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'Progress is evident" in Native American educational attainment, says Eleanor L. Babco, executive director, Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (Washington, DC, www.cpst.org). But much remains to be done in providing access to the building blocks for science and technology careers. "It behooves us to push for more advanced calculus, chemistry and physics courses," Babco feels.
Since 1977 AISES (www.aises.org) has helped expand the number of Native American scientists and engineers through its K-12 and higher education programs, as well as its professional services and community development. Deputy director Teresa Gomez says AISES is currently looking to create a "full circle of support," reaching out to the Native American professionals who are now out in the field. The pros, in turn, will become the role models and mentors for students and new grads.
These nine Native American engineers demonstrate the opportunities open to skilled technical grads. Five of them entered the workforce within the last three years. All have held tightly to their cultural identities as they forged careers in technology.
Turtle Mountain Chippewa Marcy Van Horn: IBM development engineer
Marcy Van Horn of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa is a development engineer at the Rochester, MN site of information systems solutions giant IBM (Armonk, NY). She joined IBM after receiving her BSEE from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2002.
Van Horn says junior high and high school summer camps run by AISES and SWE introduced her to the world of math, science and engineering. But her five summer internships at IBM, she says, "got her hooked."
She began working full-time at IBM as a chip development engineer. "I designed and verified logic for chip sets to optimize the functionality and performance of our servers."
She says the entire design process tests "against code models of how the server and components should act. Even when the design is finished, we continue testing so we can improve it."
Van Horn's latest project is exploring how IBM can bring broadband managed services to tribal nations throughout the Americas. She grew up in an isolated area of North Dakota, on the reservation of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, so she understands the connectivity and application needs of tribal groups. She says she is excited about meeting those needs with IBM's technology.
Van Horn says that the bonds she developed with Native American peers and mentors at her AISES summer camps are still strong, and that the Native elders she met in college and at work continue to have an impact on her personal and professional lives. "I couldn't have made it without my mentors."
She's also found that college classwork doesn't always apply to daily work life. "The real world is about getting things done at the highest quality in the least amount of time and with the most creativity. You've got to know your stuff when interacting with customers."
But she says "a big advantage is that it's not just you in the work environment. You have a team of very competent and amazing people surrounding you, so if you don't know the answer you know someone who does or can find it for you."
She says working with a team has been very rewarding and was especially helpful when she recently needed to attend to a family crisis. The support she received from her team and the flexibility offered by IBM, she says, were "phenomenal. We have flex schedules, so I was still able to work, remotely when necessary."
She encourages students to make sure the company they choose to work for is in line with their lifestyles.
Ojibwe John DeBassige: mechanical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories
John DeBassige, an Ojibwe, has been a mechanical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, NM) since 2002. He received his BSME from the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM) in May 2002 and his MSME with a focus on microsystems from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) in June 2003.
DeBassige was an undergraduate student intern at Sandia Labs. He says he knew that "Sandia had a great graduate school program, and I was looking for a company that would sponsor me and that I would like to work for when I finished."
DeBassige's group at Sandia Labs develops safety components for nuclear weapons. "I do mechanisms design work and microsystems development. I'm also involved in a couple of programs where we're developing technologies for the microsystems community."
At work, DeBassige says, "Meetings and discussions are fast-paced and require quick thinking. You often have to communicate high-tech information on the spot. It's very different from having a semester to write a report and give a presentation."
DeBassige says a lot of his job requires collaboration. Being a good listener, approaching communication as a two-way street, and being humble have helped him. "And working together with folks in a team environment," he says, "is much more productive than being too competitive and focusing only on individual efforts."
DeBassige recruits student interns for Sandia Labs through its American Indian Outreach Committee (AIOC). He provides informal mentoring when students "just need to ask questions and associate with someone who has gone through the program."
The AIOC, he says, really helped him feel welcome and part of the Sandia Labs family.
DeBassige's father was from the Ojibwe tribe in Canada and his mother is Hispanic. He grew up in New Mexico. He says his father exposed him and his siblings to the Ojibwe culture, "which led me to be very happy in life."
Northern Cheyenne Eric Spotted Elk: electrical engineer at Agilent Technologies
Northern Cheyenne Eric Spotted Elk is a digital signal processing engineer at Agilent (Palo Alto, CA). He was hired by Agilent Technologies (formerly part of Hewlett-Packard) after receiving his BSEE from Brigham Young University (Provo, UT) in 1996. He found his job through an AISES career fair he attended after he joined the Brigham Young chapter. Spotted Elk received his MSEE from Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA) in 2002, with support from Agilent.
