Teresia Paul, a University of Arkansas doctoral student in rehabilitation education and research, has been awarded a paid, 10-week summer internship with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington.

The 2016 Indian Affairs Student Leadership Summer Institute is part of President Obama's Generation Indigenous initiative to remove barriers to success for Native American youth. It gives American Indian and Alaska Native college students an opportunity to learn about federal policymaking and to develop management and leadership skills.

The program will provide participants:

• An introduction to the government-to-government relationship between the United States and the 567 federal recognized tribal nations.

• An understanding of how the federal government carries out its trust responsibilities to tribal and individual Indian trust beneficiaries.

• An understanding of how the tribal consultation process guides the development and implementation of federal Indian policies and regulations.

• Real-world exposure to the Indian Affairs organization and its component bureaus, offices and programs that carry out its part of the Secretary of the Interior's overall responsibilities to Indian Country.

Paul is of Nigerian and Native American heritage. She is a member of the Oglala Sioux tribe and formerly worked as a mental health therapist at a treatment facility for Native American youth. She has a certificate in behavioral addictions and has continued to pursue research highlighting the impact of substance abuse and co-occurring disorders in Native communities during her doctoral program. For her dissertation, she is focusing on American Indian adolescents and how they conceptualize the impact of culture, substance use disorders, and trauma on their lives.

The internship will help Paul move closer toward her goal of alleviating the mental health disparities seen across Indian country, she said.

"The professional development training that interns receive will be an awesome learning experience, as Native American health policy is vital to understanding the current trends regarding substance abuse treatment," Paul said. "It is my dream to continue working clinically in the field of substance use disorders, specifically within Native communities, while also breaking into the policy arena."

Paul's faculty mentor is Stephanie Lusk, an assistant professor of rehabilitation education and research in the College of Education and Health Professions. Paul received a Native Graduate Health Fellowship from the National Congress of American Indians last year.