Day 3: Conference, All Day and Night

Today was wonderful in the sense that I was able to attend many sessions and meet new people, but also a bit sad because I never got to see the sun. I literally was inside the entire time the sun was out except for a brief glimpse as I ran from the hotel to the convention center to make it in time for free breakfast.

Me and Jennifer Jones
(best friends in 4th grade, reunited at the 3M Plenary lunch)

As much as I love AISES, they really need to work on food and accommodations of their attendees regarding food. I can understand a few meals being “on your own,” but when the majority of them aside from today were “on your own” while we are in one of the biggest tourist trap spots in the area, IT IS EXPENSIVE. I am glad that our group is made up of poor college kids used to unhealthy, irregular meals, otherwise the first two days would have been rough. HOWEVER, today we were fed quite extravagantly starting with a continental breakfast, lunch hosted by 3M, and finishing with the Traditional Honors Banquet. The few sessions I was able to attend were a Brainstorming session this morning, the 3M plenary lunch and information session, and the session for female engineers. I will focus on the last one, “Transcending the Glass Ceiling, Lessons Learned from Native, Female Engineers” because this is the session that truly got to me and revitalized my tired mind.

This session was hosted by two Native female engineers that work at Sandia National Labs. The main focus was on leadership and the different styles of it by splitting us into groups and letting us work through scenarios that dealt with difficult situations. My group was made up almost entirely of a group of women from Minnesota, and it was slightly awkward. You could tell they already had a group dynamic, and I am not too good at dealing with girls when it comes to close knit groups such as this one. When working through the situations, I had to get over that and work with the group in coming up with a solution. That wasn’t the part that interested me though, it was the responses that each group gave and the feedback we received from the two presenters. Their outlook on their position in the company was inspiring and I was thankful to be able to talk with them one-on-one after the presentation and get pictures with them. Along with this, I was able to capture the parting words that were meant to inspire us. It worked. (Video was too big, will upload separately)

After the session, I went straight to the closing circle that ended up being very similar to a talking circle with one person in the middle sharing their feelings on the conference and AISES in general. This part made me very uncomfortable. I did not go to the middle myself, but out of those that did a large majority of them started crying. I am uncomfortable with emotions and it made me feel very awkward watching these people cry in the middle of a giant circle.

Thankfully, that was not the last event. After a break of less than 30 minutes, we went right back to the conference for the Traditional Honors Banquet. This was neat mostly because we got really good food, but also because I was actually featured and called out for my scholarships I have received! It was cool, but the banquet room was so big that I don't think anyone but in our immediate vicinity saw me stand up so I felt weird and sat down quickly. (that's the thing about these big STEM conferences, everyone is at least partially socially awkward, no matter how well they try and hide it) Anyways, the really cool part of the banquet was that John Herrington was our Keynote Speaker! For those that don't know, he was the first Native American in space and after the banquet our whole group got to meet him! Technically, this was my second time meeting him, the first being when I was just a youngin less than 2 years old on Halloween. Thankfully we have pictures to prove it otherwise I would not have been able to remember it. My mom sent me the picture while we were waiting in line to meet him, and when we got to the front I showed him and he was almost as excited as I was! He seemed to remember my dad, so he gave me a hug and we got our own picture together just the two of us and OMG that was amazing!

After we were all done monopolizing John's time with the rest of the conference attendees, we headed over to what was supposed to be the "Traditional Activity" which turned out to be more like a rock group made up of Native American guys. Don't get me wrong, they were pretty good but when a group of Natives show up in regalia expecting a pow-wow, people just felt awkward. It was too loud and I was itchin for a round dance. They didn't switch either, so we left to go to Disney instead since it was our last night there.

Me, Kristina, Waylind, and then two of our other friends named Adam and Collin got a taxi and drove on over to what we thought was Downtown Disney which actually turned out to be Disney Boardwalk. I didn't know the difference, but the difference ended up being about 3 miles of highway, so we chased down one of the Disney shuttles and pretended like we were guests at the hotel. This pretty much set the tone of the rest of our night in Orlando, not knowing where we are (Kristina lol) and A LOT of walking.

Overall our travel back went well, except for a minor bump at the Orlando airport, and we made it back in 13 hours of travel start to finish. After not sleeping at all the night before, I fell asleep almost immediately after I made it back to my dorm and thus ends my journey across the country, in the middle of a snowstorm to the AISES 2014 National Conference.

