interns actually worked for DOE in their program office for all of the wind programs – not tribal winds, but all wind projects at the federal level.

                                    One of the engineers was instrumental in supporting some of the stimulus funds spent on Navajo nation, which was a large portion of those steel-in-the-ground type projects. We have one of the former engineers who's a commercial scale photovoltaic engineer. We do have some that are sticking with tribal solar and energy efficiency as consultants. Council Pueblo actually picked up two of the interns – one as an environmental staff member and the other as the community planner for the Pueblo. And you'll hear next, we have Thomas Jones who was hired as a subcontractor to a DOE Office of Indian Energy and his team member, Len Nessifer, also has worked with DOE's Office of Indian Energy.

                                    We also have one intern who's working with a non-profit to increase STEM diversity, particularly focused in on Native Americans. And what's really enhancements of where they may do more research is that there is research that they're doing with the past interns on the development of energy projects with Alaska Natives. One of the National Science Foundation fellows is completing his Ph.D. in offshore wind, and the EPA has created a fellowship for one of the interns where she's finishing her dissertation about climate change and adaptations that are necessary. We also have folks who work at the National Renewable Energy Lab as part of their master's degree program, and lastly, we have one young lady who is working with the Kellogg Foundation to work on a Ph.D. about Pueblo leadership and decision making. As you see the schools that have been recruiting – we've had students at these particular institutions – are schools that graduate a majority of the American Indians that go into engineering.

                                    So, Arizona State, University of Oklahoma, New Mexico State, North Carolina State, Northern Arizona, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology – I didn't add in here the University of North Dakota and University of North Dakota State. We had this last year, and the University of New Mexico. One short piece that I wanted to elaborate is please, look on the DOE website. The applications are due, as was stated, February 19. Please, encourage the students or people you work with to read carefully the job announcement.

                                    I'm able to use Indian preference for this hiring, but our job application goes out to all students, and I need the students to read carefully. There's essays they must answer as a part of their application, and they must include that in the one downloaded document that you're allowed with the application process. So, please, encourage your students. Don't just put in a resume. Please read the job description, as there is more required than just your resume.

                                    You have to answer a set of four questions. The other's our GPA for our students are 3.0 for undergraduate and graduate students, and I wanted to actually define what we say as technical interns – they should be pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, architecture, community planning, or related fields – which could be an environmental science or other type of science degree that might be applicable. So, please encourage your students to apply. Please write a great essay using 250 words per question so that I can understand where they're coming from, their passion, their desires to support Indian Country by being a part of an internship like we've described. Jim is going to show a video that has been put together by the DOE Office of Indian Energy – Tribal Energy – and it will give you more firsthand experience of some of my past interns and what they learned from the internship program.

                                    So, thank you, Jim for showing the video.

James Jenson:            Thank you, Sandra. I'm gonna bring the video up shortly, and I, once again, apologize for any individuals who aren't able to see it. It's about 11 minutes long – just an FYI if you aren't seeing anything. All right.

Thomas Jones:            All right. _____. Hello, everyone. This is Thomas Jones, and I'm very happy and honored to be here to share about my experience with the Office of Indian Energy internship program. And you can go to the next slide.

                                    So, in 2014 is when I first applied to the internship program, and I was subsequently kept on year-round until June of 2016 – or just over two years. And so, I was a full-time intern both summer of 2014 and '15, and then, part-time or year-round fall of 2014 and '15, and then spring of '15 and '16 – with the spring of 2016, being on assignment in Washington D.C., which I'll discuss in a moment. And also, the photos on this slide and then many of the ones throughout are from the internship program. Three of these on this slide are in Navajo Nation, L-1, and Agua Caliente in Southern California. But, in general, the internship gives you the opportunity to hear from those who not only work directly on energy issues, but also those who rely first hand on the dependability of energy systems – and I mention that some in that internship video.

                                    And this was something that really exceeded my expectations. This type of internships where students have the opportunity to engage directly with leaders in their field is exceptional. And so, the internship, you're not sitting in an office making assumptions about communities across the nation. You visit these communities and you hear their stories. And the stories we heard about these community struggles – and more importantly, their perseverance to meet their energy needs and promote economic development – was life changing for me.