Spotted Elk works on spectrum analyzers, "instruments that allow an engineer to see the frequency characteristics of signals. I write code for the signal processing."
He says Agilent's spectrum analyzers also support wireless communications. "Our analyzers test the quality of manufacturers' phone signals and make sure they meet Federal Communications Commission requirements."
Being Native American "sets a tone and direction in my life," Spotted Elk says. "A strong Native American community at Agilent influenced my decision to take this job. It was very important to me to have a group where you can interact with people who understand where you're coming from."
Spotted Elk spent his formative years on the Northern Cheyenne reservation. "We had many cousins and relatives there and our culture was a major part of our identity. My dad instilled in me a strong sense of what it means to be a Cheyenne. I'd like to do that for my children someday."
Spotted Elk says he's proud of the many accomplishments and contributions Native Americans have made to Agilent over the years. And despite the many challenges that remain, he's "proud of the inroads Native Americans are making across the country."
Navajo Karen McDaniel: mechanical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories
Navajo Karen McDaniel has been a mechanical engineer in the modeling and simulations department of Sandia Labs since August 2003. She started her college career at San Juan College (Farmington, NM), where she received an associates degree in general science in May 1998. She received her BSME in December 2001 and her MSME in July 2003 from the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM). McDaniel did summer internships at Sandia Labs and went directly into full-time employment when she finished her graduate degree.
Her design and analysis work at Sandia Labs, she says, is "what I always wanted to do."
She's currently involved with the mechanical systems that house the electronics for the lab's synthetic aperture radar work. "I do thermal analysis to ensure that the heat generation is fine, and structural analysis to make sure that everything will fit and be structurally sound."
She says it's "very enjoyable to be on a team working together toward a goal."
Going to college was a culture shock for McDaniel. "I grew up on the reservation," she says, "so the majority of people I interacted with were Native Americans."
Sandia Lab's AIOC and the University of New Mexico were an important bridge to her career. "When I saw a Navajo woman with a masters degree in civil engineering working at Sandia Labs, I thought, 'I can do that too.'"
Strong women are a hallmark of her culture, McDaniel says. "Navajo women are the backbone of the family. I learned from my mom and the women in our Navajo society to take on more responsibility and go the extra mile."
Sandia Labs, she notes, is ideally located for McDaniel to maintain family and cultural ties. "It meant a lot to me to stay close by."
McDaniel says work teaches her to keep her mind open to the "tremendous amount of learning still to do."
After going to school for so many years, "You come to the workplace and realize that you still don't know anything. The skills you use in your job are very different from those you've mastered in college. You need to let co-workers teach you what they know."
Pueblo Jason Oliver: technical director and system architect at Kodak
Pueblo Jason Oliver's latest position in the home printing group at Eastman Kodak Co (Rochester, NY) is technical director of embedded systems platform development. "It's a great job," Oliver says. "I work on the fundamental architecture that our home printing products are built on. The commercialization teams then take this foundation to market. It's fantastic to see the products we develop on sale in the stores."
Oliver's work in home systems printing is integrated across several Kodak business units and corporate levels. "Being able to work at many different levels in an organization is a definite asset. You learn how everything is related," he offers.
Oliver received his BS in 1991 at the State University of New York-Geneseo with a major in physics and minors in computer science and mathematics. His interest in digital imaging made Kodak "the ideal place to go."
Since he started at Kodak in 1991, Oliver has worked on an array of products that are functionally related, from cameras to scanners to printers to large-scale systems. "There are very few companies where you can apply the same skill set to such a broad spectrum of products. It's very exciting."
Oliver says that even though his extended family is in New Mexico, both the Rochester area and Kodak have strong Native American communities. The Native American Council at Kodak is "very public, active and easy to find for new hires and employees."
Kodak is a corporate supporter of AISES.
Santa Domingo Pueblo Elvira Lovato: manufacturing tech at Intel
Elvira Lovato (Santa Domingo Pueblo) has worked since October 2004 as a manufacturing tech at the Hillsboro, OR fab of semiconductor maker Intel (Santa Clara, CA). Hillsboro is the global company's largest site.
Lovato's interest in computer engineering was sparked when she participated in a club called Native American Students Refurbishing Used Technology (Native American STRUT) at the Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico where she was a student. "We learned how to build PC towers from scratch."
She graduated from ITT Technical Institute (Albuquerque, NM) in June 2004 with an associates degree in electronic engineering technology. Intel recruited her at ITT, and she has learned her advanced skills on the job.
Lovato grew up on the Santa Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico. Working in Hillsboro has been a big transition for her. Even while attending school, she commuted from Albuquerque. "I've never lived anywhere other than Santa Domingo, and I am far away from my family."
