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SSP Alum Anthony Jones ‘03

Ernesto Cano — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 22:09:33 +0000

From Summer Science Program to a Career in Native American Law and Appreciation for Cultural and Artistic Identity: SSP Alum Anthony Jones ‘03

By Summer Science Program

In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, we want to spotlight an inspiring Summer Science Program alum leading an accomplished career in legal advocacy for Native American tribes in Washington while honoring his heritage through traditional art pieces.

Meet Anthony Jones, a member of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe (a Salish term for “The Strong People”), a registered patent and Native American law attorney and a 2003 Summer Science Program alum.

Anthony has always had a knack for tinkering with things, from digging clams at Port Gamble Bay as a child to taking apart his electric guitar to understand how its electrical components create sound. It was this innate curiosity and passion for STEM that led Anthony to join Summer Science Program’s astrophysics program at New Mexico Tech as a rising high school senior in 2003.

The timing could not have been better. Although Anthony was good at math and science, he was unsure how to apply these skills outside the classroom – much less in a professional setting. He also had not given much thought to what colleges he wanted to apply to or what he wanted to study. Summer Science Program changed that.

Anthony found himself in a community of peers with similar interests and a faculty comprised of scientists and engineers who were eager to share the paths they took and the lessons they learned along the way. Together, they talked about how to choose the colleges that best fit their aspirations and how to aim high when setting goals.

Dorming at New Mexico Tech for five and a half weeks also prepared Anthony for the culture shock many students face during their first year of college. This glimpse into the college experience and the rigorous research into the orbit determination of near-earth asteroids helped Anthony feel confident in his skills to succeed in whatever field and college he decided to pursue.

After the Summer Science Program, Anthony decided to study engineering, and applied to MIT, CalTech, Stanford University and Harvard. He eventually picked MIT out of several offers and graduated from the institute with a Bachelor of Science in engineering and a minor in business management.

Then, he made a career shift.

Growing up on the Port Gamble S’Klallam reservation, Anthony was surrounded by tradition, culture and, more importantly, the tribe’s historical civil rights legacy.

In 1855, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe signed the Point No Point Treaty, ceding the rights to most of its territories to the U.S. government in return for preserving their preexisting rights to hunt, fish, and gather plants. The state of Washington did not honor those rights, eventually leading to large-scale protests during the civil rights era by several Native American tribes, including the S’Klallam, who ultimately emerged victorious. In a landmark 1974 decision by a federal judge, the U.S. government was not only compelled to honor its signed treaties with the tribes but also to recognize their sovereignty.

The S’Klallam Tribe’s legal battle for its rights and sovereignty left Anthony yearning for a career where he could work with other people and help them – especially Native American communities who historically have had to fight for their rights. Seeing that a career in engineering fulfilled his desire to tinker but did not offer much room to explore the “human side” of things, Anthony enrolled in law school at Washington University to study tribal governance and federal Native American law.

Soon after graduating, Anthony was hired as a tribal attorney for the Tulalip Tribes and moved back home to Port Gamble. For nearly nine years, Anthony provided in-house counsel for the Tulalip Tribes’ tribal government, municipality, and corporate and business entities, seamlessly shifting from drum ceremonies to courtroom proceedings. Anthony had found a job that bridged his legal advocacy skills with his culture.

From there, Anthony decided to reconnect with his engineering background by exploring intellectual property law with a focus on patents for technological innovation in artificial intelligence, software machine learning, and more. After passing the patent bar, Anthony transitioned to patent law at Perkins Coie, where he worked for the next two years

Anthony is now practicing both of his specializations, patent and Native American law, at Dorsey & Whitney, the first Am Law 100 firm to develop a full-service Native American law practice.

Anthony’s journey from college to returning home to advocate for Native American communities gave him a greater appreciation for his upbringing and deepened his connection to his cultural heritage. While studying the culture and history of Northwest Native people as part of his job, he began to study their artwork, artifacts and other cultural materials and was inspired to make drums, bentwood boxes, masks, paddles and other pieces of art that reflect his community’s traditions using his background in science and engineering.

