Clarkson Magazine

Clarkson AISES Chapter Celebrates 25 Years

In 1980, Clarkson established the first collegiate chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society in the country.

AISES at Clarkson past presidents
Laura Weber '86 and Jason Herne '94
at the Region Six Conference.

Last April, AISES at Clarkson celebrated its silver anniversary and hosted the AISES Region Six conference in honor of the people and commitment that have ensured the Clarkson chapter's success.

"I was a transfer student in chemical engineering at Clarkson and I joined AISES my junior year," recalled Laura Weber '86. "It had a transforming effect on me. For the first time I felt I had a support system. Here were people who cared about me and my future. They believed I could achieve my goals and because of their faith in me I stayed focused and on track." Weber, the director of Solid Waste Management for the Environmental Division of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, was one of dozens of alumni who returned to Potsdam this spring for the AISES at Clarkson Chapter's 25 th anniversary celebration.

Jason Herne '94 (Business Administration), also of Akwesasne heritage, traveled from Raleigh, North Carolina, where he works in human resources for the Lord Corporation. "It was important to me to be here. AISES enhanced my academic experience at Clarkson and connected me, for the first time really, to my Native American heritage."

Conference participant Lloyd
Elm (Onondaga) presents
"Education Alternatives Have
Been A Long Time Coming"
while attendee Richelle R.
Tarris '98 listens in on the
discussion.

Clarkson formed the country's very first collegiate chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society in 1980. The national organization had been established three years earlier by American Indian scientists, engineers and educators in response to unacceptable high school dropout rates, low college enrollment and graduation, and the underrepresentation of American Indians in the science and engineering professions.

In honor of Clarkson's pioneering role in AISES, the University was selected to host this year's Region Six Conference, "Seven Generations: Past, Present & Future." At the two-day conference, some 150 American Indian college and high school students, educators and professionals from Canada and 12 Northeastern states participated in workshops and lectures. The opening ceremony featured remarks by Sean Bennett, associate vice president of Institutional Diversity Initiatives and Pipeline Programs at Clarkson, and the Thanksgiving address was presented in Mohawk by two elementary school children from the Freedom School at Akwesasne. A.D. Cropper, technology development manager for the Electronic & Sensor Products (E&SP) Center of Excellence at ITT Corporation, delivered the keynote address.

A panel discussion on the history of AISES National and AISES at Clarkson was a highlight of the conference. Clarkson alumni, including founding members and former chapter presidents, shared memories of their chapter's unique history and paid tribute to its founder and champion, former Dean of Students Ed Misiaszek. Norbert Hill '96 (Honorary Degree), executive director of the American Indian Graduate Center and former AISES national director, and Teresa Gomez, Deputy Director, AISES National Office, also participated.

IBM representative Brock
Arnold '03 (Mohawk) works
with a secondary school
student as part of an IBM-
sponsored robotics project
for junior high and high school
students who attended the
conference.

"Ed Misiaszek had been directly responsible for bringing Native American students to Clarkson and he was the force behind AISES," recalled Carol Manning '83, of Seneca heritage and the Clarkson chapter's first president. "We held our first meeting in the spring of 1980 and Andy Anderson, AISES co-founder and national office president, attended. We initially had eight members and we organized a big campus-wide launch. I had a lot of opportunities because of AISES and Ed. He helped me get engineering-related jobs during summer breaks and introduced me to companies, jobs and people so that when I graduated I had about a dozen job offers."

Manning ultimately chose to join Kodak, rising to the position of Software Quality Manager and becoming a corporate recruiter for Clarkson, before taking time off to raise her children. She is now a mathematics teacher at Brockport High School. She credits AISES with providing leadership opportunities that were invaluable to her professional and personal development. "As a student at Clarkson I attended leadership conferences sponsored by the national organization and later I served on the national board of AISES for four years so I was exposed to budgeting, managing and problem solving. When I was a supervisor and project manager I could use these skills."

Today, Clarkson AISES chapter members are involved in outreach work in the nearby community. "We do a lot of volunteer work at the Akwesasne Reservation and mentor high school students," explains current Clarkson AISES president Stephen Mt. Pleasant, a graduating senior in mechanical engineering. "On campus we co-host workshops and activities with the Clarkson chapters of the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers, the Society of Professional Women, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers."