School of Language, Culture and Society

By Colin Bowyer, Communications Manager - April 10, 2026

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As countries race to reduce carbon emissions and expand renewable energy, hydropower is once again at the center of global energy debates. A new international review published in Nature Sustainability examines the rapidly changing landscape of hydropower development and outlines opportunities to improve how large dam projects are planned and governed worldwide.

The review, co-authored by Bryan Tilt, an anthropologist in the College of Liberal Arts’ School of Language, Culture, and Society, gathered an interdisciplinary team of scholars from Europe, North America, Asia, and Latin America, to assess the social, environmental, and political dynamics shaping today’s global boom in hydropower construction, particularly in the Global South.

Currently, more than 3,700 hydropower dams producing over one megawatt of electricity are currently planned or under construction worldwide, primarily in emerging economies. While hydropower remains one of the world’s largest sources of low‑carbon electricity, the authors emphasize that large dams continue to cause significant ecological disruption, social displacement, governance failures, and uneven distribution of benefits. 

In 2000, the World Commission on Dams issued the most comprehensive and independent global review ever conducted on large dams. The key findings from survey data, case studies, and literature reviews highlighted widespread benefits in electricity produced and irrigated water supplied, but oftentimes with high social and environmental costs. The March 2026 report co-authored by Tilt and his colleagues is widely viewed as a follow up to the commission’s findings.

“Hydropower is a low carbon and reliable solution for climate mitigation,” said Tilt, whose research is focused on contemporary energy production in China and the U.S. “But the drawbacks of population displacement, environmental degradation are severe. There are pluses and minuses, heroes and villains; it’s not necessarily a straightforward story.” 

What’s different today? The conditions shaping hydropower development differ significantly from those of past dam‑building eras. Climate change motivations, the growth of private and Chinese-backed financing, stronger environmental justice movements, and new governance frameworks have reshaped the decision-making landscape.

The report’s central finding is that the success of hydropower's future depends on better governance. The outcomes are less dependent on engineering and more on how decisions are made, who is involved, and how trade-offs are managed. The evolving role of national governments, private investors, multilateral institutions, industry organizations, and environmental justice movements led the researchers to argue for more polycentric and participatory governance models, where decision-making authority is shared across multiple levels and actors. 

What’s been observed by the researchers is that decisions are made far from affected communities, rushed by political or financial pressure, and more often influenced by profit. Additionally, alternatives are frequently ignored by government officials, like complementing hydropower with solar and wind energy production, or upgrading or maintaining  current dams instead of building new ones.

Rushed oversight has also contributed to large dams still causing serious social and environmental harm, despite decades of research and guidelines. River fragmentation and loss of wildlife, deforestation and biodiversity decline, as well as displacement of Indigenous and rural communities continue to be consequential effects

“Overall, the world has gotten better at doing comprehensive social and environmental impact assessments of the entire river system rather than just the immediate area around the dam and downstream,” said Tilt. “But now that a vast majority of the dams are being built in emerging economies and at such speed, governments should still ask themselves how we can continue to build these large-scale dams more responsibly and sustainably for communities and ecosystems.”

One of the more striking findings from the report is that hydropower decisions are increasingly affecting international relations. “Hydropower governance is no longer dominated solely by national governments and engineers,” the authors note in the report. “Civil society, affected communities, and non‑state actors are increasingly shaping outcomes.”

About 70 percent of planned dams are located on rivers shared by multiple countries, whereby new dams can create tensions between countries. Weak international cooperation around shared rivers raises the risk of political conflict and downstream harm. 

The funding model for hydropower has also changed in the past 25 years. From what would be traditionally funded by international development organizations, presently, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China is fueling hydropower’s growth. $41.2 billion have been invested abroad, most of which has been used for the construction of large dams in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Also, with the support of the Chinese government, shareholder and state-owned Chinese companies have become global leaders in the construction of approximately 380 large dam projects in more than 70 countries, mostly in the Global South.

