Southeastern Hosts Native American Student Visitation Day
by SOUTHEASTERN PUBLIC INFORMATION
April 27, 2008
DURANT, Okla. Southeastern Oklahoma State University hosted the 6th annual Native American Student Visitation Day April 8.
The event was sponsored by the Native American Outreach Center for Student Success, a branch of the Southeastern Academic Advising and Outreach Center.
Support from the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations helped make the event successful.
Six schools participated and 55 students attended the event, which included a browse session with nine vendors from the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations, and an aviation presentation by George Jacox and Dr. Stan Alluisi of the Southeastern Aviation Department.
Amy Grant (Chickasaw Nation) and Jerrod James (Choctaw Nation) presented information on tribal scholarships and grants.
Chris Wesberry, Native American Academic Counselor and Project Director for NAEIE, said, "Our campus visitors had a great time and our guest speaker, astronaut John Herrington, really made the day special."
Herrington is a native of Wetumka who grew up in Colorado, Wyoming and Texas, where he graduated from Plano High School. He earned his bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs before receiving his commission in the United States Navy in 1984.
He served three deployments in the Pacific region before being assigned as a test pilot. He was chosen by NASA as an astronaut candidate in 1996 and made his first space flight in 2002 as a mission specialist aboard STS-113.
Herrington is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation.
