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2006 College Interns

Photograph of three women and three men standing outdoors with a rock spire behind them.

Pictured left to right in the Navajo Nation (Monument Valley, Utah): Thom Sacco, Terry Battiest, Jonathan Biron, Sandra Begay-Campbell, Lani Tsinnajinnie, and Deborah Tewa.

"The overall internship experience went far beyond my expectations because of the inclusive, hands-on, and professional nature that I was able to experience ... This internship was one that I will never forget; from the pristine landscape to the lives the renewable systems impacted; this has been an educational and memorable experience that will help guide me through my future endeavors." — Jonathan Biron, 2006.

"I am very fortunate and thankful to have participated in the Tribal Energy Program Student Internship ... The most important benefit of this internship for me is that it has given me a peek at what I want to do professionally in the future. It has always been my goal to work with Tribes in helping strengthen Native Nations and caring for the environment as well. I definitely felt that I experienced doing some of that through this internship. I feel that I have a lot to look forward to in the future in working with Native people, especially with developing renewable energy." — Lani Tsinnajinnie, 2006.

The following intern papers are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.

  • Terry Battiest (Choctaw) — Graduate student in Telecommunications, University of Colorado - Boulder; BS Industrial Engineering. For more, see his presentation, Enhancing Monitoring and Reporting of Residential Renewable Energy Systems on the Navajo Nation (PDF 566 KB).

  • Lani Tsinnajinnie (Navajo) — Undergraduate student majoring in Environmental Science, University of New Mexico. For more, see her paper, Benefits of Renewable Energy for Native Nations from the Environmental and Native Perspective (PDF 401 KB).

  • Jonathan Biron (Chippewa) — Undergraduate majoring in Engineering, Michigan State University. For more, see his paper, Tribal Renewable Energy Integration: An Analysis of Current Tribal Infrastructure (PDF 739 KB).