                                    You're no longer simply a student or a researcher. Now, you're involved in the process to help Native Americans meet their energy visions, which benefits those communities, increases your personal growth, and contributes to energy independence of the US. So, I'm clear that you're not just making copies or faxing or getting coffee for people; you're actually doing real things to help grow your professionalism and capacity. And so, this trans formative experience really solidified my desire to work in this field and to contribute to the energy development in Indian Country. And we can go to the next slide.

                                    So, my internally experience – the internally experience was great. From the start with Sandra and everyone you meet, you're surrounded by a group of people that helps you and wants you to succeed. The travel to the different site locations is amazing and the people you meet in communities are generally interested in your success and helping you build your own capacity. And, if you're like me, you will visit reservations and communities that you've never been to before. And that's cool learning about their energy work, but you also get a glimpse in the different cultures, food, and ways of life.

                                    Although, one time, I did have a little too much mutton on Navajo nation. Got me a stomach ache. But you can work around those things. So, the research projects that students do during the internship is a great way to explore more deeply the field of energy. And Sandra's right there to help you with ideas, feedback, and guidance, which is really valuable.

                                    And the other interns that are selected are great for sharing stories, experience, and knowledge, as well. I had not met another Native American student interested in energy prior to participating in this program, actually. And so, I think that no matter what your background is, you're gonna fit in and you're gonna do well with the support system that you're provided. And also, if you have not been to Albuquerque or New Mexico, you'll be pleasantly surprised. It is an awesome place to spend a few months exploring. The food's amazing, and the internship experience pays well.

                                    And I know that's something that's vitally important for students – at least it was for me. And we can go to the next slide. So, during my time as an intern, my former colleague and I collaborated on a research paper titled Identifying Barriers and Pathways for Success for Renewable Energy Development on American Indian Land. And that's now published through Sandia National Labs, which is the picture on the right. And the goal of the research was to explore the gap between the significant renewable energy potential that exists in Indian Country, and the ability to bring this energy to the market and for the benefit of tribal communities.

                                    And when we started this research, there was very little written on tribal energy development, and what was out there did not have a clear consensus on what the barriers to development where. So, what we did was use an expert elicitation interview protocol to interview tribal, federal, private, and academic experts who were specifically working in tribal energy and hear from them what they considered to be the barriers to renewable energy development on tribal lands. And so, the idea was that we would ask experts with field experience to get the best picture of why more projects hadn't been developed. So, we went right to the source. And fortunately, through the internship program, we were able to be introduced to many people in person that we actively working in the field of Indian Energy.

                                    And within this research, we had a pretty good response rate from people we reached out to – about 50 percent – and most people that we met in person, it was about 100 percent. You kind of guilt people into talking to you. And then, within this research, several areas emerged as significant, such as financing and funding projects. Small scale projects have difficulty securing financing; large scale projects relied on outside capital, which can create a host of issues with partnerships. Energy markets can have significant influence on the ability to develop – such a power purchase agreement, tax credits, and state renewable portfolio standards, and many tribes are risk adverse or not willing or unable to take on debt.

                                    Also, infrastructure being in place for all scales of development is still an issue. As an example, many ideal locations for energy projects are in remote locations, far from infrastructure, which can make a project less financially attractive. Tribal governance, leadership, and staff capacity to carry out projects from start to finish was also a barrier. And that can be heavily influenced by term limits, staff rollover, along with separation of business and politics. And that's in particular for large scale or economic development projects.

                                    Cultural concerns or acceptance was mainly aimed at larger projects that can impact cultural or natural resources. So, think of a very large solar array or winter _____ that might impact the cultural resource. In general, the small projects across the board that wouldn't really impact any view sheds, anything like that, had pretty high cultural acceptance. And then, one last thing here – energy planning emerge is something that was identified as important for project success. And we found that pretty interesting, because that's something that DOE has helped with for several years.