“15 years ago, the World Bank would be funding these projects,” explained Tilt. “Now through the Belt and Road Initiative, China is fueling hydropower’s growth outside of its borders. However, China's commitment to environmental impact assessments as well as resettlement and mitigation plans can differ depending on its contract with the state government. The same strings are being pulled as if it were the World Bank, but the players doing the pulling are different.”

The bottom line is that hydropower itself is not the problem, how it is planned and governed is. If current practices continue unchanged, new dams will likely deepen inequality, environmental damage, and conflict rather than support a fair energy transition. The solutions the authors put forward consist of: 

• planning hydroelectric projects at the river-basin scale  to holistically evaluate the river system and avoid environmental damage, displacement, and conflict;
• complementing hydropower with existing renewable energy systems alongside solar, wind, and energy storage; 
• improving governance by adopting a polycentric approach, where responsibility is shared among national and local governments, regulators, communities, and industry actors;
• and strengthening environmental and social impact assessments and including regional participation of Indigenous communities to enact a larger shared benefits approach. 

The authors stress that hydropower’s role in a low‑carbon future should be reconsidered. In some contexts, alternative renewable portfolios may deliver energy security with fewer social and environmental costs. Published at a time of renewed global investment in energy infrastructure, the review provides a comprehensive framework for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners seeking more equitable and sustainable approaches to hydropower development.

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Sophie Rasmussen | Credit: Rudy Uhlman

By Halle Sheppard, CLA Student Writer - March 25, 2026

Traveling internationally is a coveted opportunity that broadens horizons both personally, culturally, and academically, as well as takes you to places you’d never expect. For junior Sophie Rasmussen, her journeys across the world led her to find a home at Oregon State University’s College of Liberal Arts, double majoring in international studies and anthropology.

Ultimately, arriving at the School of Language, Culture, and Society, as well as the Honors College, amusingly began in a psychology class at Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC).

“While in [Philomath] high school, I took a few psychology courses at LBCC,” said Rasmussen. “I loved learning about how people operate and the history of how people perceive behavior, but the part that didn’t quite stick was the clinical aspect of psychology. I didn’t like the idea of putting people in boxes or defining them by one thing.”

Not able to envision herself in a medical setting, Rasmussen still wanted to explore how the brain worked and reasons behind a person's decision-making, but from a more social and historical perspective. This pursuit shifted to her current course of study in anthropology.

Originally starting her collegiate career at Southern Oregon University (SOU) in Ashland, Rasmussen entered as an anthropology and sociology student through SOU’s unique joint degree program. At first, she was planning on pursuing deeper studies in sociology, but a series of courses in cultural anthropology began to take over.

“I loved learning about the different philosophies of life and how that affects people’s perception of the world, which connected my interests in psychology, anthropology, and philosophy.” Studying cultural anthropology naturally fueled her interest in studying abroad, which eventually took her to both South and East Asia.

In summer 2024, SOU’s Democracy Project brought students to India, where Rasmussen and her peers in the Honors College experienced a unique, hands-on immersion of Indian democracy, politics, and civil society, as well as an opportunity to engage with professionals, academics, and local communities.

“It was fascinating,” said Rasmussen. “As India is a young country politically, I loved seeing how it was both similar and different from American democracy—unique, but drawing inspiration from foreign governments.”

Over the summer spent in India, Rasmussen was already planning her next study abroad experience; this time it would take her even farther and longer. 

“Aside from India, I’ve experienced a lot of Western culture through travel, and I wanted to undergo something different, especially as someone who desires to go into the field of anthropology. I feel I cannot be a good anthropologist if my only frame of reference is from Western culture. It's so limited and hard to see from other people's perspectives if you haven’t stepped in their shoes.”

Rasmussen eagerly seized the opportunity and spent her entire sophomore year at the Nagoya University of Foreign Studies in Japan, primarily in language-intensive courses. Her time devoted to learning Japanese “rewired” her brain and changed her perspective of the world through language. During her second semester, Rasmussen even tested into the upper level of Japanese classes, a gargantuan feat, adding more complexities (and alphabets) into her repertoire. She also took up Kendo and Iaido sword fighting, as well as Taiko drum lessons. When her mom came to visit over winter break, they spent a week hiking the historic Nakasendo Trail between Nagoya and Tokyo, stopping at post town inns along the way.

“My confidence in not only speaking Japanese, but also in myself, grew immensely,” said Rasmussen. “I was determined to not feel ashamed for things I was working on. By the end, I wasn’t afraid of having to ask for help or speaking casually with people in Japanese.”

When Rasmussen’s transformative time in Japan was coming to an end, she began to rethink returning to SOU for her junior year. Having been living near the bustling city center of Nagoya, Rasmussen recognized that both SOU and the town of Ashland were looking a little too small for comfort.

“I love the school [SOU] and I love the people there, but I couldn’t see myself returning to Ashland after having this time in Japan.”

Growing up in Philomath, she originally wanted to expand her horizons and find a smaller university outside the Willamette Valley. SOU was the right fit for her at the time, but during her experience abroad, she began to reconsider OSU and the opportunities it offered.

“What intrigued me was the international studies program,” said Rasmussen. “It occurred to me that anthropology is often viewed through a Western lens. Studying topics outside of the U.S. and the West has provided me with a much different perspective on how to perceive my own culture. That perspective shift has been really important to me in my growth.” As OSU’s international studies double-degree program is one of the few on the West Coast, she decided to enroll in the College of Liberal Arts and Honors College upon returning from Japan.

While Rasmussen hasn’t been at OSU for very long, she’s enjoyed classes in the School of Language, Culture, and Society that have expanded her own views, such as Associate Professor David Lewis’ Contemporary Native Issues (ANTH 472), which opened her eyes to “all things ‘American’” she didn’t know previously and led to a greater understanding and critique of U.S. history. The Honors College has supplemented her coursework with unique colloquia classes and provided an added amount of responsibility and expectations with the faster pace. Her international experience is also tied into her honors thesis, the focus of which is still murky, but something along the lines of the “movements of foreign philosophies in culture through art.”

In terms of post graduation ideas, Rasmussen is taking it day-by-day, intentionally remarking, “I have no idea. I’m focusing on what I need to get done now. I’m going to flow wherever the world takes me.” While no plans have been made, Rasmussen has been enriched by her international experiences and educational journey, and is ready to use her skills wherever they may lead her.

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Mady Gibbs

By Jessica Krueger, CLA Student Writer - February 11, 2026

Interested in the medical field — but don’t like needles? Yeah, Madeline (Mady) Gibbs, ‘23, feels that way too. 

That’s why she studies medical anthropology. “When I learned about the overlap between anthropology and medicine that exists, I was super excited,” Gibbs said, “because I knew I could still do health-related stuff, but through a social approach.”

A graduate student in her second year at Oregon State University, Gibbs is working not just on one, but two degrees: a Master of Public Health in epidemiology from the College of Health and a Master of Science in applied anthropology from the School of Language, Culture, and Society. 

It is important that healthcare workers be familiar with the diversity of human culture, and that they prioritize participant expertise, Gibbs explained. Anthropology requires good communication, organization, project planning, and empathy — all of which are crucial skills in the field of public health.

Gibbs is particularly interested in reproductive healthcare. Under the guidance of Dr. Melissa Cheyney and Dr. Kenneth Maes, Gibbs’s research focuses on what are called freestanding birth centers: medical facilities that offer a more comfortable, cozy atmosphere than hospitals generally do, where people with low-risk pregnancies receive midwife support during and after their delivery. “Think of a freestanding birth center as a place that offers an experience in between what you might expect of a hospital or home birth,” Gibbs said. 

Gibbs’s thesis is a mixed-method case study which focuses on the Corvallis Birth and Wellness Center, under the former leadership of Dr. Susan Heinz, DNP, CNM, NP, MSCP. She is interviewing the owners and staff of the birth center, as well as other community stakeholders, to gather qualitative data about their experiences with freestanding birth centers and the midwifery model of care. She is combining this information with quantitative data that represents patient health outcomes.

