Event links American Indians to health professions

Connecting Native American college students to health and sciences professions, and informing non-Native American health-science students about issues related to Native American health are the goals of a half-day symposium on Friday, Nov. 7, at the Pyle Center.

The American Indian Health and Science Symposium will feature researchers and graduate students involved in American-Indian health and science in communities around the state.

While most attendees likely will be from Wisconsin, some are traveling from Alaska, says one of the symposium’s organizers, Renee Engle, an Eastern Cherokee research assistant and third-year Ph.D. student in the Laboratory of Genetics.

At least 50 American Indian college students from Wisconsin will attend, including groups from the College of Menominee Nation, Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College and UW-Stevens Point.

The symposium starts at noon with a complimentary lunch and goes until 4 p.m. Jan Saiz, an elder American Indian who works for a Madison health clinic, will give the blessing at 1 p.m. A panel discussion at 2:30 p.m. features Engle, two Native American medical students, a Native American pharmacy student and a Hawaiian physical-therapy student. They will discuss health issues and their educational paths.

Several campus units, including admissions, the medical, nursing and pharmacy schools, and the American Indian Studies Program, will staff information tables. Native American Research Centers for Health will describe its programs, and researchers will share findings related to Native American health.

Attendees also can learn about health issues. “Native Americans are more susceptible to certain diseases and problems,” Engle says. “Native Americans have a high incidence of obesity, diabetes, alcoholism, smoking and nutritional problems.”

The symposium will help non- Native American students gain cultural competency, says co-organizer Effie Siomos, a second-year medical student. “It’s helpful for health science students to learn about different cultures, to understand that not everyone comes from the same place.”

“As individuals learn about Native American groups and health-related problems, they can begin to think about devising culturally specific strategies to intervene for change,” says exhibitor Joann Pritchett, assistant to the dean and director of the Minority Affairs Program in the School of Pharmacy, and a member of the Native American Health Working Group.

Organizers also want to encourage American-Indian college students to think about science as a career, says Engle, co-chair of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. AISES, which has grown from six to 21 student members in two years, tries to make the Madison campus comfortable by providing a network. To that end, the group’s members are hosting students from out of town so they can spend the night, Engle says, and they are coordinating with the student group Wunk Sheek, which is having a Veterans Day powwow that night.

The event is co-produced by American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, Native American Research Centers for Health, UW–Madison American Indian Studies Program, UW–Madison Native American Health Working Group, Wisconsin Public Health and Health Policy Institute, and the Southwest Wisconsin Area Health Education Center. It is sponsored by the UW Medical School.