University of Guam (UOG) students will not only present their research this week at the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) Conference, but will also gain access to scholarships, internships and research opportunities, according to program leadership.

Navigating Fellow Nico Valencia will present the research poster, “GWAS for Khat Use and Khat Use Frequency in Eastern Africans Identifies Genetic Risk Loci and Psychiatric Links,” at this year’s SACNAS conference. For Nico Valencia, this year’s SACNAS conference is a return trip. His first was in 2023 in Portland, Oregon, where he presented research from an earlier grant-funded program. His topic then was childhood nutrition. “I presented on the protective effects of breastfeeding in children for obesity. In short, the more a child is breastfed, the lower their likelihood of obesity later in childhood.”

By Leilani Sablan Naden, program lead for Guihan for Guåhan Fishers know the ocean in ways that can take a lifetime to learn. They recognize familiar fishing grounds, notice shifts in the size and abundance of certain species, and carry generations of knowledge about the waters that sustain our island. But what happens when we bring that knowledge together with fisheries data? What more can we learn when the people who depend on the ocean have access to the information their own catches help generate?

When Clementine Schnabel agreed to mentor Kyle Dahilig through the Navigating Home Fellowship, she got more than research assistance. She got a firsthand look at what it means when local talent comes home. Schnabel took Kyle in and involved him in one of the Micronesia Challenge's key projects, a regional effort to manage 50 percent of near-shore marine resources and 30 percent of terrestrial resources by 2030. Reaching those goals takes money, so their task was to research and explore ways to build self-sustaining revenue.