The American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) has recognized 桃色视频 as one of the top 200 colleges for Indigenous students in its 2024-2025 national rankings.

, a national organization dedicated to increasing Indigenous representation in STEM fields, evaluated schools based on the strength of their support programs for Native students, as well as undergraduate enrollment and graduation rates.

The AISES chapter at 桃色视频 serves as a community for Indigenous students in the College of Engineering and Applied Science and across campus, connecting those interested in STEM and supporting them academically and professionally. This recognition reflects 桃色视频鈥檚 commitment to fostering an environment where Indigenous students can thrive in STEM鈥攁 commitment embodied by the leaders of its AISES chapter.

Noelle Bagola, the chapter鈥檚 treasurer, said  her journey with AISES has empowered her professionally and personally.

鈥淏eing part of AISES allowed me to grow as a leader,鈥� she said.

Through her involvement, Bagola developed skills in areas she once found challenging, like connecting with professionals at conferences and building strong peer relationships.

鈥淣ow, I feel confident communicating with people and stepping up to help others. Becoming a leader has been my biggest accomplishment with AISES.鈥�

For Shellene Redhorse, AISES chapter president and a third-year aerospace engineering student, the chapter鈥檚 impact extends beyond 桃色视频鈥檚 campus.

鈥淎 lot of what AISES does is about supporting our members and the Indigenous community,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he Indigenous community at 桃色视频 may be small, and the STEM students within that community are even more rare, but we are here.鈥�

One of her proudest achievements was taking students to this year鈥檚 national AISES conference in San Antonio, where they connected with other Native scientists. Redhorse also highlighted the chapter鈥檚 outreach to Indigenous students in Denver, where they host hands-on STEM activities, including rocketry demonstrations at Lake Middle School.

鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping to inspire middle-schoolers by showing them what a future in STEM could look like,鈥� she said.

鈥淲hen I was in school, I didn鈥檛 think a STEM career was possible for me until I got to work on hands-on projects. I know many Native students don鈥檛 have those opportunities, so we鈥檙e working to change that.鈥�

Looking forward, AISES aims to establish a more permanent support network for Native students in Denver, opening more pathways into STEM fields.

Indigenous Knowledge and STEM

Both Bagola and Redhorse draw from Indigenous knowledge to inform their approach to STEM.

Redhorse, who is of Navajo (Din茅) and Chickasaw descent, described how her cultural heritage shapes her engineering perspective.

鈥淚n our culture, we observe nature closely鈥攈ow animals act, how weather patterns shift, even how the stars guide us. Our ancestors used this knowledge for everything from growing crops to building structures,鈥� she said.

Inspired by these traditions, she incorporates Indigenous wisdom into school projects.

鈥淚 remember building a small rover in sixth grade based on how a beetle moved away from light. It鈥檚 that respect for nature and deep observation that really inspires me.鈥�

Redhorse often reflects on Navajo understandings of stars and space, which she sees as especially relevant to her studies in aerospace. She also appreciates Indigenous approaches to sustainability, noting how Native architecture adapts to harsh climates in environmentally mindful ways.

鈥淲hether it鈥檚 the way water moves around structures or how a hogan鈥攁 traditional dwelling and ceremonial structure鈥攔etains heat, these hold incredible value in my engineering work.鈥�

Bagola, an integrative physiology student and a member of the Navajo (Din茅) and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes, finds similar connections in her field.

鈥淔or us, health is not just physical鈥攊t鈥檚 about mind, spirit, and experience,鈥� she explained.

鈥淚ndigenous medicine, like using sweat lodges, plays an important role in healing. Staying connected with your spirit is essential to being truly healthy.鈥�

Community and Advice for Indigenous STEM Students

鈥淎ISES is a really welcoming community for Native students here at CU,鈥� Redhorse said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a safe space where we can connect, share and rejuvenate. Our meetings are open to anyone, you don鈥檛 have to be Native. We welcome anyone who wants to learn about our culture and support us.鈥�

• American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES)
• Native American Law Students Association
• Center for Native American & Indigenous Students (CNAIS)
  • Undergraduate Certificate
  • Graduate Certificate

Like Bagola, Redhorse also said her involvement with AISES has helped her grow as a leader. Recently, she was invited to welcome the keynote speakers at 桃色视频鈥檚 Indigenous Peoples鈥� Day plenary event鈥攁 role she could not have imagined for herself as a first-year student.