His artwork and designs can be found now throughout the whole state of Washington. You may even find his thunderbird design on one of the Washington State ferries. The Seattle office of Earthjustice, an environmental nonprofit focused on legal advocacy, is home to a drum Anthony emblazoned with a killer whale. Anthony’s artistic talents have also been sought by Seattle’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. In 2018, Anthony collaborated with three other artists to create a Coast Salish glass sculpture commissioned by the Burke Museum where it’s now exhibited.

We at SSP International are proud of Anthony Jones and his inspiring work to advocate for Native American communities through science, law, and art, and look forward to seeing what he accomplishes next!

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Last day, 07/23/24, Genomics, Purdue

PUR TAs — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 04:27:09 +0000

Anne- “ssp is magical because of the small moments with the people here— those shared smiles after surviving lab, laughing in the common room during yap sessions, or crying because we mean too much to each other”

Katie Beth- “SSP gets 5/5 stars”

Soham – “The next time I hear the word chemostat or Galaxy maybe 10 years in the future, I don’t know if I would laugh with joy or cry in despair.”

Mandy- ““To everyone I have met here, you will always have a friend as long as I am alive. Thank you for your brilliance, every one of you have been extraordinary.”

Jaya- “I thought they were lying when they said it would be the experience of a lifetime, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I have learned so much from you all and with you all… thank you for giving me one of the best summers ever.”

Noa- “Polymerize your understanding”

Esthelle- “It’s a mentality thing”

Christine-“I didn’t think I’d cry, but I did.”

Phuong- “If you feel stress, drink boba”

Tiffany – “SSP has allowed me to value my downtime… and my meowing”

Celerina- “You’ll grow to be comfortable with vulnerability — with your lab group, TAs, teaching faculty, but most of all, your roommate!”

Dishti – “You averaged more steps in the past six weeks than usual.” The past six weeks have been an adventure, from running to ABE at 8:15 for 8:20 announcements, to walking in extended boundaries. Love you guys for this experience <3”

Kabeer – “Tough times don’t last… only tough people do”

Vineet – “I guess we’ll never know”

Gareth – “Stay strong SSP!”

Colton – “When in doubt, look intelligent”

Collin- “We’re here for a fun time not a long time”

Manish – “It’s been real and I mog on the haters”

Shawn – “I’m da KING”

Vinson- “Breakfast club (only me)”

Jerry – “The community at SSP is the greatest part of it all; you will find people that share your passion for science and make friends that will last you a lifetime.”

Tejas – “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened”

Surya – “SSP was fun while it lasted”

Andres – ““SSP makes a person out of you”

The post Last day, 07/23/24, Genomics, Purdue first appeared on SSP International.

Week 6, 07/22/24, Genomics, Purdue

PUR TAs — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 04:17:22 +0000

Hey guys, I’m Surya and it’s my turn to write the blog! Today perfectly represents the hard work-play-hard nature here at SSP Genomics. The morning was a busy one with the poster presentation prep at full speed. Everybody was excited to showcase the research they had been working on for the past five weeks. Here is a picture of me and my teammates Christine and Jaya after presenting our poster.

Image 1

During the morning, we also got to see our final sauerkraut product that had been fermenting for over two weeks. As part of the food microbiology lab, we got to test the pH of our own and store-bought sauerkraut as well as other fermented foods like pickle and kimchi to compare. We also had an opportunity to taste all those dishes and a variety of other fermented snacks, such as yogurt, kombucha, and kefir. After dinner, some of the guys decided to hang out at the Purdue Memorial Union’s gaming room to play Valorant. Sorry for the bad quality.

image 2

Finally, the day ended with an amazing talent show where I got to see the unique skills and abilities of my SSP peers. As part of the Microbial Musicians band, all the genomics participants sang “You’re Welcome” from Moana, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan, and “Let It Go” from Frozen.

Image 3

The guys also chose to sing a song together called “Beautiful Girls” by Sean Kingston, and it was a very fun experience.

video

That concludes another day here at Purdue Genomics. Until next time!

The post Week 6, 07/22/24, Genomics, Purdue first appeared on SSP International.

Week 6, 07/21/24, Genomics, Purdue

PUR TAs — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 17:27:38 +0000

Caption: Genomics Purdue-Last Sunday Chronicles 7/21/24

If to be loved is to be changed, then man have I been loved. It’s hard to think about, and even harder to process that today would mark our last Sunday. Our last day of sleeping in, fighting over laundry machines, and sprinting into the horizon (our extended boundary) for three hours.

After totally sleeping in and harassing Jaya with my obnoxiously early alarm that I never wake up to (sorry Jaya!) we headed down to the Great Hall to finish up our posters and manuscripts in preparation for our presentations (see figure 1.) After spending a collective 3 hours reformatting our results I think we finally did it. Jerry made some graphs and we were all really happy with our poster

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

After our posters got graded we headed into our extended boundary where (see figure 2.) we collectively managed to go to Tsaocaoo, Vons, the Purdue Bookstore, Mango Mango, Chipotle, Malatang, Red Mango, Greyhouse Coffee Shop, and Target.

After extended boundary we headed into ABE for a live action Among Us game which was honestly so much fun! (see figure 3.) Both Collin and I were imposters the first round and let’s just say, keep your friends close but your enemies closer .

Figure 3.

We then ended the night off with a trip to the Silver Dipper (ice cream shop) which was absolutely delish! (See figure 4.)

Figure 4.

In respect to today, it was a fulfilling close to our last Sunday. But in respect to the program, I’d like to thank each and every participant I’ve met. Having met such extraordinary people, I’ve been nothing but inspired for the potential in our field. You’ve reminded myself of why I love science, and although I’m beyond devastated that our time is coming to a close, you’ve also enlightened me on striving for a similar experience in the future. To anyone I’ve spoken to in my time here, just know that I’ll always be rooting for you

With much gratitude and respect,

Mandy

The post Week 6, 07/21/24, Genomics, Purdue first appeared on SSP International.

UNC Astro Blog Post Day 37

UNC TAs — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 16:12:13 +0000

In the sweltering heat, the bus arrived right outside the Old West dorms, and all of us
collected our keys and hauled our overpacked luggage to our rooms, and I signed up to write this post. That was five weeks and three days ago.

Today felt like another typical day going to a 9 am lecture after waking up at 8:55 after missing five collective alarms between me and my roommate, Emma. Or it felt normal since we once again missed five
alarms before rushing out of bed at 8:55 am. This time it was not for a cosmic lecture or
OD code or quantum mechanics, but for the final exit survey.
We could hardly fathom that the 53-question long survey would be our last time in the
lecture space in Philips Hall, where we diligently took notes on stellar lectures on
galaxies and telescope and optics also the lecture hall; we fought sleep after lunch to
listen to as much as possible from an intriguing lecture. And wild wasps, too (yes! We
did fight wasps in the lecture hall, and we did win!). But I am happy to report we
persisted through the survey, with the delicious strawberries and blueberries we had for
breakfast (Thank you, Dr. Rosenthal!) regardless of how many times we saw the flash
message of, “the survey has been modified and has to be restarted….AGAIN!”

It was time to say the first of a series of goodbyes. This one was quite hard, personally,
after having spent hours and hours of computer lab time together laughing, crying, and
praying that the other one would not run out of battery before getting through problem
sets. The laptop from slot 30 stayed with me all through the way, the highs of letting me
play Cornfield Chase (from Interstellar) on repeat as we finished the OD report and the
lows of having 8 million tabs open with my USB drive missing in action. As I said
goodbye to #30, others said goodbye to #16, #28, and so many more.

It was a day of farewells, and it was time for us to honor the majestic Morehead
telescope and observatory, the very place we gawked at our asteroids, and my group
scared each other and other groups in the darkness of the dome (or at least attempted
to). To show our gratitude to the observatory, we raided the gift shop and found out that
astronauts eat dry freeze ice cream sandwiches, or at least that’s what the packaging
said on the “space ice cream sandwich” from the gift shop. Happy with our purchases of
“Lunar Sour Candy,” a space shuttle keychain, a miniature deck of cards and a whole lot
of stickers, we headed to lunch. Nostalgia got to us, and we had to explore the campus
thoroughly before we left; we had to get a beverage from the cafe right outside the
dorms. We did try one too many free samples not to visit the cafe one last time. I mean,
we definitely couldn’t stop there. After all, it was the last full day, and we had to get
Subway. Ah! What a lunch that was as some of us wrestled with a triple-sauce-filled
six-inch sub that threatened to splash with every bite. Oh! And did I mention we had to
survive a yellow jacket attack since apparently they also like Subway (I don’t blame
them).

