Release Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
By Brooke Tidwell, Media Relations Specialist
Chickasaw Nation Media Relations Office
Oklahoma State University is seeking participants for the Native Explorers Summer Program June 20-July 3 at the OSU Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa, Okla. The program provides education and training for Native American college students in the disciplines of anatomy and vertebrate paleontology as well as introductory education in osteopathic medicine.
The Native Explorers program is primarily a scientific expedition offering participants an opportunity to learn about ice-age vertebrate fossils, such as saber-toothed cats and mammoths and vertebrates that lived during the cretaceous period.
The summer program begins with three days of lab activities, exploring anatomy, comparing diseased and normal organs, preparing fossil specimens, reading topographical maps and learning how to use a compass and GPS units. These activities are in preparation for a 10-day field excursion at various sites in the Manti-La Sal National Forest in Utah where students will work side-by-side with OSU faculty in prospecting and collecting fossils.
"OSU is honored to offer this program, thanks to the generosity of the Whitten-Newman Foundation," says Kent Smith, Ph.D., OSU associate professor of anatomy. "We believe this unique opportunity to integrate anatomy, paleontology and medicine with lab and field activities will serve as a stepping stone to recruit more Native American students to study science as well as provide insight into related career opportunities."
The Native Explorers program is designed to promote and increase the number of Native Americans in the fields of science and medicine. Officials will select six students, undergraduate and graduate-level, to participate. Students may earn three hours of college credit. All expenses paid.
Application deadline is April 2, 2010. To obtain an application and for more information, visit
www.healthsciences.okstate.edu/college/native_explorers or contact Kent Smith at 918-561-8246 or
kent.smith@okstate.edu.