“It frustrates me that we have healthcare models that we’re aware of, that are studied and practiced, and that we know lead to positive health outcomes, but that aren’t financially incentivized,” Gibbs said. “Freestanding birth centers offer care that is patient-focused to an extent that bio-medical or for-profit health care models do not.”

Gibbs hopes that her thesis will highlight the successes and joys of the Corvallis Birth and Wellness Center. “The midwives I’ve talked to are deeply passionate about the work that they do. That’s not to say that healthcare professionals in other settings aren't that way,” Gibbs said, “but there is something really unique about these midwives, the pride they take in their work, and the impact they've had on their communities.”

Gibbs knew about the Corvallis Birth and Wellness Center because she worked there as a medical receptionist during a gap year after completing her undergraduate degree (also at OSU) in 2023. At the center, Gibbs helped with scheduling, cleaning, and data entry.

During this time, Gibbs also worked as a research assistant for her now-advisor Dr. Cheyney and as an administrative assistant for the Community Doula Program (which Dr. Cheyney is also involved in). The Community Doula Program, Gibbs explained, “provides low-income and marginalized families with doulas who are culturally and linguistically matched.” Doulas provide emotional and physical support to their patients during birth and are shown to “significantly improve inequities in health outcomes.”

“Getting to take a gap year from school was genuinely life changing. Getting to experience what it’s like not to have homework, to just have a life — and live life — really changed my relationship with academia for the better. And the experiences I had during that gap year really informed what I’m doing my thesis on in a big way,” Gibbs said. 

During her undergraduate years at Oregon State, Gibbs majored in anthropology, minored in music, and earned a medical humanities certificate. 

She was also a part of the university’s Wind Ensemble and Honors College. Working with Dr. Cheyney as her mentor, Gibbs completed an Honors College thesis based on the experiences of the Wind Ensemble during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her goal was to preserve ensemble members’ experiences of remote learning and of group practice, when Covid restrictions forced them and their instruments outside. 

At the start of her freshmen year in 2019, Gibbs enrolled in the University Exploratory Studies Program. She briefly considered going the pre-med route, but realized she was more interested in the social sciences after taking an introductory course on interpersonal communication. Still exploring her options, Gibbs took an anthropology class the next term and knew, then, that anthropology was the major for her. 

Best of all? “There are an infinite number of ways to engage with anthropology,” Gibbs said. “There are professional anthropologists who research Dungeons & Dragons or World of Warcraft. To be human is to be an infinite number of things and anthropology is the study of being human.”

You don't have to do something deeply profound,” Gibbs added. “You can do something personal or engage with your own hobbies. Leisure, pleasure, joy are all very important things.”

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I-Yun Lee

By Jessica Krueger, CLA Student Writer - December 3, 2025

“It’s hard not to be an Eagles fan,” I-Yun Lee said as she gestured to the back wall of her office. There, behind her desk, was a large green Philadelphia Eagles banner. And beside it, a framed copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer, when the Eagles made the newspaper’s frontpage for their 2025 Super Bowl victory.

But it’s not just the Eagles’ win streak that Lee celebrates—it’s the team’s capacity to foster human connection, their potential to create positive change. “When you’re at an Eagles game, it doesn’t matter who is sitting next to you,” she said. “When the Eagles score a touchdown, it’s high fives all around.” 

Of course, sports can also create inequities and reinforce harmful systemic structures, Lee said. Efforts of professional sports organizations to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have not always been successful in accomplishing the DEI goals the organization had originally intended. In other cases, organizations opt for convenient or low-risk initiatives, reducing to tokenism or performative gestures instead of dismantling systemic inequities. As a result, Lee said, many professional sports organizations have done away with or drastically altered their DEI programs. 

