UNITY Youth Highlight
Indigenous leadership in STEM became more visible to Thorn Grove through a conference experience shared with fellow North Carolina State University students. From October 18–22, 2023, he attended the American Indian Science and Engineering Society conference in Spokane, Washington, with members of the university’s Native American Student Association.
The conference brought together several kinds of learning. Grove heard Indigenous leaders working in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, attended workshops, and explored a college and career fair. Those settings connected academic interests with people and opportunities beyond the classroom.
Grove served as Southeast Representative in UNITY’s 2023–2024 National UNITY Council Executive Committee cohort. That cohort connects regional youth councils and individual members, represents Native youth perspectives, and develops leadership through cooperation and community service. His AISES experience added educational and career exploration to that broader leadership development.
“Attending the conference showed me the heavy involvement and leadership Indigenous peoples hold in the field of STEM and the opportunities that await after college,” Grove wrote in his January 23 report.
Attending with the Native American Student Association gave the experience a shared foundation. Alongside peers connected through campus community, he could encounter professional pathways and hear from Indigenous people already working in those fields. His report also acknowledged North Carolina State’s Women and Minority Engineering Programs in connection with the trip.
The college and career fair offered a practical complement to the speakers and workshops: a place to explore where education might lead. For a young leader balancing campus involvement and regional service, that exposure linked personal planning with a wider understanding of Indigenous participation in STEM.
Grove’s related fall reports describe outreach at the Lumbee Tribe’s Dance of the Harvest Moon Powwow and participation in the National Congress of American Indians convention. Together, those experiences show leadership development happening across community, education, and tribal affairs.
The AISES conference contributed a distinct part of that picture. It reinforced that Native identity and technical ambition can grow together and gave Grove examples of Indigenous leadership to consider as he prepared for opportunities beyond college.
