Who is Science For?
The 2024 cohort of the Sustainable Land and Water Resources Research Experience for Undergraduates (SLAWR REU) celebrated the end of their 10-week summer program by sharing poster presentations and elaborate StoryMaps such as this one by student Cameron Young. Many of the undergraduate students will go on to present their research posters at AGU in the fall. But these outcomes are only one goal of the ambitious program.
While there are many opportunities for students to do field work, program co-director Melissa Kenney describes the SLAWR REU as uniquely focused on exploring “the complexities of doing interdisciplinary Earth science in, with, and for communities.”
Students, the majority of whom are from groups underrepresented in science and over half of whom are Indigenous, work with tribes to address environmental concerns like water contamination, pollinator decline, or climate change impacts on Manoomin (wild rice).
In early summer, students from the 2024 cohort joined one of three teams at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, University of Minnesota-Duluth, or Salish Kootenai College in Montana and were assigned research mentors. Rather than simply jumping in on a research project, students were tasked with meeting community leaders, discussing and developing projects from scratch, and incorporating Indigenous knowledge and values into each step of the process. “It’s about how to help the community, and it's about doing that in a meaningful way,” says program co-director Antony Berthelote.
“It’s about how to help the community, and it's about doing that in a meaningful way."
At their poster presentation and celebration, the students were exhausted, proud, and passionate in turns. Most felt that their experience had been transformative. Many were left with more questions than they started with about how (not if) they would make the world a better place. “I thought I would leave with a more refined sense of what I wanted to do, but it's been the opposite,” says student Hannah Salas. “There's just so much out there.”
Another student, Athena GoingSnake, described her dreams expanding over the course of the summer: “I thought I wanted to be a middle school teacher, but I have always loved water. My mentor, Crystal Ng, encouraged me to consider a PhD in hydrology. I could bring that back to my community.”
“I thought I wanted to be a middle school teacher, but I have always loved water. My mentor, Crystal Ng, encouraged me to consider a PhD in hydrology. I could bring that back to my community.”
Scientists are often trained to leave their personal stories out of their work, but the SLAWR students were encouraged to consider how their own cultures and stories could be an asset to their research. Students took this view with ease, many naming a desire to learn from and give back to Indigenous communities (theirs and others) as foundational to their academic and professional goals.
Valerie Keody, a senior at San Diego Cal Poly Humboldt, already had a few research experiences under her belt, but she sought out this REU because she could integrate her family values, her personal ethics, and her academic experiences to do research that has a direct community impact. Growing up low-income, she perceived science as something separate from her community’s concerns— knowledge exercised for its own sake or for personal gain. But now she believes that it can be more: “Research is more than just knowing–it is seeking knowledge. It should benefit people, not be separate from them.”
“Research is more than just knowing–it is seeking knowledge. It should benefit people, not be separate from them.”
Valerie Keody, SLAWR student, presenting research.
The SLAWR REU is a 14-year old program. It is an equal partnership between Salish Kootenai College and the University of Minnesota. Currently SLAWR REU is co-led by Antony Berthelote (Salish Kootenai College), Melissa Kenney (U of MN Institute on the Environment), Diana Dalbotten (U of MN St. Anthony Falls Lab), Cody Sifford (Salish Kootenai College), and Cathleen Torres Parisian (U of MN Polar Geospatial Center). The program has had long-term partnerships with Fond Du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, multiple Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), Historic Preservation and Natural Resources Departments, and Kawe Gidaa-Naanaagadawendaamin Manoomin/Psiη (First we must consider Manoomin).
The 2024 Sustainable Land and Water Resources Research Experience for Undergraduates (SLAWR REU) is funded by the National Science Foundation under grant numbers NSF EAR-1757451 (UMN), NSF EAR-2054175 (SKC), NSF EAR-2349268 (SKC), NSF EAR-2349269 (UMN), and Minneapolis St. Paul LTER NSF DEB-2045382; it is also funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation G-2022-19557.