Lee’s interest in this issue stems partly from personal experience. As an undergraduate student, she was recruited to participate in DEI initiatives hosted by various professional sports organizations. “I would go to these things,” Lee said, “and I just felt like a checkbox.” As Lee was filling out an application for one of the initiatives, she saw a clause at the end of the form which barred international students or those who required a VISA to remain in the US. “And I thought,” Lee said, “if they can do this to international students, they can easily do it to any other group.”

Lee wants to figure out what can be done to make things better—both for the world of sports and for the people who face barriers of entry to it. As a third year doctoral candidate in the School of Language, Culture, and Society’s Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) program, Lee is driven to make professional sports organizations into the platform for community, acceptance, and positivity that she knows they can be. 

The best path forward, Lee said, is to bridge research with activism. Her goal is to create an action-oriented, strategic plan—or “playbook,” rather—that professional sports organizations can use to pinpoint where and how a DEI initiative would best fit the institution. “DEI is not one size fits all,” Lee explained. “Organizations need to think things through more and having a strategic plan will help them do that.”

Lee grew up in Taiwan and came to the United States in 2018 to study sport and recreation management at Temple University in Philadelphia. That, Lee said, is when she became an Eagles fan. But she had always been interested in sports—and football especially. Prior to moving to the US full-time, Lee attended various sporting events at the University of Oregon during a visit with her sister. “I just thought it was so cool,” Lee said. “And I thought—that’s what I want to do.”

Through her undergraduate degree program at Temple, Lee secured a summer internship with the Portland Pickles, a baseball team based out of Portland. She worked in a variety of management positions, gaining valuable hands-on experience all the while. Every day was a little bit different, Lee said, depending on the needs of the team. Over the summer, she helped with camera broadcasting, merchandise sales, game scheduling, and team sponsorships. Once, she even got to dress up as the team’s mascot Dillon the Pickle. “It was a fun summer,” Lee said. 

After graduating from Temple, Lee attended Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. There, she received a master’s degree in diversity and inclusion. Her research centered on the experiences of women of color as they navigated DEI initiatives sponsored by professional sports organizations.

Outside of her doctoral studies, Lee currently serves as an editorial assistant for Feminist Formations, an interdisciplinary journal that got its start at OSU in 1988. Feminist Formations publishes academic research on feminism, gender, and sexuality. Lee helps to streamline the journal’s submission and peer-review processes. 

After completing her doctorate degree at OSU, Lee hopes to be, first and foremost, an agent for change. She doesn’t know yet whether she will stay in academia or enter the sports industry, but is excited to take action wherever she goes. One thing is for sure: if there’s an Eagles bar anywhere around, Lee might just stop by.

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Brynne Boehlecke

By Halle Sheppard, CLA Student Writer - December 1, 2025

Brynne Boehlecke, ‘25, has always been a poet and a writer at heart, but during her time at Oregon State, her poetry was such a stand out that it ended up winning her the Provost’s Literary Prize, one of the most prestigious creative writing awards across the entire university. Her journey to OSU though, was a bit less straightforward than her love of writing.

Boehlecke originally took a tour of OSU when she was 15 with her brother. “My brother immediately fell in love with it, he's a rower and nuclear engineer major which made OSU a perfect fit for him.”

She, on the other hand, was a bit more unsure and was still exploring a few other options, but was soon convinced due to the proximity to her family and love for Oregon. Boehlecke, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, soon found another convincing reason to stay.

“I knew OSU had a really good creative writing program, but then OSU announced that any student who is a member of federally recognized tribes would get in-state tuition,” and she took it as a sign. “I had a great experience and have never regretted it, and would probably have chosen OSU anyways because it had everything I was looking for.”

While she always knew that she wanted to pursue writing as a career she enrolled in the School of Writing, Literature, and Film to achieve those goals. She was already a step ahead too, as she arrived at OSU with sophomore status, given the amount of advanced courses she took in high school back in Las Vegas. Boehlecke still wanted the traditional four-year college experience though, and decided to add on minors to further fill up her schedule and credentials.

