UW Collaborates with tribe, school district in “STEP”

Nan Little sounds like a proud parent recounting her child’s first steps.

Little, who manages the Sciences and Tribes Educational Partnership (STEP), watched with great pride as the pilot program she created in collaboration with the Quinault Nation and the Taholah School District evolved and blossomed during recent months. Fresh off the first STEP summer institute and a semester of work-study experience, she’s already calling the partnership a success.

“I feel a strong sense of satisfaction that by working together with the tribe, school and University, we could design a program that would actually meet the needs of the students,” Little said. “A successful pilot doesn’t mean that we are completely there, but I believe that this model of working together is worthy of emulation.”

And it appears there will be plenty of opportunities to emulate the interdisciplinary program based in the College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences and the College of Forest Resources. Little said that 11 tribes have asked to participate in STEP after hearing about the successful inaugural year with the Quinault Nation.

The program, which receives funding from the Washington Sea Grant and the Office of the Vice Provost in addition to the Quinault Nation, was designed to help students from predominantly American Indian communities develop job skills. It also introduces the students to the University and illustrates how a college education can lead to a career in natural resources. It sounds simple enough, but for the students it has opened up a new world.

“My favorite part was the snorkeling,” Jo Payne said while keeping one eye focused on a Power Point presentation he was creating to document the group’s experience. “I sucked in a lot of water, but that’s OK. It was something I had never done before and that’s pretty much what this whole trip has been. Everything is a new experience for all of us.”

To illustrate the point, Payne, who will be a senior next year at Forks High School, turned to one of his classmates: “Had you ever been snorkeling or trawling before?” Like Payne, the young student hadn’t. “See.”

In fact, most of the seven students have never been away from home for an extended period. The institute ran from June 7 to June 30, with visits to the UW’s Big Beef Creek Research Center at Hood Canal and Pack Forest Research Center near Eatonville, as well as a week-and-a-half stay in the dorms on the Seattle campus.

While in Seattle the students compiled data collected in the field for reports that were filed with various groups, including a final presentation to friends and family from the Quinault Nation. They even developed a STEP Web site that will launch soon.

Despite their relative inexperience, the students completed a mapping project of Big Beef Creek and the Hood Canal. When they weren’t exploring the waters with snorkeling gear, the students were learning how to trawl and seine to collect samples and explore the underwater environment. It was all part of an experience that expanded on the work-study aspect of STEP that students completed during the school year.

Little incorporated the work-study aspect at the suggestion of leaders within the Quinault community. They said work study - which included two days per week of paid work in a hatchery on the Quinault reservation, while going to school full time - would show students that they could earn money and not have to depend on the government or the tribe. Additionally, it gave them real-world applications for the science and math they were studying in school.

One student, Amber Pickett, used the work-study experience to propel her to the UW on a Gates Foundation scholarship. Most of the other STEP students attended the summer institute, where they got a taste of the campus life that awaits Pickett.

“I loved it,” Jordan Curley, who is about to enter his sophomore year at Tahola High School, said. “Being away from home and being able to experience new things has been great. I got a good feel for how it is to be on your own.”

Little wasn’t surprised to see the students successfully complete the work, but she was impressed with their diligence.

“The way they continued to rise to the occasion was impressive,” she said. “If I said to be someplace by 7:30 in the morning, they were there early and ready to go. Every day they faced an extremely high learning curve, but they remained on task and engaged. I’ve been around lots of groups of high school kids and this was one of the most focused I can remember.”

And that led to positive results. Little said that one “huge goal” of the program was to encourage students to prepare for higher education. After getting Pickett to the UW on a Gates Foundation scholarship, Little thinks the program is well on its way to helping others too.

“Each of the students is now much more focused and goal oriented. They each have a road map they have designed for their pursuit of higher education.” ¶

Steve Hill