Students from surrounding Tuba City schools and Diné College are celebrating a milestone in completing the first part of the CONVOY program at the college campus that brings science and Navajo tradition during a 10-week summer internship.
The program, also known as the Cultural Approach of Navajo Youth to Biomedical Sciences, partners with Tuba City Unified School District to include middle and high school grade students in exploring a wide range of subjects across science, renewable energy and traditional crafts.
CONVOY is funded under a $1.3 million grant from the NIH Science Education Partnership Award and will run until 2028. The program started in 2003 and has trained 75 interns.
“You chose to spend part of your summer learning, growing and developing new skills,” said Campus Director, Phyllis Begay. “I hope this experience has been meaningful and that you will leave with new knowledge, friendship and confidence that will help you in the future.”
Shazia Hakim, professor of Biomedical Sciences and interim Dean, School of STEM, founded CONVOY and said the program balances two kinds of knowledge.
“The core idea is to bridge two distinct worldviews. We actively integrate traditional Navajo wisdom and values with standard Western scientific methods,” she said. “Our goal is to ensure neither system overshadows the other, maintaining an equal partnership between both ways of knowing throughout our entire 10-week summer training curriculum.”
During the lab portion of the program, students conducted forensic and molecular biology experiments, practiced gel electrophoresis, analyzed fruit fly behavior, and learned basic genomic data science concepts.
They also studied nervous systems by dissecting sheep brains and starfish, while gaining practical safety skills through CPR and first aid certifications.
Turning to environmental science, the students launched solar balloons, cooked in solar ovens and explored alternative energy solutions. They also engaged in hands-on textile arts by learning the entire sheep-to-loom weaving process, transforming raw wool into dyed yarn and finished woven pieces.
The group visited the Grand Canyon and Hart Perrier to learn about sacred mountains, their geographical and environmental impact on South West through Navajo stories.
A local home site was also visited in Monument Valley with a water filtration unit that Diné College graduate student in the M.S. Biology program, Neilroy Singer, helped installed and monitor for water quality testing.
Each student earned a certificate for finishing the technical hands on training. With that training, interns are tasked to complete second part of CONVOY internship which is their individual research projects, that they will present in October at the Advancing Indigenous Science and Engineering Society Conference 2026 in Portland, Oregon.
Babatunde Ojo, chemistry instructor, said the students changed during their time in CONVOY.
“The student will leave here today different from who they were when they came,” Ojo said. “That’s my joy. That’s our joy.”
Ojo said the Navajo Nation needs more doctors and pharmacists from the local community. He encouraged students to believe in their own goals.
“Nobody should tell you that you can’t be a doctor,” Ojo said. “You have to believe in yourself.”
Dual Credit director Francetta Begaye said students were able to earn real college credit through the program with the state funded three-credit college course, “Navajo Foundation and Culture.”
The program also relied on Diné College student mentors including Romeo Yellowhair, who is pursuing his bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences.
“It was easy for me to talk to students and get to know them,” Yellowhair said. “I just give them a general idea of where to go for help if they want to continue in that career.”
Yellowhair will also present his own project at the AISES Conference alongside other CONVOY interns and research students from Hakim’s lab. He is working on an ethylene absorber that could increase the shelf life and help preserve food for longer, specially in homes without running electricity or refrigerators.
The work is not over yet for the students who will visit a local hospital on Sept. 4. There they will spend time in different departments, such as the clinical lab, radiology and cardiopulmonary.