NAU program connects Native Americans with environment based careers

FLAGSTAFF - A summer internship with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave John Begay his first experience at the Grand Canyon and a better understanding of the air quality problems facing the Navajo Nation.

"The canyon is just so mind-blowing, and it's sad that millions of people come every year and some may not really get to see it because there are so many days with haze," said Begay, a Navajo studying environmental science at Northern Arizona University (NAU).

Begay, who is from Ganado, got his internship through the Institute of Tribal Environmental Professionals, an NAU-based organization that provides seminars, research programs and technical expertise in air and water quality and solid waste management for tribes across the United States.

The internships - offered as summer-long or one-week sessions - allow Native American students and others interested in environmental protection to put their book knowledge to practical use, said Mansel Nelson, the institute's internship coordinator.

"These students are on a career path and need to network with tribal agencies and other organizations to be able to see what their future roles will be," he said.

Unlike politics, air and water quality issues don't stop at county, state or reservation bor-ders, making environmental science important for the 23 sovereign tribes in Arizona, Nelson said.

Begay's work at the Grand Canyon, which continued in subsequent internships, involved collecting air-quality readings at EPA monitoring stations. But he said he learned much more than environmental science.

"I can actually get up and talk in front of people now," he said. "I've even talked to a crowd of almost a hundred people."

Steven Tallas, an NAU environmental engineering student from Rough Rock on the Navajo Nation, said his internship with Engineers Without Borders had him designing solar-powered monitors to track water flow on the reservation.

"For an engineering student, those are fun projects," Tallas said. "You design it, make sure it's working and go on to the next project."

Beyond internships, the institute offers educational outreach, a focus that had Tallus teaching grade school students in Tuba City how solar-powered lights can be used instead of kerosene lamps.

"The kids are smart, and they figure out real quick how the solar lights can maybe help their families, like to help Grandma find her sheep," he said.

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