Chantal Baca, academic services manager for the BOLD Center, has served as the AISES faculty advisor for the past academic year. She noted the inclusive community for Indigenous students and credits AISES鈥� executive student board and members over the last five years.

鈥淭he AISES chapter is a remarkable group of student leaders who embody the vision, achievement and STEM student success,鈥� said Baca. 鈥淭heir membership has made a significant impact in the College of Engineering and Applied Science.鈥�

Student leaders offer heartfelt advice to Indigenous students interested in STEM.

鈥淚t鈥檚 OK to feel alone sometimes, but find your community, and don鈥檛 be afraid to ask for help,鈥� said Bagola. 鈥淛oining AISES helped me step out of my comfort zone, gain confidence and start reaching out to my professors and others in my field.鈥�

鈥淚n engineering, there were five women in a room of 50 students鈥攁nd being Native added another layer,鈥� said Redhorse. 鈥淏ut, I鈥檇 tell anyone in that position: keep going.鈥�

鈥淥ur people are resilient, and if you push through and find your community, you鈥檒l thrive.鈥�

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Sarah Gillis (AeroEngr鈥�17) is a lead space operations engineer and astronaut trainer at SpaceX with literal out-of-this-world experience.

The 桃色视频 alumna recently returned from a five-day orbital mission aboard which took astronauts further from Earth than any have traveled since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.

On Nov. 11, she spoke to students and community members in a special event at Fiske Planetarium.

A Boulder native, Gillis shared what life was like in space for the four-member crew and details of the science and engineering that brought them to orbit and safely home.

What it is like experiencing launch for the first time.

Intellectually, I had studied all the physical changes you go through going to space, but actually going through them is fascinating. For this one moment, you鈥檙e defying gravity as the rocket lifts off the pad and you start accelerating and accelerating. You get pushed into your seat. The Gs get to about 4.5. When you get to second engine cutoff and you鈥檙e just floating, you no longer have pressure pushing you into the seat 鈥� you have fluid in your face. You suddenly feel like when you鈥檙e a kid and you鈥檙e laying upside down off the bed.

There鈥檚 an adjustment period once you are in orbit.

Every crew member goes through this time on board where you鈥檙e adapting. The first two days are pretty hard in space. You鈥檙e figuring it out. You鈥檙e going through all the physiological changes. You have this brain fog; you have elevated fluid. You can have space motion sickness.

You鈥檙e probably not feeling your best, in all honesty. How you set up a timeline for crew members in space should account for that. You could not possibly have talked our crew into doing any less on our mission, but hindsight is definitely helpful, and it鈥檚 just a reality that it takes a bit of time for crew members to adapt.

Keep an eye on space while following your passions.

I always knew how unlikely it was to ever become an astronaut. The statistics are not in your favor right now at our point in human history. I do think that鈥檚 going to change in the very near future if SpaceX is successful in bringing Starship online. You go from having four people in a spacecraft to 100 people in a spacecraft. As you change those numbers, cost of access to space will go down, so the opportunities that will exist will look much different in next 10-15 years.

For me, knowing how unlikely it was, it was super important to find things I was genuinely interested in. That way, no matter what happening in life, I couldn鈥檛 be disappointed because I was doing things that were interesting and engaging and things I wanted to be pursuing. Follow your curiosity, and it will take you to extraordinary places.

The incredible complexity of designing a space suit from scratch.

It was about a 2.5-year development program where one day we would show up and we鈥檇 have the left shoulder rebuilt in a certain way. The next Monday we鈥檇 show up and they鈥檇 have a whole new elbow for us to try. Then we鈥檇 go and get in the simulator and understand what worked and what didn鈥檛 and really fed that into the design process of these suits. It was a pretty extraordinary development effort.

There were times that we were learning stuff that went against industry knowledge. One of the things we discovered pretty late was the risk of electrostatic discharge in the suits. That led to an entire deep dive into understanding material testing.

One of the last tests we did still on Earth was once the suit had gone through all sorts of iterations, we actually took them to a vacuum chamber at Johnson Space Center and we wore them in the vacuum chamber and ran through the entire depress and repress sequence. It was just an extraordinary test of competence into the suit, understanding what the pressure changes and temperature changes would feel like.

