Sovereign Bodies Institute (SBI) maintains the largest and most comprehensive database of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in the US and Canada. Due to the high number of cases and the desire to have comprehensive information on each individual case, we were honored to work with SBI to compile case files for 107 MMIWG in Northern California. SBI will use this information to have a clearer picture of what is known, what is unknown, and what has been written about or publicly shared about each missing or murdered Indigenous women and girls in Northern California.

The Radical Leadership Developed is a research and curriculum project aimed to assist these, and other groups, in adopting a leadership program based the interview of 23 HSU students leaders during the academic year 2016-2017. Based on in-depth, face-to-face interview, the researchers developed a 12 week leadership program aimed at students . The purpose of the project was two-fold: (1)t o learn from students leaders which leadership skills and knowledge helped the most while participating in social, cultural and political activities while attending HSU; and (2) to develop a 12-week curriculum to develop the next generation of students leaders.

The Junior Monitor project aimed to promote social and emotional learning and peer conflict resolution at Alice Birney Elementary and Lafayette Elementary through the implementation of an eight-week curriculum consisting of once-weekly 30-minute group sessions. The curriculum was designed in collaboration with my project partner, community partner, and school principals. It was focused on using restorative justice practices, relational accountability, and peer mentoring to address conflict on the playground.

I will analyze the way people in marginalized communities, specifically those who do not identify as Black, internalize the “N” word through the lyrics of music in hip hop. Although those in similar systems of oppression relate to the the word’s connotation, it does not entitle anyone who does not identify as Black to use the “N” word. Through ethnomusicology paired with metalinguistics, I conclude that hip hop should diversify the industry with artists from different social positions to represent other minorities, leaving room for marginalized groups to create artifacts that directly represent their day-to-day experiences in this oppressive society without having to use the “N” word.

This project partnered with the Indian Tribal and Educational Personnel Program (ITEPP) to gather qualitative data regarding the strengths and challenges in the existing resources and services offered to Native foster youth (NFY) in Humboldt County. The intended goals were to use Indigenous research methods to 1. Build connections between community agencies serving NFY in order to create a stronger network of support; 2. Strengthen support for NFY that can carry on throughout their collegiate experience and facilitate their eventual degree completion; 3. Provide a model of practice for other campuses seeking to strengthen resources and pathways to higher education success for NFY.

The bulk of archaeological notes taken in the field are hand-written, with pencil-sketched maps and diagrams, varying widely in legibility, clarity, and completeness of information. While this last point cannot easily be fixed in post, the former two can be through the development of a comprehensive “style guide” and tutorial for the digitization of archaeological field notes—using the free design program “Inkscape.” The guide is designed to be internally consistent and easily comprehensible, usable even by those with no experience with either the programs or raw data involved, guiding the user along the process of rendering previously inconsistent field data into a uniform visual style.

The song Travessia (1967) is the title track on brazilian singer-songwriter Milton Nascimento's first studio album. The portuguese title translates to "bridges," which Nascimento used to sum up the transition felt during heartbreak. In 1980, brazilian jazz guitarist Paulinho Nogueira played a version of the Travessia on solo guitar with an additional intro. I found the music to Nogueira's version but I there were two main challenges in playing it on vibraphone: I needed to transpose the piece from E to F and I needed to find a way to express six-note guitar chords with four mallets. This piece was an immense challenge, but that felt like a slight inconvenience compared the joy it gave me.

Did you know our solid waste doesn't reside with us here in Humboldt County? We didn't either. In fact, it's actually trucked, container by container, about 280 miles south to a landfill in Solano County. Through our service-learning partnership with Zero Waste Humboldt, and collaboration with Humboldt Waste Management Authority and Recology, we are producing public service announcements and other media messages to communicate inclusive and effective solutions by cultivating a community of stakeholders in our shared environment. We intend to provoke community members, businesses, and organizations of Humboldt County to reexamine the responsibilities that come with the waste we produce.

STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) programs for children is a well known concept to encourage more students to pursue education and careers in such fields, but what is missing from this? Art! The Arcata Afterschool Program in Humboldt County has taken the initiative to implement STEAM activities into their program to show that art and creative forms of expression is just as important of a field as STEM. As a part of our Service Learning project, we felt that environmental education with art was something we wanted to gain more experience with and decided to create our own lesson plans to develop our skills and teach a new kind of pedagogy to children in our community.

This project highlights the service learning project completed with the Humboldt County Office of Education community partner. More specifically their Redwood EdVentures Quests. These Quests are scavenger hunts that, with the help of interpretive learning clues, lead you through many of the North Coast parks and other nature trails. Not only do the quests add value to the specific quest locations, these quests create a space for childhood wonder and discovery of natural systems inspiring them to have a more harmonious relationship with their environment. On a deeper level, these quests foster ideas of environmental and social interdependence, shared leadership, and transformation.