By Chris Warren (Winds of Change magazine, American Indian Science and Engineering Society)
In recent years, Leona Anderson’s focus has been on diversity and inclusion and expanding opportunities for Native students. Among other things, Anderson is a founding member of the Boeing Native American Network for the Mesa site, and a member of the its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council. In her years at Boeing, she has forged a strong partnership with AISES and ensured the company has a conspicuous presence each year at the AISES National Conference. But her advocacy for outreach and recruitment of Native students goes well beyond the conference. Anderson has secured over $30,000 for scholarships and another $30,000 to purchase laptops for students who live on reservations.
More recently, Anderson spearheaded a pilot program for Mesa’s Boeing Native American Network team that brings Boeing’s DreamLearners paper airplane STEM build to Native students across the state. The program provides students with hands-on instruction about the basic elements of flight and what it takes to build an airplane — from the engineers who need to understand lift, weight, drag, and thrust as well as financing and supply chains. Students at Pechanga Chámmakilawish School in Temecula, Calif., were the first to experience the DreamLearners program, and Anderson plans to offer monthly events for other Native schools across Arizona.
Anderson has spent her life and career helping others. But her advice to Native students emphasizes the role they play in helping themselves by pursuing their education. “Education is something that can’t be taken away from me,” she says. “Sometimes it’s a struggle to go through high school, but you have to continue on to higher education because it’s the key to success.”
American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) is a national, nonprofit organization focused on substantially increasing the representation of Native peoples in STEM studies and careers. Their magazine, Winds of Change, provides a single-minded focus on career and educational advancement for all Indigenous people in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
This article originally appears on the Winds of Change website.