Having ticked that off my list of things to do at SSP, it was then time for the talent show. I
was blown away as I heard magnificent melodies, 315 digits of pi, the capitals of
countries I had to google to check their existence. Every passing second was cherished,
and everyone was aware of the intangible perception of six weeks. From the second
week onwards, I felt like I had lived on campus with the same people for years, but time
still seemed to pass faster than we could take it all in. Now, that lesson on special
relativity made perfect sense!

Then it was time for pictures, the official final picture, and the pictures of previous groups
I saw daily as I opened my SSP application. The photoshoot transitioned to a nostalgic
“The Last Supper” (credits to our TA, Lucy), a final dinner sitting around a table having
had the most bizarre and deepest conversations around the cafeteria’s famous fries; my
table took a trip down memory lane list our favourite and least favourite SSP things.

Following this, the scenes began to shift faster and faster as we spent quality time with
ice cream, pizza pockets, movies, and karaoke. Yelling and scream singing “Country
Roads” and many others as we competitively slapped the table playing cards (yes, the
miniature deck), I reminisced on the times we did the same on our way back from every
field trip. UNC had become home with astrophysics SSP. We helped each other, by
which I mean trauma, bonded over syntax errors while debugging, and pushed each
other to be the best versions of ourselves, all in six short weeks (or in the five years it felt
like we had been there). Everyone affirmed that this would not be the end of SSP, simply
a new beginning. But it was hard to believe that nothing from these six weeks would be
different moving forward— moving on to more sleep every day. With the weight of
departure hanging heavy over us, most of us took this opportunity to engage in very
intellectual conversations and a very intellectually created sport of Squash-Minton
(squash against the dorm walls but with badminton equipment). As we switched out the
losing opponent in an infinite loop, and just for one more point as if that would be it, the
deciding point, we went on as long as we heard conversion coming from the lounge.
Intellectual curiosity overcoming SSP’s Squash-Minton team, we joined the timeless
conversation with our lovely TAs (definitely before it was “suggested” curfew time). After
all, conversations like these made SSP special and so hard to leave the next day.

Reminiscing,
-Vivi

The post UNC Astro Blog Post Day 37 first appeared on SSP International.

07/20/24, Genomics, Purdue

PUR TAs — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 12:01:19 +0000

I didn’t know it at the time I picked this day to do the blog, but Saturdays have become my favorite days at SSP – the morning doughnuts, lack of psets due, and the ability to stay up super late without having to worry about getting up at 7 (well, more like 7:30 with how many times I snooze my alarms) the next morning for lab have made them certainly worth waiting for after a long week. And part of me can’t believe that this is the last one I’ll spend here.

To be quite frank, my day did not start off too well. I opened my eyes with a jolt realizing my alarm had not gone off – and I checked my alarm to find that it was 7:41! 11 minutes later than usual, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I jumped out of bed and made it to announcements right on time. I snatched my usual glazed doughnut and I was ready for the day.

When I walked into lab, Dr. Lamanna did not tell us to “glove up,” but instead to stand in a line based on none other than feet sizes. Just like we did precisely 34 days ago, on our first day of wet lab at SSP. She then proceeded to lead us in an exercise of giving compliments to each SSP participant on their lab skills. It ended up failing because we got confused and too much time, but the we certainly enjoyed the compliments we did have the time to receive.

I thought our last wet lab was going to be mostly normal after that, but it’s never a normal day here at SSP. Turns out we had to get in our Sherlock Holmes era solve a mystery – a mystery of how all of our replicate plates yielded different results after our natural transformations lab the other day. After a long morning of intense investigation, pondering, and brief philosophizing by Veronistotle, we eventually decided human error must have been the cause of our strange outcome.

