Green Tech Institute
About
At MIGIZI’s Green Tech Institute (GTI), high school students get paid to learn about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) from an Indigenous perspective. Through these internship learning experiences, Native youth get hands-on experience in the renewable and green energy fields.
Students gain a deep understanding of science and its role in everyday life and in the science found within traditional Native ways of knowing. Whether through building bikes, learning about hydroelectricity, or creating solar powered phone chargers and libraries, our interns learn to provide sustainable solutions for a greener future.​
Cohorts
GTI has four cohorts per year, three during the school year and one during the summer. Each cohort lasts approximately 8 -10 weeks and meets Monday - Thursday from 4-6 pm in the school year or 9:30 am-3:30 pm in the summer. Interns receive an hourly rate of $13.75 and must be 14 years or older to be eligible.
Meet Your Instructor
Antavia descends from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and grew up in South Minneapolis. She attended South High School and earned her associates degree at Minneapolis College as a Power of You scholar. She continued her studies in chemistry at Metro State University as an Increasing Diversity in Environmental Careers Fellow, as well as abroad in Cuernavaca, Mexico, as a Gilman International Scholar. Antavia has been a PhD student of chemistry at the University of Minnesota where she helped teach undergraduate analytical chemistry labs and spent time researching and synthesizing porous nanoparticles for PFAS phytoremediation as a 3M Science and Technology Fellow.
“Growing up I rarely, if ever, saw myself represented in STEM as a low-income Indigenous girl. Being raised by a single parent on welfare, and then being a single mother myself, I have spent my life navigating barriers on behalf of myself and others in the pursuit of knowledge and stability. While the barriers we all face as individuals do not have to define us, they alter how our goals and needs can be met. As an Indigenous woman and scientist, I look forward to the opportunity to be apart of the circle of support MIGIZI offers youth to help them navigate their goals and dreams according to their specific needs.”