Boehlecke tried out several different options, but none of them felt quite right. “It wasn’t until I took Native American Literature [ENG 360] that I thought it was really cool and I could see myself doing this.”

Boehlecke loved the minor, saying, “it was great for me, I loved every single class that I took in that minor, and it really helped my writing.”

One minor still wasn’t enough to fill her four years though, and she soon looked at other options to add on. Since her brother also needed language credits, they decided to take German together.

While the minors were fun for her, Boehlecke retained a deep focus on writing and a lifelong love for the craft,“I’ve always been a writer, it's the way my brain feels comfortable expressing itself, through poetry and fiction.”

A love of writing also ran in her family, with members who were children’s poets, as well as librarians, which exposed her to the literary arts from a young age.

“Having grown up around someone who was so deep in their love for libraries, it was hard not to follow in their same path.” She passionately defends libraries in the growing modern age, explaining that “there’s nothing more punk than a public library” in its vital role of providing resources and services.

“There will never ever be a time in humanity when information is not needed, and libraries aren’t an instrumental part of society” she explained, as she hopes to perhaps follow her grandmother’s path someday.

While she loves libraries, it is the stories they hold that fascinate her too. Throughout her time at OSU she continued to weave stories herself, including her Provost’s Literary Prize-winning poem: Spider Web. While she wanted to write about the concept for a long time, it was not the one she expected to win out of her submissions, even completing the poem “the day before I turned it in.”

Her poem was inspired by the concept of an “earth diver,” a figure in many Indigenous mythologies that dove to the bottom of the ocean and retrieved the land, bringing it to the surface to create the world for the rest of Earth’s creatures. Sometimes, the creature drowns and other times it survives, but their role is crucial in creating land.

“I had been trying to connect that concept of an earth diver to my relationship with Cherokee as a language,” she explains. “One day when I die there will be all of my ancestors who speak this language that I don’t speak, and I won’t know how to communicate with them and thank them for the life I have.”

She had struggled to connect the two concepts for a long time, but finally succeeded through the lens of the Cherokee story of the water spider (who was not technically an earth diver, but brought fire and life in a similar manner), as a demonstration of her struggle to connect with her past.

Her role in the School of Writing, Literature, and Film’s creative writing program extended beyond her poetry submissions though, as she also served as editor-in-chief for PRISM, the university’s premier art and literary journal.

Boehlecke started as a volunteer her first year, but soon became very involved due to her enjoyment of the time she spent there. “PRISM really was the highlight of my college experience, and I’m so glad that I found it when I did.”

She expressed how the College of Liberal Arts set her up for success in her future career, not only through her award and experience, but also through the opportunities the college provided.

“I have a lot of aspirations,” Boehlecke explained, “ the main thing OSU and the college really helped me with that I didn’t anticipate was showing me that there’s way more out there for creative majors than I realized.”

Both PRISM, her major, and two minors exposed her to avenues in publishing, libraries, academia, and teaching that she could see herself pursuing in the near future.

She has always wanted to be a writer though, and hopes to one day be a children’s and middle grade writer. “I was the kid who got made fun of for eating lunch in the school library, and I can’t wait until there’s a day where people are jealous of those kids that get to eat lunch in the library.”

She hopes to write stories that will bring hope and connection, and create work that inspires, like how fantasy serves as a mirror to reality and even depressing poetry is uplifting in its showing that the reader isn’t alone.

Her passion continues to drive her, and Boehlecke is ready to continue to leave her mark on the literary world, and make a brighter future.

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Keenyn Irene Kehaulani Santiago

By Hoku Tiwanak, CLA Student Writer - October 28, 2025

Growing up in the small rural town of Kahuku, located on the north shore of Oahu, Keenyn Irene Kehaulani Santiago learned community, determination, and the value of service. Kahuku is a tight knit community where neighbors look out for one another and culture is passed down through daily life. 