                                    And you can find this report – I did a blog a few weeks ago; there's a link for it in there. You can go through the different DOE websites and look for it, and you can get kind of an idea of what type of research is produced from the internship program. Since I was year-round for just over two years, I had longer to work on mine, but this is a good example of what you can do. And it has meaningful impacts. And so, we can go to the next slide.

                                    And so, as I mentioned, during my internship I was on assignment in D.C, which I thought was a unique opportunity to be in the headquarters office of the Office of Indian Energy. And while I was there, I was able to conduct research on policy that was on tribal, federal, and state levels that impact energy development in the Indian Country. And I contributed to a region wide initiative concerning energy, security, and resiliency for Alaska. I traveled from D.C., as well, to Alaska and Atlanta, Georgia for a conference. And also, something that was unique was assisting an intra-agency collaboration to ensure native representation for Native American representation.

                                    And this was very helpful, as there's constant meetings occurring at DOE, and it's impossible for the leadership to attend to everything. So, we were able to contribute to meetings, and many times, bring back valuable information for leadership to work with. And Native Americans having a seat at the table is immensely valuable to our continued progress and collaboration with other entities, and so, this was a very interesting part of my time in D.C. And the experience allowed me to analyze the grassroots research I had been working on within the context of broader society and government functions. I was able to see current and future leadership in action and gain a better understanding of how the work I was doing ties into the bigger picture.

                                    And so, these type of life experiences shaped who I am as a contributing member to society, and, along that same vein, I believe that the work we do to invest in ourselves is effectually investing in all of Indian Country and the United States in general. And so, the positive contributions we make benefit all of us, and I'm counting on more native students to follow suit with that. And we can go to the next slide. And I think this is a very critical part to the internship program is that the internship helped with my Ph.D. the work I did as an intern translated seamlessly into my work at the University of Arizona that I was working towards in my Ph.D. program. And I was able to use the experiences – and specifically, the research work conducted during my internship – to greatly improve my understanding and to complete the requirements of my degree.

                                    And so, without hesitation, I would say I would not be where I am today with just simply attending a university. The internship experience completely changed my path. So, particularly for students that are focusing their university research on energy related topics, this program could absolutely help you to the finish line. There's a saying about like, keystone projects, master's thesis, or Ph.D. dissertation – like, "What is the best kind of Ph.D. dissertation?" And it's "Those that are finished."

                                    And this internship definitely helped me do that. In fact, a version of the final Sandia report that I did as an intern is in my dissertation as a chapter. And, as a student, I quickly saw myself becoming an expert in my own right due in large part to my experiences and research under the Indian Energy internship. And for these reasons, I always suggest to folks coming up that internships can be life changing and offer you something that not only is different from what you're getting from formal education, but also can contribute to your educational goals. I know this was a reality for me and it helped me to the finish line.

                                    And we can go to the next slide. So, my current role as contractor – my DOE internship directly prepared me for my current role, and my internship helped me to know the issues, to know the mission of the office, and to know how valuable the work the office does is to Indian Country. As an example, during our first week on the job – my first week on the job here – my colleague and I were asked to research the impacts of the grants the office administered from 2010 to 2016. And, on the upper left of this screen, there's a picture that is what resulted from this, and it's a postcard – several other things – that DOE has produced. And so, what that was about is having a clear picture of the dollars that DOE and tribes have invested in energy development – provides a great insight into what the office has helped accomplish.

                                    And from this research to date – from this placard – 20 megawatts of energy generation capacity has been funded with energy cost savings of over half a billion dollars to the life of those projects. And these installations, along with the tremendous energy efficiency measures installed, will make real financial energy reliability impacts in those communities. And what was really neat about this was the results of this research has been used by DOE for the website, informational materials, but it was also to inform NCAI – National Congress of American Indian and Congressional and White House requests. So, it immediately was used in support of our program, which was really neat. And we can go to the next slide.