Reflection

Hello! Well I am very glad that I went to the AISES conference. It was eye opening and inspirational. I am a bit more confused on what I want to do now with my life then when I went, I had a small idea of double majoring in criminal justice and political science, criminal justice would always be something to fall back on since I’m not that interested in. I’ve always been interested in the environment and working with it so that has always been in the back of my mind, so I always considered being a DNR officer. I would really enjoy working with my tribe to help them, I would like to make a change with what I do with my future. So before I attended the AISES conference I was considering trying to be a tribal attorney but not sure if I could ever make it into graduate school. But I think I was only considering that so I could work with my tribe. When I went to the career fair on Friday I started talking to this booth that works with the environment and does some sort of forestry. That intrigued me and I want to apply for their summer internship so that opened my eyes to different options. So to confuse me more I might want to major in political science, natural resources, or environmental science. At breakfast on Saturday I also talked to this two ladies that are very involved with AISES. They told me I could even try to start a new thing with my tribal that has to do with the environment. I don’t remember completely but I do have one of their information. I am a bit more confused after attending the conference but it was a wonderful experience and inspiring, I hope to attend next year. I met great people that were extremely intelligent and I hope I can be that smart one day. The NASA tour was amazing and very interesting, and meeting John Harrington was cool, how many people can say that they went into space. The NASA tour and the career fair was probably my favorite part of the conference. I didn’t think I would end up seeing so much wildlife, 3 eagles and an alligator. The career fair just shows how many opportunities that AISES can give someone that attends the conference. After all the problems with getting there and how difficult it was to find a different plan after our plane got cancelled I could say it was all worth it.  Attending the conference gave me the opportunity to open my mind to different options, meet new friends, and experience something new. I think it was worth all the hard work and I am more than happy that I went. I want to say thank you to everyone helped made it possible.

Day 3!!!!!!!

Today I accidentally slept an hour later than I originally planned. I did not miss anything, I was just planning on eating breakfast right at 8 when it opened so I had enough time before my 10 o’clock session I wished to attend. But a sign from the universe must have known I had to meet this two ladies I sat with when I walked into the Boca room around 8:40. I retrieved a bagel, fruit, and some orange juice. I didn’t want to sit alone so I sat with someone that was alone at their table. I just started to eat when this other woman came and sat with us, she was more talkative. We all introduced ourselves and they were older people. I think they were ETCs? Some acronym I didn’t really know. But higher up people with AISES. They talked to me and gave me so many ideas for my future. They said if I wanted to do something with my tribe and natural resources, I could just make something up and start something new. They told me about this thing that they wanted to start that I cannot recall right now. But she is sending me more information, they are having a meeting for something they are starting up and maybe our AISES chapter can attend, it’s in Minnesota or Ohio. Anyways, I was really glad that I sat down with them to network and they gave me all these great ideas. I was a little late to the session I attended that morning, it was STEM how to find your passion. One thing that stuck out to me was this slide that said have mentors, network, learn continuously, and respect everyone. They said to never stop learning. Keep educating yourself and you’ll achieve great things. They also said to always keep exploring if you aren’t sure what you would like to do. If you keep exploring you’ll find out what you want to do, or you’ll find out what you don’t want to do, which is also important. After that I went to the resume room for about a half hour. I’m not sure what I want to apply to yet, but I think I want to apply to a summer internship so I thought I should restart my resume. They gave me good ideas, but mostly just to use google. But when I return to Northern I will just go to their resume room to finish it up. Next session I attended was the inspiration one. The man that presented was very nervous and you could tell. He shared some interesting things but I was not that inspired. He told a good story about his mentor that he worked at this factory practically his whole life, but then went back to college in his forties and became an engineer, I am going to tell my parents about that and I will hopefully inspire them. After that I went to the 3M lunch, it was very yummy food, I enjoyed the salad the most. It was a presentation about the company 3M and they shared all the opportunities that the company gives. It was very moving but I am not interested in engineering. I then went to the pool and was there for a little bit to relax, it was very nice to see the sun one last time before we returned home. I went to shower to get ready for the banquet after this. Dinner was delicious, they served tofu to me and I was grateful. During dinner presenters told us about the reps of the regions which was interesting. John Harrington was inspiring he told us his story. I would like to do something great like that. Then they started to name everyone off that got an award/scholarship. Daabii was mentioned and that was exciting. Now I am sitting here writing this blog, the powwow is soon and I’m very ecstatic about that. I am not ready to leave Florida, I enjoy being here and I enjoy the warm weather. But the only thing helping me go back is that we have a week to go, then break. Bye.

