June 21, 2003

Last modified June 21, 2003 - 1:16 am

A matter of degrees

Stories By MARY PICKETT
Photos By DAVID GRUBBS
Of The Gazette Staff

Ricarda Foote Hanson laughs when she talks about the dancing fruit flies that she watched through a microscope while doing research at Montana State University in Bozeman.

But the research - and what she learned - was a serious and important part of her education.

Hanson's work with fruit flies was part of a study on insect pheromones through the Initiative for Minority Student Development program while she was a student at MSU. The program is part of the American Indian Research Opportunities program that encourages Indian students to enter careers in science and math.

While growing up in Lame Deer, Hanson always enjoyed math and science classes. She was drawn specifically to biology because few Native Americans were in the field.

"I thought it would be good to be one of the first," Hanson said.

After graduating from Colstrip High School as a valedictorian, she went to Black Hills State University in Spearfish, S.D., her mother's alma mater, and then to Dawson Community College in Glendive.

At Dawson, she earned two, two-year degrees and played basketball before heading to MSU to study biology, earning a bachelor's degree in 2001. In addition to the insect pheromone study, she also worked on a project that set up a Web site on diabetes.

Hanson now is a transition counselor at Dull Knife Memorial College who helps students move on to other schools after completing a Dull Knife degree.

This summer, she has been teaching a class on the biology of the cell and is working on a master's degrees in science and science education through MSU. After getting her master's degree, she would like to teach biology full-time.

Hanson is one of several MSU graduates who are using knowledge they learned through AIRO.

AIRO programs helped deepen Charlene Johnson's understanding of biomedicine and gave her an opportunity to do research.

Johnson started a pre-engineering program at the University of Montana before switching to nutrition, a decision that led her to MSU and a 1988 bachelor's degree.

Her AIRO experience was helping a professor compiling information about the prevalence of diabetes on Montana reservations. She presented the information at a conference and was listed as a contributor in a professional article on the study, both experiences that polished her resume.

She later got a master's degree at the University of North Carolina.

Johnson now is a public health nutritionist at the Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital at Crow Agency, where she does everything from advising diabetic patients about a proper diet to talking with cooks at a local day care about the best foods for growing children.

Johnson, who grew up at Crow Agency, brings a cultural sensitivity to her work.

Speaking at the day care about the importance of the children getting milk with each meal, she said that she has been asked by her Crow patients why they should drink milk because it was not part of the traditional diet that their ancestors ate. She tells them that most contemporary diets on the reservation aren't prepared as traditional foods were and that a good source of calcium, such as milk, is important to everyone.

Colleen Fisher-White Clay received a nursing degree from MSU in 1991.

An enrollmed member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, she decided on nursing while a student at Little Bighorn College because she realized that it would blend her interest in science and service to people.

While at LBC, she became part of a program through AIRO that paired students with MSU faculty mentors in Bozeman. The program brought her to the Bozeman campus several times and introduced her to biological research.

"I consider it to be a stepping stone," she said about the program. "It gave me a feel for college life in Bozeman."

Going to school and staying there wasn't easy for Fisher-White Clay, who had a young family.

But, with support from the AIRO program, a scholarship from Indian Health Service, a helpful adviser, the Indian Club and the Advance by Choice program that offered counseling and tutoring, she graduated.

Since then, she has worked for the IHS in Browning, Crow Agency and now Lame Deer.

Once the recipient of mentoring programs, she now mentors young nurses in the Caring for Our Own program.

Her job is rewarding because her work improves people's lives.

A podiatry clinic in Lame Deer, in which she assists Billings podiatrist Andrew Wolfe, is one example.

After being treated through that clinic, an ulcer on Regis Little Bear's foot healed, enabling him to wear regular shoes for the first time in many years.

After receiving orthotics for her shoes, an elderly patient danced out the door because her feet felt so good.

Mary Pickett may be reached at 657-1262 or at mpickett@billingsgazette.com.