Following work on our posters and manuscripts, my friends and I headed over to try out this boba shop called Feng-Cha (the lunch menu at the dining hall didn’t look too appetizing). We stopped at the Purdue bookstore, and Noa bought a unicorn named Veronicorn Skibidi Johannes III. I proceeded to do (even more!) work on my manuscript for a couple hours there and then headed back to the dorms to do my laundry since the GERIs are not allowed to infest the basement on Saturdays (yet another reason I love these days!).

I walked over to dinner and got my usual order of salad: baby spinach, tomatoes, chickpeas, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. Not to brag, but I finally figured out how to pour the balsamic without it dripping everywhere! I also made myself a chicken sandwich, which surprisingy I’d rate the sandwich an 8/10 – not too shabby for dining hall food. But what I have to say was the best part of my dinner was the mint chocolate chip ice cream. Fresh, green, creamy, and perfect, it has to be the best item Ford has served in my entire time here. I haven’t seen it at the ice cream bar in weeks, so I knew the universe must have heard my dreams of tasting that ice cream again before my departure.

I went back to the dorms and locked in on my poster and manuscript (for the third time today!) and then entered an intense fight in the boys dorm over the movie to watch. Apparently, many people have terrible taste and prefer Jurassic Park over the masterpiece that is Disney Pixar’s Cars. Fortunately, it was ultimately decided to watch Aladdin, one of my favorite animated Disney movies of all time. And that’s what I am watching now, right as I type these words.

As I’m writing this, there remains to be precisely one hour and twenty-seven minutes left of my last Saturday at what has become my home. I have learned so much more here than in an entire year of school, I’ve been challenged more than ever before, and I have made so many memories with people that have become some of my closest friends. I didn’t believe it when they told me, but SSP is truly the experience of a lifetime. I will forever remember all these little moments – the laughter, the tears, the late nights at ABE (and especially the mint chocolate chip ice cream). 4 more days at the best program ever

signing off,

jaya (like zendaya iykyk)

The post 07/20/24, Genomics, Purdue first appeared on SSP International.

Week 5, 07/19/2024, Genomics, Purdue

PUR TAs — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 03:59:30 +0000

Hey y’all! Katie Beth is back on the vlog!

Today started off mundane. The only thing that kept me going is the fact that I finally was able to eat pancakes for breakfast because there was no line! We spent most of the morning working on our posters and manuscript.
However, we did spend some time in the lab doing our most pivotal experiment: transformations. Here we are transferring our antibiotic resistant mutations to our wild type bacteria cultures in hopes that they will develop resistance as well. Here are some pictures with my lab mates!

After that, we headed to lunch where I had this delicious chicken and avocado sandwich!

After lunch we had a lecture from our amazing TA, April. She talked about the Boston Subway System.
We soon went back to the lab to perform a dilution series and spread the plates on them.

That was it! Honestly this program is going by so fast! I can’t believe it is our final week!

Anyways this is Katie Beth signing off. See you later!

The post Week 5, 07/19/2024, Genomics, Purdue first appeared on SSP International.

SWOSU Day 33: The Ride

SSP@SWOSU TAs — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 23:39:00 +0000

Hi guys. It’s me again, Al Nguyen from the first ever Synthetic Chemistry program. In this blog, I’ll cover my eventful (and stressful) day and my thoughts about my SSP journey so far.

Lately I’ve been skipping breakfast for more sleep so there’s no donut pictures for today. In the morning, us participants finished our last day in lab by doing our last characterizations of the metal complex we synthesized. It was not initially planned but our dear faculties allowed us to test our complexes’ function: organic dye purification. I’m glad that one of my complexes worked pretty well.

Heading to lab

Right after lab, everyone rushed to the bus for our last field trip. The bus ride was chill. Everyone enjoyed their packed lunch and fell asleep. Those who didn’t sleep (including me) on the other hand took some cool pictures of our friends((: Unlike on the first bus that we took to SWOSU (host of the program), there was a lot of chit chat on the bus instead of dead silence. That just shows how much bonding we’ve made during SSP (not the weak pi bonds but the SIGMA ones).