Day 2: The Two Extremes

            So today was a day of two extremes, it started with meeting my mentor and the career fair, and ended with a trip to Universal Studios. Each part of the day was distinctly split from the other parts. So maybe that will be how I organize it today.

Part 1: Meeting my mentor

            After rushing to get ready and missing breakfast, I finally met my mentor for the Lighting the Pathways program! We met outside the Government Boardroom, I got there first (for once in my life) and Dr. Bob Megginson met me shortly after. I am a talker and I soon found out so is he. We already knew we had similarities with both of us being from Michigan, but we discovered we actually have a mutual friend; Rich Sgarlotti. (For those that don’t know Rich, he was one of the leaders in the STEM camp programs for youth that I took part in for many years when I was in middle school.) This bit of information made a connection that made us have more to talk about than just the “mentor/mentee” relationship.

            Bob was pretty cool and I am quite excited to be one of his mentees. The other mentee that I share Bob with is named Devin. He is a Navajo boy that attends Columbia, and we are 2 of the 7 sophomores in the program out of a total of 30 participants. Us three ended up talking for over an hour before we realized that we were well into the allotted time for the career fair, so Bob guided us into the career fair to introduce us to some of his people from University of Michigan. After continuing to talk and get distracted for another 30 minutes, Bob went to go change into professional attire, and Devin and I were free to look at the hundreds of vendors here for us at the Career Fair.

Part 2: Networking and Career Fair

            SO. MANY. BOOTHS. So little time. For real though, I spent a good amount of my day in this one room talking to people and getting the free stuff. With only a small break for a mediocre “buffet” lunch (aka a hot dog, chips, and lemonade), I continued my journey through the 10 aisles of colleges and businesses wanting me to go to them. Mainly I was interested in looking for REU’s and graduate schools with a high native population and good physics programs. Some of the booths just looked lonely so I would stop by theirs and talk for a bit. The ones that stuck out to me were University of Minnesota Morris, University of Michigan, and UC Davis for graduate school, and 3M for a possible internship. I never knew what all 3M did aside from making command strips and post-its until I stopped at their booth. It sounded like a really good opportunity, so I will look into them once I am junior standing.

Part 3: The fun stuff

I wasn’t planning on staying at the career fair for very long, but I should have known better than to think I would leave in a timely manner. A group of us from NMU, MSU, and others friends we picked up along the way decided that it would be a perfect time to go to UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. So that is what we did. We had a plan that all 14 of us would leave the hotel in a cab at 1:45, but then again we are at an American Indian conference so we really should have known it would be on Indian time either way. I ended up running out of the career fair at 1:38 to get to my room and change so that they wouldn’t leave me, but then three of us forgot stuff in the room and had to run back anyway. We piled into a cab, got to Universal and then had the time of our lives! All I wanted to do that day was go to Harry Potter world, and no one else could comprehend why I was antsy the whole time as we lolly-gagged our way through the park and stopping at a bunch of rides that I did not care about. To be fair, the first one was great which was a giant roller-coaster that brought you straight up and then straight down over and over again. I am fairly certain I lost my voice on that one… After that one, we went on a Transformers ride, Simpsons ride, Man in Black ride, and then FINALLY made it to Harry Potter world!!! There is no possible way to write down in words the excitement I felt when I saw Diagon Alley open up in front of me, and I am not even going to try. This was a trip for the AISES conference, so I will withhold my thoughts on Harry Potter world for an in person conversation, but it was something that I will definitely never forget.

Day 0 and Day 1

         

  As much as I would love to jump right into writing about my thrilling first day at the conference, the real excitement started the two days leading up to the conference as we were preparing to fly across the country… in a blizzard. As many could already guess, it did not turn out well. Monday morning I went to class at 9 am and when I walked back to my dorm at 4 pm that day, we were well on our way to a foot of snow. This turned into two feet of wet heavy snow that covered the entire Upper Peninsula, which obviously included NMU campus and the airport we were scheduled to fly out of Wednesday morning at 8 am. My roommate and I stayed awake to the wee early morning hours watching the snow fall and hoping for a snow day. Lo and behold, we did; we got the snow day. Unfortunately, we did not anticipate what that meant until 12:11 pm, when I received the call that our flights out of Sawyer International Airport had been cancelled. This turned into a multiple hour fiasco of calling, packing, and badly held-back panic while me and (mostly) my mother and secretary of the Center for Native American Studies, Tina Moses, rescheduled our flights to Green Bay the next day at 11:50 am. I am and will continue to be incredibly thankful for my mom for fixing where the weather may have defeated our hopes of getting to the national conference.

