OLC Bridge Program Recap

Summer Research Institutes provide Native American students an opportunity to complete an introductory STEM course and conduct hands-on research for four weeks during the summer. Students participating and completing the institute receive a $1,000 stipend from SD EPSCoR. 

Pictured: The 2024 Bridge Program Project Symposium students pictured on June 14 in the main Piya Wiconi administration building at OLC. 

The Oglala Lakota College (OLC) Bridge Program helps high school students engage in authentic, hands-on interdisciplinary research experiences integrating Lakota ways of knowing during the summer. At the end of the program, students present a poster at the Bridge Program Project Symposium that took place Friday, June 14 at OLC. 

The symposium offered a Lakota style lunch of buffalo soup, fry bread, wojapi, and other finger foods for lunch during the symposium. Way to go to OLC staff and students with participating in the Bridge Program. 

Pictures from a field trip day to Badlands National Park for the Oglala Lakota College Bridge Program students. They learned about biology, geology, and paleontology during that outing. 

Pictured: Bridge Program mentor, Ben Shreves, teaches students about the Scientific Method (Western Science) integrated with Indigenous Knowledge.

Pictures of the Bridge Program provided by Dana Gehring, Professor of Biology and Chair of Math, Science, and Technology at OLC.