Environmental Science undergraduate student, Precious Yellow Fat has recently been accepted to the 2024 Montana Tech Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. The program is a 10-week immersive research experience opportunity for students with a desire for a career in a STEM field related to characterizing or solving environmental issues. This is the 2nd Annual event for the Montana Tech REU program and is available to freshman through junior year college students from anywhere in the United States. Students will participate in trainings and workshops and receive hands-on research experience in Butte, Montana to gain professional development in laboratory skills and safety, presenting, writing and other foundational science skills. Students will be able to travel and learn about different environmental sampling techniques to conduct research of their own and present a poster of their findings at the end of the program.
Precious Yellow Fat, Thate Wakan Win (Sacred Wind Woman) is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and is currently an Environmental Science student at Sitting Bull College. She is on the pathway to earn her bachelor’s degree in May 2025 and plans to utilize her educational experiences for the future betterment of her tribe’s communities and environment. She is looking forward to the upcoming research experiences and feels as though it will be beneficial to her professional development and serve as an excellent way to broaden her horizons to put her in touch with more educational and career opportunities for her future. Students participating in the NSF REU research program are set to gain real world experience in modern research methods in a wide range of environmentally related science and engineering projects. The program also offers field trips that explore environmental concepts at beautiful locations such as Yellowstone National Park and visit the Berkeley Pit in Butte Montana as well as Philipsburg, a historic mining town.
With her love for the outdoors and research skills acquired during her time in the undergraduate program at SBC, the REU program will add to her skill set so that she can then incorporate these learned experiences and ideas to her future research projects. In addition to this, she will also be able to network with other students to share experiences about environmental issues that they encounter from their areas of the US. This can lead to possible collaborations for the future that will give students new perspectives to help work on these environmental issues and possibly give them innovative ideas for their own projects. She hopes to one day be able to mentor and provide services to students in the Environmental Science Program so that others are able to learn more about the opportunities available for them. She believes that students benefit from each other when they’re able to connect and wants others to be proud of their cultural heritage as they maneuver between Indigenous and Western worldviews on the environment and education.