                                    So, my current research in Alaska – working as a full-time contractor here at DOE, I've been able to work with a growing list of communities, and I continue to work on research directly relevant to energy in Indian Country. For example, while interviewing tribes without energy issues in the lower 48 – which is what that intern report was about – barriers to the lower 48 – we immediately realized how starkly different barriers to energy development in Alaska can be. So, we decided that Alaska rightfully deserved an independent research initiative to evaluate Alaska-specific barriers. And this ongoing research has been an incredible journey for me into the resiliency, strength, ingenuity, that Alaska Natives have in nearly every aspect of their lives. Remoteness, transportation, extreme weather conditions – among a host of additional other barriers – all complicate the energy, security, and reliability of systems in Alaska. However, the drive of Alaska Natives to improve their quality of life is evident, and so, this placard on the top left – since 2002, 56 energy development and energy efficiency projects have been funded through the Office of Indian Energy and it's valued at over $59.00.

                                    And additionally, there's seven inter-tribal organizations that are established that provide technical assistance across the entire state of Alaska for energy projects within the state, and those are active right now. So, for me, it's been a lot of fun. It's been very educational visiting different parts of Alaska, and it's also nice – occasionally, I get to see family members when I'm up there. So, we can go to the final slide.

                                    So, during my time in undergraduate, through my Ph.D., I participated in a host of internships with federal agencies, Congressional office, 8A contracts that one of my tribal affiliations carry out. And while each of those taught me something new, helped develop my professionalism, and progressed my career, the DOE internship most directly led to career advancement in my field of study. And the intern experience and guidance from Sandra Begay led to the success I had – success I had as a student, and I now see as a professional. And I'm thankful for the opportunities I've been given, and I want to encourage more to seek out these life-changing experiences. And it is a great time to be interested in energy in Indian Country.

                                    From the youth to current leadership, there's an excitement about the energy future we can make for ourselves and for that of the United States, and this is a time of American energy dominance with an America first environment. The first Americans are well positioned to engage in this movement by asserting their energy goals in the culturally appropriate ways they see fit. And there's my contact information. That's all I have for today. I welcome any questions. Thank you.

James Jenson:             Thank you, Doctor Jones. That was very interesting presentation and it's great to hear your story and how the internship program helped you move along the way. So, now, we're going to open the floor up for questions. Please, feel free to submit questions by clicking on the "Question" button located on your webinar control box on your screen and type in your question. All panelists should be available, so you can ask questions from any of the presenters previously and I'll search through and ask the questions once you submit them.

                                    So, the first question we have is probably for Sandra or maybe Lizana, but it's – "What's the best way to find more information on the internship program?"

Sandra Begay:            The quick answer is go and do a Google search for "DOE Office of Indian Energy" and within that home page of the federal government, you'll see a link to the college internships. And, from that page, you can read the criteria for internship past experiences, who was an intern, what paper they wrote. But also, there's then a link to the Sandia National Laboratories job postings, and that has further instructions for the student to apply.

James Jenson:            Great. Thanks, Sandra. Another question here about AISES – and so, this is probably for Sarah – Sarah, how does a university that doesn't have an AISES chapter start their own chapter or start a chapter? And, can you also provide some information on what a typical collegiate AISES chapter does on an annual basis?

Sarah EchoHawk:       Sure. Be happy to do that. So first, you'd want to get in touch with our director of membership, Lisa Pawes, and her contact information is either on the staff listing or, if you just go through the website for programs and find college programs, then there should be information there about starting a chapter. So, we actually have material online, but I recommend definitely contacting Lisa and having a conversation with her, 'cause she can provide a lot more detail and a lot more information about what's involved and what you need to do. A typical AISES chapter – it varies greatly depending on the size of the chapter and what students want to do.

                                    So, we do have small chapters – I think maybe as small as 4 students – all the way up to where we have larger chapters that are over 50 students. So, it really varies. Responsibilities are kind of what has to happen as a college chapter. They are required – like, you have to form a chapter. There are bylaws and officers that have to be elected.

                                    We don't have dues, per se, anymore, and then, in terms of activities, a lot of that is up to the chapter. And again, talking with Lisa, she can give you some ideas. But typically, what chapters do is they do fund raise to try to get students into – or get students travel support to come to the National Conference and the Leadership Summit, but a lot of times, they also take on other projects that are STEM related, possibly working with middle school or high school students or other projects that they identify. They also try to recruit and educate other native students about the opportunities that are available in STEM. And then, we also have a number of leadership opportunities for college students to become AISES officers.

