My Story
Collaborating with Indigenous nations on ecological resilience
NRT student Alexis Chavez is concerned about climate change and even more so about people who may get left behind in progress toward stopping it.
"That's where I'm most motivated to try to be able to assist or at least give more voice to the people who might be left behind within that transition to a greener or cleaner world," he says.
Chavez is collaborating with three tribes in Nebraska and Kansas, seeking their leadership on climate and environmental issues. He is quick to clarify that this joint effort will be led by the tribes.
"It needs to be the people who know most about their environment and their communities, since they have been there for hundreds of years, they should be at the forefront, in my opinion, of how we build a resilient United States or resilient Nebraska or resilient wherever the group is located," he says.
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NRT student presents at AMS in Brazilian collaboration
While the pandemic closed some doors, NRT master's student Alexis Chavez found it opened others, like an international collaboration he established during his first semester at Nebraska and a consequent presentation to the American Meteorological Society.
Chavez worked with three graduate students in Brazil entirely online from August to December 2020 to research the effect of climate on soybean production. The four presented their findings at the AMS annual meeting on January 11, 2021.
"The AMS organization is a pretty prestigious organization for the climate and meteorological field,” Chavez said. “My advisor, Dr. Mike Hayes, said it is definitely a good view, my being a master’s student and already getting that experience of working internationally and being able to present in a prestigious meeting."
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