Moving in space without gravity to weigh you down creates challenges.

What鈥檚 so cool about moving in a pressurized suit is it鈥檚 really almost physical problem solving. You can only rotate your shoulder so many degrees, or you can only extend your arm so far in the suit. What that means is you have to make sure that a person of a certain stature can perform everything they need to in that pressurized environment. It was a really cool development process with SpaceX to figure out what new mobility aids we needed in the spacecraft. What additional handholds and footholds would be required to make sure we could accomplish all the tasks we needed to.

On flight day two we got pressurized in the suits and did a dry run (of the spacewalk). It was really fun to actually see how things worked, and what were the things we hadn鈥檛 accounted for. As soon as I went to the controls and interfaced with them, based on where my center of mass was, my feet would suddenly start rotating up, and so I had to find a whole new strategy for how to secure myself when I was at the displays and how to transition out from the displays.

Train for the worst day so you can experience the best day.

In training we had really prepared for every possible scenario we could come up with for the EVA (extravehicular activity). Really as much as we could use the imagination to prepare bad day scenarios, we had trained for them, and it was so smooth. You train for the worst day so you can actually experience the best day. The spacewalk went exactly as we had hoped.

There is so much we do not know about life in space.

We partnered with 31 institutions on 36 research experiments, a lot of which came from CU, which I was really excited about. Some of my former professors actually contributed experiments to the mission.

Overall, the research was really focused on experiments that needed human involvement, things that could benefit future life as we try and look toward Mars. There鈥檚 a lot of health issues that astronauts encounter over long duration, and this includes space motion sickness, and spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome.

Many astronauts do have degraded vision over time, and we don鈥檛 actually understand the mechanism at this point. It鈥檚 often associated with the fluid shift that happens where you suddenly have more fluid in your brain, but if we鈥檙e going to actually mitigate that and fix it in the future, we need to get to the heart of the cause, so we did a whole slew of experiments looking at different eye pressure and vision change data.

Re-entry is awesome.

It鈥檚 so, so cool to reenter Earth鈥檚 atmosphere. We start seeing a glow around the spacecraft at around 100 km. Then as you start to get lower you start to see these neon colors, pinks and oranges, and you actually see some of the sparks flying past the window. As you get lower in the atmosphere you start encountering turbulence with the different layers of the atmosphere. The thrusters are firing all around and it really feels like Dragon is clawing its way back into the atmosphere.

The mission does not end at splashdown.

We were picked up by the recovery vessel, and about 30 minutes later we climbed out of the spacecraft. We were checked out by the doctors before being flown by helicopter back to Kennedy Space Center, where we met our families. From there the mission wasn鈥檛 over, we had about a week of science and research and data collection post flight. We traveled to Houston pretty immediately for some high-density bone scans.

Trusting others with your life 鈥� teamwork is critical.

Human spaceflight is the ultimate team sport. It鈥檚 not only you have to have an extreme working relationship with the people on that mission 鈥� you are absolutely trusting them with your life to keep you safe. That extends to the people on the ground team as well, you have this entire team supporting you, and even more people behind the scenes beyond that.

As a trainer, I knew the technical side of Dragon and what you need to do to live and work in space, and what I found most interesting was in one of our early sims, the four of us go in the spacecraft, and we did terribly. We completely messed up the scenario. We were all going in different directions, chasing rabbit holes and ultimately just failed the simulation in so many ways. You have to learn how to work as a team.

It doesn鈥檛 matter what you bring to the team, you have to learn when to lead, when to follow, how you bring what you can contribute through a different lens because ultimately the success of the crew is what鈥檚 most important versus your own knowledge.

Seeing Earth from space changes you.

Seeing the Earth from that perspective cannot not change someone. All of our time here on Earth is so precious, your life is only so many hours overall. I have this immense appreciation for maximizing what we are here to do in this world. I think you certainly take calculated risks when you put yourself on a rocket and launch to space, or reenter the atmosphere. Those are all things that you have to believe that the risk is worth it for the benefit. It鈥檚 shifted my perspective a little bit on how cherished our time is with our family and our friends and what we鈥檙e here to do on this Earth. I鈥檓 still reflecting on it. I think it will continue to change me.

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