In August, St. Francis High School and American Indian Education (AIE) students Olivia Hagerty and Clayton Reintjes completed their paid summer internship at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve by hosting a summer showcase.
“The internship is a great opportunity to learn more about our culture and it’s fun to get all the knowledge,” Hagerty said. “I've actually been going here for field trips since I was in fifth grade. I think just because I've been here, like most of my life, I thought this was a cool opportunity. It was really cool to see how far we came this summer.”
The showcase at the Cedar Creek Reserve highlighted what they learned about the connection between the Indigenous culture and the prairie’s plants and animals. The event also included family-friendly activities, a scavenger hunt and crafts.
The primary goal of the internship is to create something on site that helps bring a native perspective into the reserve. The main attraction was Hagerty and Reintjes’ project, which were touch boxes that included a shoulder bone, bison fur, turkey feather, snake skin, a bird's nest and a skull. Each box was labeled in the Ojibwe language and then people put their hand into the box to guess what the item was. Then when the item was revealed, the English label was on the inside of the box. View photos from the showcase event.
“Once they settled on creating the boxes, they just ran with it,” said Kara Baldwin, the Education and Community Engagement Coordinator at the reserve. “It was a really fun time for them to explore and learn based on what they wanted to learn about.”
The internship for SFHS AIE students at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve has been around for four years. The students worked every Monday this summer and it included insightful field trips around the twin cities.
“The Bdote Field Trip was a one-of-a-kind experience,” Reintjes said. “I enjoyed learning from real Dakota people and hearing the stories that were passed down.”
Field trips to the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve for all levels of district students has been happening through the AIE program for many years and now has grown to provide the paid internship opportunity for high school students in the summer.