Rethinking Engineering: Why It Matters

My entire life, I never fit into the systems I was placed in. What I eventually learned was that my inability to fit was not a failure — it was information. And it was exactly why I shouldn’t. 

During the pandemic, I was a graduate student in Stanford’s School of Engineering. At the time, I lived in a small FEMA trailer on the reservation without running water. I wasn’t too far from my parents’ home, so I could easily fill a few buckets and haul water back to my house. I was also taking a class at Stanford called Water Systems for Developing Countries, and I was struggling to get through a problem set because I had COVID.

At night, after class, I would fill a small white plastic container and do my best to bathe. My Ina would deliver me food wrapped in aluminum foil — food I couldn’t taste — and coffee I couldn’t enjoy. I love coffee: the smell, the taste, the warmth it brings when I work on problem sets. At the same time, I would boil bear root tea, pray, and burn sage. My parents coached me to be mentally strong and to focus on prayer when things were hard. I did my best.

At night though, I would toss and turn on my bed of blankets on the floor, anxious about the problem set I needed to turn in — knowing it would probably be submitted late because my energy was focused on surviving. I also knew I had to continue my education, because it was one way I could offer solutions. I was determined.

Moments like that could have easily made me feel like a victim if I let them. Instead, I let moments like this teach me what I’m made of. I let moments like this build my spirit.

A few years later, I was invited back to Stanford’s Environment and Energy course to give a talk on Indigenous solutions in engineering. Since then, I traveled the world carrying forward a purpose-driven belief that meaningful change is possible. I’ve spoken on the floor of the United Nations, leveraging both my lived experience and academic training. I published numerous articles advocating for the elevation of Indigenous voices in global and planetary health.

STEM is a tool. And the Indigenous experience — our ways of being— is full of power, strength, and beauty. Together, they can change everything.

This blog exists to share another perspective on why we must rethink engineering. Rethinking engineering means placing an additional lens on the world’s most pressing climate and planetary challenges. It means not only acknowledging that Indigenous Science is innovation but acting on it and investing in it like our lives depend on it. Because for those like me, it does. 

I never fit because these systems were never designed to be sustainable. And that is exactly why my perspective belongs in reshaping them. 

Welcome to Rethinking Engineering on Anpoetry – stories that light change.