            The rest of the traveling went smoothly once we were out of the UP and we arrived in Orlando in awe of how huge this city is. After we checked in at the Caribe Royale Resort and hung up all of our “business” clothes, we meandered our way towards food. Turns out we were just far enough away from any restaurants that we decided on eating at the Tropicale restaurant at the resort. Kristina and I ate some risotto with cheese, while Waylind had a burger, and Larry had a puny chicken “breast” that much more resembled a wing. After meeting and hanging out with a few people from Michigan State University, we got our clothes and alarms ready for the next day and went to sleep at a mere 1 am.

            Once the alarms went off at the early hour of 6:30 am, I got ready for my day which would tell me about the next five years of my life; the first meeting of my Lighting the Pathways program at 9 am. Waylind and I walked over to the convention center to register and I walked ever closer to my future. 8:50 am rolled around and I found the room, Bonaire 5. I said “see ya later” to Waylind and I walked into the room.

The room was not very full, maybe 30 people at the most including all the staff, mentors, and participants of the program. The table I sat at was made up mostly of graduate level students, except for me and the other mentee for my mentor named Devin. From there, we sat through three hours of introductions, information, and stories about what we were involved in and the path to get there. I won’t bore you with all of the information I was told, but to make it short, I will have a mentor that I will have monthly communication with via Skype, as well as a research project and surveys that will span the length of the five year program. Along with this, I will have a yearly stipend as well as travel to the national conference and the leadership summit paid for while in the program. Lastly, I will be required to take part in a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates every year. All this is adding up to my future career as faculty in the STEM fields, and I am so excited to start. But first, I must meet my mentor tomorrow morning at 8:45 am. Stay tuned for more on how this goes! :D

Day 0 &1

Hello, my name is Kristina Misegan. Getting to the conference was the difficult part. After our plane ride getting cancelled out of Sawyer we had to find an alternative way. Which means we had to drive 3 hours to Green Bay. We left at 7 in the morning on Wednesday and arrived at Green Bay airport about an hour before we had to board. We had a bit of an issue with the seating when we got on the plane, this woman had a child and they didn't set up the seating chart correctly. After getting that figured out, we took off. We arrived in Chicago and had around an hour layover. We ate at Wolfgang Puck, we all ordered pizzas, they were huge and greasy. Then it was about time to board the plane, and all our seats were pretty separate. I fell asleep for an hour then finished some philosophy homework, so I was happy about that. It was dark when we arrived in Florida and we got separated when we needed to take the shuttle to the hotel, Waylind and I left after Daabii and Larry but arrived early. We had some troubles with taxes but once we figured that out, we went to our rooms, freshened up and then left to dinner. We ate at this fancy restaurant in the hotel, it was expensive but not that yummy. After eating dinner we just hung out and then went to bed shortly after. 


The next morning I woke up at 7 am, after getting ready Larry and I went down to the lobby to wait for the shuttle to be picked up for the NASA tour. We got some fruit for breakfast and ended up waiting in the wrong spot for 15 minutes. Thankfully Larry realized it and we went to the right spot. The ride was about an hour long, but on the way we saw an eagle and an alligator! I was ecstatic to see the eagle and it was my first alligator! Once we finally arrived at NASA around 9:30 we found out we will be spending most of our tour on the bus which was somewhat disappointing. It was still a very interesting tour, the tour guide seemed to really know his stuff and told us a lot history. We were able to see the most historic launch pad in NASA, it was launch pad A, and was the launch pad for Apollo. We were able to leave the bus and take group pictures with it. After that we saw another eagle! Double luck. Also we drove the bus up this little hill and were able to see the Atlantic Ocean! It was my first time seeing the ocean in person, that was amazing we were so close. Once we left we went to the NASA building and we were able to watch a shuttle take off and we were able to hear the talk between the astronauts and the people conducting it. The bus took us to the NASA touring site where Larry and I had nachos and waffle fries. We also went to the two story gift shop. We bought many gifts for family members. Then I got an ICEE which was very yummy. After the tour on the way back we say this huge eagles nest, a few feet, high up in this tree. Then the eagle was in the nest! 3 eagles in one day and an alligator so it was an awesome day for sight seeing animals.


After this, we swam for awhile and came back into the lobby to use the Wi-Fi to start the blog and to work on some homework. While we were all sitting out here this woman that was working in the resume workshop all day comes over and assisted us all with all our resumes. She was very helpful and nice. We just returned from eating dinner, we went to Bahama Breeze, I ordered the black bean burger, it was pretty yummy. Now it is night time, goodnight.