Mario mewing while sleeping

We were visiting the OU Health Physicians and OMRF the labs. Their facilities were so nice. I got some inspiration to study biology in the future thanks to their talks about cancer research, career path, and their love for science.

Liquid nitrogen looks like heaven

It was a rush. We quickly went back to the bus to get back for dinner. On the bus Ms. Dunn (our site director) surprised us by handing out boba tea. It was truly a blessing on a hot day far from home. My best friend (Super) Mario and I goofed around and talked philosophy for the entire bus ride.

After dinner and the evening lecture, everyone was so exhausted, but Dr. Ellis woke us up by making us nitrogen banana ice cream and dippin’ dots live. He added banana scent, which we encountered in class before, to the ice cream as well. After that he took us on a magic tour. He let us turn copper pennies into GOLD!!!

Dr. Ellis making ice cream in class

Cu + Dr. Ellis’ Magic —> Au

With the rebooted energy, my Allylcorn group and I locked in for our research paper. The work was exhausting but we pushed through. (Because Mario was on his phone so much Isabelle had to take it away from him.) We did joke around but we had a good amount of work done too. I’m so proud of us.

The Allycorns only have two emotions: joy and locked in

Such a typical busy day at SSP. The program is coming to an end, and us all feel sad about that. SSP is a transformative experience that does not only open me up to conducting science research but also allows me to meet interesting like-minded peers. I made so many memories with these people through ramen nights, anime nights, nerds, BANG!, and all kinds of activities. The ride SSP gives me surely makes me grow a lot as a scientist and an individual.

Thank you for reading this blog. Now I have to sleep to get ready for another busy day tomorrow. Bye.

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Week 5, 07/17/2024, Genomics, Purdue

PUR TAs — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 17:51:08 +0000

Hello,

It’s me Manish once again writing the blog. Today was my birthday and so this morning, at 8 o’clock, when I was still sleeping, a whole bunch of people came into my room and just started singing happy birthday and I was so surprised. My roommate was also sleeping and was like what is going on? We’re so confused and I was very shocked and befuddled, and then they told me to go look at the whiteboards outside in the common area. They left a surprise for me there so I went out and saw what you see below. From what I was told, it took a very long time and early awakening in the morning for them to have the time to draw this.

Fortunately, my birthday lined up with our field trip day to the Indiana Dunes State Park on the coast of Lake Michigan. It was an interesting place with nice hiking trails and a cool beach.

We engaged in some Tomfoolery on the beach and committed acts of sand crafting, hole digging, and human burials as shown below.

After the Dunes we came back and had some dinner, and then it was time for a birthday celebration! Mr. Shorey tracked down a great cake selection for us.

Overall, this was a good birthday .

But now it’s time for us to part ways so I’ll end it with…

This is Manish signing off for now!!!!!

The post Week 5, 07/17/2024, Genomics, Purdue first appeared on SSP International.

Week 5, 07/15/2024, Genomics, Purdue

PUR TAs — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 04:37:39 +0000

Hi SSP!

My name is Shawn and I’m a rising senior from South Korea! It’s officially Day 29 of SSP and it’s honestly crazy how we’re already on our final full week of SSP! It honestly felt like yesterday when all of us flew in and now we’re preparing for the final parts of the program.

This week is definitely going to be a stressful one. For one, we have to finish our primer design and run our PCRs. This program has been a very stressful one for sure. For example, this weekend we had to finish our genome analysis using Galaxy and IGV. I miraculously managed to finish it thanks to my amazing teammates and fellow SSP participants!

I also can’t wait for our final field trip to Indiana Dunes National Park this Wednesday! It’s kinda crazy that Indiana is so far from a beach and yet we’re planning a beach day. Hopefully no one drowns ‍. Oh and here’s a picture of our Genomics program.

Today’s color was black, but some of us wore blue (including me). And then theres Jerry.

Thanks Shawn. Posting in few minutes. Got busy today.

The post Week 5, 07/15/2024, Genomics, Purdue first appeared on SSP International.