Welcome
Indian Country holds a large fraction of the U.S. energy critial resources, as high as 1/4 of all U.S. natural resources.
And yet, Native America has 1 tenured, science and engineering faculty in the top 50 research universities. This mismatch precludes us from effective mentoring of our youth in the context of training future scientists to manage resources.
The U.S. energy future is at play in Indian Country.
The NESI goal is to impact this statistic through three community building pieces:
Undergraduates doing recreational mathematics, culture and environment with public school children k-12th,
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On-campus mentoring structures built in for Native groups (AISES, SACNAS, HUNAP, INENAS) to keep our kids in school by fostering check-ins with a human, and
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N|8|V NESI
high quality summer research experiences with targeted recruitment in partnership with AISES and Tribal Colleges, Universities and Tribal Serving colleges.
Summer mentoring and community building meals are hosted by MIT, Harvard, UMass Boston, and Northeastern University.
Summer research experiences are the single most effective way to increase representation in graduate schol.
Our Team
Dr. Sophia N. Cisneros
Enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians and
one of four (soon to be five) Native PhDs in Physics in the United States. Props to the 1st, Dr. Fred Begay.
Dr. Concepcion Ashley
Enrolled member of the Omaha Tribe and a pediatrician, who is the NESI aplication boss. She is an expert in mentoring and higher education support models and implementation.
Her son just graduated in Mech.E at MIT. Congratulations!
Crystal Rizzo, MA
Enrolled Southern Ute and the Director of the North American Indian Center of Boston's M|C|E Academy.
Applying for graduate school nationally for a PhD in sociology.
Rizzo is also the Indian Center's Bike Lab boss, so if you need a bike....
Successes 2015-2016
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NESI 2016 Mentor Chad Auginash, MIT
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MCE partnership between Boston Public Schools and UMass Boston Scho
