Inspiring Earth Scientists at Salish Kootenai College: A Working Model

The NASA Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) supported a student GIS and Remote Sensing Internship Program with the Salish Kootenai College for the past three years. We feel the key to our program's success is the close interaction between the NASA scientists and the students, both during the internship and during a visiting scientists program held at the Tribal College. This program now includes a five week intensive internship at GSFC for students working on reservation-based research with LDCM science mentors. Students also received training on geospatial tools, courses that have been unavailable to them at their Tribal College. The close working relationship established during the internship encouraged the students to pursue their interests in geospatial analysis, while exposing them to some of the breadth of research that is accomplished with these tools. In 2004, we added a Visiting Scientist Program to bring the NASA scientist mentors to the reservation, a request well articulated from tribal students and leaders over the past few years. We feel that hosting NASA scientists at the reservation for 1-2 weeks per year will help strengthen the bond between the students and mentors, and encourage these students to continue their education, hopefully matriculating into graduate school in geospatial studies. Hosting the NASA scientists at the reservation enables them to have first hand experience with the tribal college, meet the faculty advisors, and share in the students' field work experience on their reservation-based projects. One desired outcome is that the scientists will have a better understanding of student needs in future efforts with Tribal Colleges. We feel our model of NASA working with a Minority Serving Institution has been a success and will continue to serve these underrepresented populations in a meaningful way.