Students Exploring New Frontiers cont.

successful Native American students and attempts to identify key factors of success, including mentors, motivation and cultural influences.

“Being an astronaut gets you in the door with the kids,” Herrington said. “But if you really want to make a difference you have to be able to say, ‘Here’s what the issues are, and here’s what the solutions are as I see them.’ You need the advanced degree. You need that credibility.”

Herrington, as a member of the Chickasaw Nation, was the first enrolled member of a Native American tribe to go into space when he was onboard the space shuttle Endeavor when it made a mission in 2002 to the International Space Station.

Now retired from NASA, academic work is his focus.

“I think that’s where my responsibility is in the second half of my life – to motivate students, to inspire them,” Herrington said. “They can do something that they dream about doing, but they have to realize that there’s a path that they have to follow to get there. And it’s not an easy path, but it’s a path that’s realistic, and can happen, if you put forth your best effort and listen to people.”

Katie Taylor, doctoral student in education with an emphasis in exercise science and health, received a $2,665 Gatorade Sports Science Institute’s Student Grant. The funding will go toward Taylor’s dissertation research, which examines the relationships between physical activity, quality of life and resilience in people with inflammatory bowel diseases.

The Department of Movement Sciences Exercise Science and Health team won the American College of Sports Medicine Northwest Chapter Student Knowledge Bowl championship on Feb. 28 in Bend, Ore. Devin Drummer, Mac Kenzie Schneider and Bradley Kruger competed against 28 other teams to win the regional competition. They will now compete at the nationals.