Sports have always been a big part of her community. Growing up playing basketball, Santiago began to notice gaps around her. “There was a need for health and wellness that wasn’t really emphasized, especially for Native people,” she explained. Later as a student at Kamehameha Schools (a private school exclusive to Native Hawaiians), education gave her a broader perspective on what opportunities could look like beyond Kahuku. 

Those lessons from her early years on Oahu continue to shape her journey as she finishes her master’s at the School of Language, Culture, and Society’s College Student Services Administration (CSSA) program. As the current Business Operations and Membership Coordinator for OSU’s Recreational Sports, Santiago is weaving together Native Hawaiian values, recreation, and student development into a vision for healthier, more connected communities.

Santiago had always imagined basketball would carry her into college. But during her senior year of high school, tearing her ACL changed everything. “I was devastated,” Santiago said. “But that injury opened up a new path for me.” Her months of rehabilitation sparked an interest in physical therapy, which motivated her to  enroll at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa to study exercise science. 

What started as a student job at the Warrior Recreation Center turned into a passion. “Working there, I found myself loving the leadership side of it,” she said. “Supervising students, building programs, and seeing people grow became more exciting to me than the thought of working in kinesiology."

Encouraged by her mentor, BonnyJean Manini, faculty director of the Office of Student Life & Development, she pursued more opportunities within the rec center, eventually becoming a manager as an undergraduate. “My mentor really pushed me. She saw something in me I didn’t fully see in myself yet.” That mentorship ultimately led Santiago toward graduate school and a new career in student services.

Now in her second year at OSU, Santiago is using her academic work and her role in recreational sports to create environments that support the whole student. Her master’s portfolio  blends Native Hawaiian health, recreation, and student affairs. She’s researching culturally sound approaches to wellness in higher education, focusing on ways to support Native and Indigenous students by revitalizing traditions and preserving cultural practices through their educational experience. “It’s about creating balance,” Santiago said. “Helping students not just survive in college, but thrive. Building community, promoting wellness, and supporting them as whole people.”

At OSU, approximately 100 students identify as Native Hawaiian. For many of those students, finding cultural connections and relevant programming can be difficult. Santiago sees that gap as both a challenge and an opportunity. “The first step is letting students know higher education is possible,” she said. “The second, which is just as important as the first, is giving them the tools to survive and succeed once they’re here.” 

For Native and Indigenous students navigating higher education, her advice comes straight from her own experience: “Take any opportunities wherever they come. Don’t be afraid to apply for jobs, internships, clubs, scholarships, etc. even if you don’t think you’re ready. Bring purpose into what you do, and let go of the limiting stereotypes.”

After she graduates next spring, her long-term vision is clear: to invest in the longevity of her people by blending health, culture, and education. “I want to bring back what I’ve learned and use it to create opportunities that didn’t always exist when I was growing up,” she said.

Santiago’s journey has been defined by resilience, mentorship, and a strong passion for her culture. By bringing Native Hawaiian values into student services and recreation, she not only supports students at OSU today, but also lays the foundation for healthier, stronger communities back home in Hawai‘i. 

By Colin Bowyer, Communications Manager - October 20, 2025

Each year, fall through summer, both on-campus and Ecampus students majoring or minoring in Spanish are able to receive academic credit for applying their Spanish skills in a professional setting. Overseen by Senior Instructor Raven Chakerian in the School of Language, Culture, and Society, the internship program facilitates partnerships between local schools and non profit organizations with students looking to utilize their Spanish language skills in settings outside of the classroom. With what started initially as a capstone class in spring 2021, Spanish 410 grew into a thriving practicum course benefiting students, as well as the  host organizations and their patrons.

“When students are looking to participate in an internship,” explained Chakerian, “we usually start with these questions: What are your goals? What do you want to get out of this opportunity? And, what can you provide to this organization? From there we try to create a connection that will benefit both the student and the host organization.” 

Though students are welcome to pitch a new internship location, Chakerian maintains a database of local schools and organizations accepting volunteers. Here are just a few students who participated in Spanish 410 internships over the course of a few years: