Sara Troseth, a computer science student at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), was presented the U of M’s Scholarly Excellence in Equity and Diversity (SEED) Award, which honors underrepresented students who are doing outstanding work in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus and in the community.

A descendant of the Fond du Lac band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Troseth is proud of her heritage, and the trails she’s blazing as an indigenous woman pursuing a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

UMD has helped with both, providing Troseth a foundation for her to excel in her studies, and to pursue her passions beyond the classroom. Troseth has championed diversity and inclusion on campus and in the community, serving as co-president of the Indigenous Student Organization (ISO), a CORE Ambassador with UMD’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), and working with the 1854 Treaty Authority. It’s the combination of those efforts and her continued excellence in academics that Troseth earned the SEED Award.

Some of her favorite projects on campus have been organizing fundraisers and events for ISO, like the annual Ziigwan Powwow, which hadn’t been held since 2011. “We decided that we were going to restart the annual powwow, which had been dormant at UMD for about 12 years,” she said. So alongside her team and executive board members, including her advisor Iris Carufel, and other ISO leaders Chanda Blesi and Leandra Jorgensen, “who I'm very grateful for, we managed to get the powwow up and running again, and this year will be our third year of hosting the powwow.”

“I also would love to to recognize Jazzmine Long who is my co-president this year,” she said, “for her drive and dedication to leading ISO alongside me.”

Troseth also works part time with the 1854 Treaty Authority, educating and teaching tribal rights and tribal harvest in northern Minnesota’s Arrowhead region. There, she and her colleagues are helping to ensure those traditional skills and knowledge continue through the band members they work with, “especially the youth.”

“We like to educate them on how to harvest,” she said, “taking them hunting, providing them all of the education skills necessary for that.” Skills like those taught in one of her most recent events, a target shooting and firearm safety demonstration with the youth in Grand Portage.

Looking ahead to her graduation in May 2025, Troseth is eager to mentor others who might be interested in the sciences. “There is a lot of underrepresentation for Native women in STEM,” she says, especially in computer science. After graduation, Troseth hopes to mentor other Indigenous women in similar fields, and to serve as an example.

“I'd like to pass forward the mentorship that I received and help others see themselves in me and continue to get a degree.”