                                    So, we have regional representatives from each of the regions, and then, we also have two national student representatives. So, getting involved in the leadership. The other things is that at National Conference, we typically have the college caucuses where basically, students can come together from different regions through their college's network and also discuss opportunities and things that they would like to work on through AISES in terms of leadership development or other programming. So, that's it in a nutshell, and I didn't do it justice, and again, I encourage anyone who's interested to talk with Lisa and get more information. And also, I want to open the floor to others on this call who have been involved in AISES and see if they want to share anything, as well, about what they did in their college chapter or what they recommend. If anyone wants to jump in.

James Jenson:            I'm not hearing anyone jumping in. But certainly, Tommy or Duane, feel free to jump in at any point if you have anything you'd like to contribute in terms of activities under AISES during your collegiate careers.

                                    [Crosstalk]

Sarah EchoHawk:       I was gonna say – I will just add that it's not – I think one of the things that students are often afraid of – and they do have to have like, a sponsor at the college, somebody who works at the college – kind of as their mentor or someone who's kind of sponsoring the chapter. But, what I do want to say is it's not a huge amount of work or a huge time commitment. I think people also often think how would they study and do AISES, but it's completely possible. So, we're there to offer support. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt.

Thomas Jones:            No worries. I can't speak to the creation of the site or creation of a chapter at a university, but within the AISES group at University of Arizona, there was speakers that would come in, get together – it was really student driven. And so, there was a lot of familiar faces sharing information, things like that. And then, getting together as different groups at an AISES National Conference, things like that. So, it was a really good group to connect with for resources, for friendship, things like that.

                                    But for creating a chapter, I wasn't there for that, so I can't speak to that. However, I did create a group at the University of Hawaii at Hilo for the Native American society out there, and you just get a few people – you get a list of people who are interested – like five people's name on a list – you get a faculty sponsor, you submit it – it was really easy. You just had to prove that there was an interest in the group forming.

                                    And, from my experience, that was a very easy thing. You just had to get a couple of signatures and then a faculty sponsor. And then, I think generally from there, it's pretty student driven.

Sarah EchoHawk:       Yeah. Thank you. It's not a lot to get it going, 'cause we provide everything. It's not anything you have to create or develop on your own. We basically provide all of the resources, so it's pretty straightforward.

                                    In terms of activities, like he said, it's a little more up to the students in terms of what they want to do and how much they want to be involved.

James Jenson:            Great. Thanks, guys, for your elaboration there. We have one other question, and it's pretty simple and it's, Tommy, can you share a phone number for someone give you a call, if you're willing? Or, of course, they could send you an e-mail.

Thomas Jones:            Sure. Yeah. Have them send me an e-mail and then I'll – I don't know my desk number off hand, but yeah, I will – yeah, just have them send me an e-mail and then we can set up a phone call.

James Jenson:            Great. So, with that, I don't see any further questions. I appreciate all the panelists time. We need to end the webinar at this time. Please give us feedback on the presentations.

                                    We are very interested in your suggestions on how to strengthen the valuable training, and I'm gonna bring up one last slide here that just shows our remaining presentations for the year. Well, actually, first off, here's a link to the presentations and recordings, which should show up in about a week on that website. And then, the next slide here gives our remaining –

Thomas Jones:            And I do have my phone number available now if you want to take it down. If you're listening – actually, no. That's the wrong one. Sorry about that.

James Jenson:            All right. No problem. So, here's the list of upcoming webinars through the remainder of the 2018 series. You can see it's one a month through November. The next one is on the 28th of February, and that's Steps Toward Your Tribal Community Energy Future.

                                    With that, that's the end of our webinar. Thanks again for your interest and attendance today and have a good day.

Duane Matt:               Thank you.

Lizana Pierce:            Thanks, everybody. Bye-bye.

Sandra Begay:            Bye.

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