Internship program connects Indigenous undergrads to research, career opportunities

The University of Alberta is celebrating 19 undergraduates for their environmental research, including a project focused on assessing wildfire hazards.

Nineteen First Nations, Métis and Inuit undergraduates just completed a 16-week internship they say will set them up to make a difference in a variety of environmental fields.

The I-STEAM Pathways program provides undergraduate Indigenous students a paid opportunity to research their field of study under the mentorship of faculty and researchers at the University of Alberta.

For Chance Park, that meant studying the interaction between a fungus and mite that attaches itself to the mountain pine beetle, which can infect lodgepole pines.

“The mite feeding on the fungus will produce these chemical compounds, called volatiles, that could, in theory, stimulate growth without physical connection, just by chemical connection,” Park explained on Friday after the interns presented their work at the U of A.

“I was measuring a gestural, which is like a direct biomass of a fungus.… It was pretty cool.”

Others studied natural immune protection amongst farm fish, wildfire exposure of First Nations in northern Ontario, and environmental threats facing polar bears using nanotechnology.

Throughout the summer, Park was able to sit in on seminar meetings, mock candidacy interviews with PhD and master’s students, and lunches with faculty members.

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“They really just support you throughout the way and essentially wanting you to do a post grad… which I’m really considering now due to this program (and) just being connected. I’ve met so many professors and got so many research positions just from this internship.”

Program lead Dr. Makere Stewart-Harawira said the program is meant to reconnect western science with Indigenous knowledge and support Indigenous students in becoming leaders in their fields.

“In this time that we’re in of environmental crisis or climate crisis, Indigenous knowledge, but also Indigenous people in positions of influence and positions of policy making… is so critical,” Stewart-Harawira said.

“It’s such a joy and it is such a privilege for me, as an Indigenous person from Aotearoa, New Zealand, to actually be able to be part of this program.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Cam Wiebe