Lovato draws on her strong cultural beliefs for work. She says that growing up her dad taught her to "believe in yourself. No matter what obstacles you encounter, never give up."
Osage Indian Chuck Maker: engineer at Agilent Technologies
Chuck Maker, an Osage Indian, has been a manufacturing engineer at Agilent Technologies (Sonoma County, CA) for the past nine years. But his career started decades earlier.
Maker grew up in Osage County, OK, where his father is a full-blood member of the Osage tribe. He studied electronics and electro mechanics at Oklahoma State University's School of Technical Training. He graduated in 1967 with a two-year degree.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs was working "to move reservation Indians into the mainstream," says Maker. Through a government relocation program, he went to California after graduation and found work at a small company that specialized in yttrium iron garnet (YIG) technology. YIG is a ferromagnetic crystal that produces a high-Q tunable resonator. "I became an expert in YIG technology at a fairly young age, went on to a couple of start-ups and ended up at Agilent."
Maker says his skills and background fit perfectly with Agilent's use of YIG for its broadband applications. "I could not have asked for a better situation," he says. "There are only two independent sources for the material in the United States, but Agilent has its own production facility in Sonoma County."
Maker feels his Native American values lie behind his ability to "work hard with a clear mind and a relaxed attitude."
He says he also is "less driven to be singled out and more content to be a team player."
Growing up with a tribe that is steeped in tradition, Maker says, has helped him to wisely choose mentors and instructors throughout his career. "It's no secret that tribal leaders and elders have their positions because they've earned them. Having such strong role models makes it easier to spot people with those qualities.
"People who are good at what they do are usually very willing to share and teach," Maker says. He encourages students and new employees to "find the best people for what you need and seek their help and advice."
Cherokee and Chickasaw Sarah Hodge: process research engineer at 3M
Sarah Hodge (Cherokee and Chickasaw) has been a process research engineer at 3M (St. Paul, MN) since May 2004. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK) with her BSME in 1999.
3M offers diversified technology and products for consumers and industry in the office supplies, display and graphics, communications, electronics, health care, safety/security/protection and transportation fields.
At 3M Hodge works with the precision coating group of the corporate R&D lab to support the coating needs of the product divisions. She says the manufacturing sites that do full-scale coating also come to her group "if there is a problem, if they're trying to increase efficiency or production, or if they need to carry out their ideas in a small-scale setting."
She looks forward to her continued development as a coating expert and engineer at 3M.
The Native American Council at 3M recruited Hodge for four summer internships while she was in college. Through these internships, she says, she "was able to transition to corporate life bit by bit, so it wasn't a huge shock when I began working full time. I learned about corporate life, business etiquette and communication and presentation skills."
The Native American Council introduced her to co-workers "so we were able to establish networks in engineering even as interns."
The mentoring and support Hodge has received from both the council and AISES have allowed her to follow her heritage. Although she was not raised in the Native culture, through her mother's work as an Indian education counselor, she says, she "started going to more powwows and interacting with other Native American kids."
For Hodge, not being surrounded by many people who are at the same point in their lives as she is has been a big adjustment. "In college everyone is going through and doing the same thing. At 3M I work with people who are married, who have families. They have totally different lives."
Hodge lives twelve hours away from her family in Tulsa, but often sees her older brother who also works at 3M. She says, "It helps to have him here. Our parents come up more to visit because we're both here."
Cherokee and Chickasaw Zach Hodge: IT at 3M
Cherokee and Chickasaw Zach Hodge agrees "it's been really nice" to have a family member at 3M. "We're far from home, so it's wonderful to have my sister nearby."
Zach Hodge has been at 3M (St. Paul, MN) since 2002, after he received his BSEE in computer science from the University of Oklahoma-Norman. Hodge says his interest in IT began in fifth grade when his dad bought a computer for the family.
Hodge's IT group at 3M works on integrating order management, inventory and maintenance systems with central systems at the company's headquarters in St. Paul. He sees his job as a "really great starting position. I've gotten to see so many different aspects of 3M IT systems and done a lot of problem solving."
Hodge says work involves much more than the technical knowledge he gained in college. "While I learned about solving a problem with a group of people on my senior design projects, it just wasn't to the degree that I've experienced in my job at 3M."
He says work also helps him see the value of business and leadership skills.
Hodge now serves as co-chair of 3M's Native American Council. He's proud of the council's work at 3M "to help employees, provide feedback to human resources, and continue American Indian recruitment."
Hodge encourages students to study engineering. "I think the problem-solving skills you get from an engineering degree can help you regardless of what your career is."
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