Your Contributions at Work
Dustin Cavanaugh
Dustin Cavanaugh
Profile By Renata Birkenbuel
Dustin Cavanaugh, University of Montana undergraduate student and recipient of the George Pease Scholarship for Native American Studies, emanates strong medicine in more ways than one.
Eyeing a long-term goal of becoming a doctor and returning to his home state of Nevada to practice at an Indian Health Service, Cavanaugh is pursuing a degree in Biology-Human Services, with a minor in Native American Studies. His dream? To eventually serve any Native community, but preferably the Southern Bands Health Clinic in Elko, where his family lives, and where he grew up receiving health care.
He wants to actively assure that the tradition continues.
“I want to be able to serve my home community by pairing my understanding of Native culture with the know-how of a well-trained physicianin order to deliver the high quality of care and understanding that everyone should be entitled to,” says Cavanaugh. “All too often I hear elders talk about how their physician just doesn't understand our cultural practices and how that has led to conflicts within their quality of care.”
Winning the George Pease scholarship gave him a strong shot in the arm when he needed it most.
Lindsey Meyers
Lindsey Meyers
UM senior Lindsey Meyers now knows there's a big difference between speaking Spanish in a classroom and speaking Spanish in Spain. As recipient of the Taylor Scholarship for Study Abroad, Lindsey lived and studied in Spain for her 2006 spring semester. "Here's the textbook right in front of you," Lindsey said, describing the effect of finally being immersed in the culture she had been studying about for years.
Students in the program stayed with host families and were separated from each other so they had to rely on their own abilities. "I was with a family that did not speak English, so I had to speak Spanish with them the whole time." It was a challenge Lindsey was well prepared for and it gave her a chance to put her knowledge to work, "and allow myself to really appreciate it outside of the classroom. The experience was obviously beyond just speaking Spanish."
Sara Jennings
Sarah Jennings
Sara Jennings was eight years out of high school before attending her first college class, but quickly got back into the swing of academic life. A Butte native, Sarah finished high school in Idaho Falls and after working, "pretty much every service job you can possibly imagine," was ready to return to Montana and school. She figured The University of Montana, "was a good place to start again," because she loves Missoula and liked what the school had to offer. "It's really an advantage as a non-traditional student to walk into a place where you feel comfortable and familiar and where you have access to your professors. I can't stress enough what a big difference that makes in the quality of your education."
Sarah was able to switch to part-time work with financial aid and after a couple of years of concentrated study at UM had garnered an impressive GPA. Her hard work and aptitude led to a handful of scholarships including the Watkins scholarship from the Davidson Honors College. From the history department she was most recently awarded the Jewels-Carlin Endowment for Seniors. Sarah has just one semester remaining before graduation and says she chose her double major in History and English Literature because of, "an ardent love for literature," and the lasting influence of a high school history teacher, who, "doesn't teach history, he teaches people how to think."
