{"id":10249,"date":"2008-09-24T13:14:11","date_gmt":"2008-09-24T20:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=10249"},"modified":"2013-06-24T15:50:54","modified_gmt":"2013-06-24T22:50:54","slug":"native-undergrads-get-hands-on-research-experience-and-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/native-undergrads-get-hands-on-research-experience-and-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Native undergrads get hands-on research experience and funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Receiving an Ottens’ Scholarship not only gave\u00a0Charmayne Sandoval<\/strong>\u00a0the financial boost she needs to attend NAU, it also is giving her the chance to make a difference.<\/p>\n

“I am getting the chance to help my own people and make a real difference in the world,” said Sandoval, a sophomore biology student and recipient of an Ottens’ Undergraduate Research Grant for Native Americans in Health and Environmental Sciences.<\/p>\n

Sandoval is working with NAU researcher\u00a0Stefanie Raymond-Whish<\/strong>, who last year was the first Navajo woman to receive a Ph.D. in biological sciences from NAU. Together they are working to determine whether the old uranium mines might explain the increase in cancers on the Navajo Nation.<\/p>\n

“Working with Stefanie I am learning that hard work pays off,” Sandoval said. “This also is a good opportunity to go back and tell my community that there is funding to help Native students.”<\/p>\n

The Ottens’ award program matches mentors with freshman and sophomore Native students aspiring to work in health-related professions and environmental scientific research. Students work with mentors for about 15 months, including two summers and two academic years, to experience and conduct research.<\/p>\n

Directed by\u00a0Jani Ingram<\/strong>, an associate professor in chemistry, the program’s second-year recipients are sophomores Sandoval,\u00a0Cristal Gomez<\/strong>, a chemistry major who is matched with Ingram as her mentor, and\u00a0Kayleen Wilson<\/strong>, who is researching community outreach projects in the dental hygiene program.<\/p>\n

“This program stimulates research by having students work with a faculty mentor in research areas that could result in students pursuing health or environmental science professions,” Ingram said.<\/p>\n

New Navajo freshman students to the program include\u00a0Danielle Charley<\/strong>\u00a0in nursing,\u00a0Lias Hastings<\/strong>\u00a0in environmental science and\u00a0Michael Flanagan<\/strong>, in biology.<\/p>\n

“It feels really good to be a part of this program and the money is helping me and my family a lot,” Charley said. “My family is proud of me.”<\/p>\n

Hastings said, “I did a lot of research for scholarships, and I couldn’t find any others that included the opportunity to actually conduct research. I am glad to be included.”<\/p>\n

The program, supported by the John and Sophia Ottens Foundation, provides students up to $8,000 each to assist with college expenses. Students receive additional support through career counseling provided by NAU’s Native Student Services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Receiving an Ottens’ Scholarship not only gave\u00a0Charmayne Sandoval\u00a0the financial boost she needs to attend NAU, it also is giving her the chance to make a difference. “I am getting the chance to help my own people and make a real difference in the world,” said Sandoval, a sophomore biology student and recipient of an Ottens’…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":10255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}