A young water engineer from the Kuskokwim Delta coast has been named to the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 Education list for her work with her nonprofit education organization, lilnativegirlinSTEM.
Twenty-three-year-old Charitie Ropati, who is Yup’ik and Samoan and has roots in Kongiganak and Anchorage, started lilnativegirlinSTEM in 2022.
The organization serves as a support network, bringing together Indigenous women, girls, and femmes around the world, and advocates for more authentic and culturally-informed science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum in schools.
Ropati spoke to KYUK about being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, what she hopes for the future of her educational organization, and her own growth as an engineer.
Read a transcript of the conversation below. It has been lightly edited for clarity and flow and may contain transcription errors.
KYUK (Sage Smiley): Thank you so much for being willing to talk with me today, and congratulations on being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. How does that feel?
Charitie Ropati: It feels surreal still, just because growing up I never would have imagined I would be where I'm at today, especially as a 23 year old. I feel like we don't see a lot of, like, Alaska Native people make this type of list, but especially Alaska Native women. So I'm still processing it, and definitely gonna take some time to celebrate in the next couple days, but it's been really incredible.
KYUK: How did you find out? What did that feel like?
Ropati: Yeah, so I found out a couple days ago, I found out the morning that day that I kind of had made that announcement [on Facebook], but I knew that I was in the running because I was nominated by someone who was on the list prior. So I knew – we had to submit a form six months prior to December, til this month, to kind of send in more information, and then we were put in this, like, huge pool, and these judges were judging that work to see who would make it on the list. And I found out, like, literally a couple days ago that I made it on that list, particularly in the education section for Forbes. So that's how I found out. Found out the morning of, it was like 7 a.m. – yeah. So it's been really surreal.
KYUK: That totally makes sense. Who was it that that nominated you?
Ropati: My dear friend, Alliyah [Logan]. So I feel like when you do work in education, especially as a young woman, but especially as a young woman of color doing work internationally, we find this really incredible small community of women and femmes that really support each other. So my dear friend Alliyah Logan, who does really incredible work for education equity at the United Nations (UN), and also all throughout the world, nominated me. And we just know each other from the work that we do at the UN, but also a lot of the work that we do online too, for our community. So I owe a lot of that to her – a lot to women who have really opened the door for me and created these pathways for me.
KYUK: So tell us about your education initiative. What is it that made the judges think, ‘Yes, this is someone we want to add to the Forbes 30 Under 30 - Education list.'
Ropati: Yes. So a lot of this work just stems from the fact that there aren't as many Native people in conservation, STEM fields, as there should be. And this came about because, for me, I realized that STEM and conservation fields didn't reflect what we were seeing directly on the land, and that is: all of our people, especially in our region, are the ones that are contributing to the stewardship and protection of that land. Yet that wasn't reflected in what I was seeing in the engineering industry, in the conservation industry. So I created lilnativegirlinSTEM to address that and to increase some equity, particularly for Native women and girls. And so it came just out of that passion, and I was able to get some partnerships and collaborate with companies like [Hewlett-Packard], which has really elevated my work, but also helped me just create more resources for people, not only within this country, but also throughout the world. Because I think there's also this aspect of visibility that our people are still facing. I mean, I've met people even here on the East Coast that have never met an Alaska Native. And for me, but also for Alaskans, it's like – Alaska Native culture is there. We're a huge pillar of our state, of our economy. So just trying to change that narrative nationally, throughout the world. I want more people to know that we're here, and that our people are brilliant, and that we've always been engineers and scientists.
KYUK: How do you hope, or where do you see this placement on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, maybe helping lilnativegirlinSTEM grow? Do you feel like that's gonna assist in moving this movement forward?
Ropati: Yes, for sure. I think again, it goes back to the visibility. But even the network that Forbes has and that community, there's like a formal celebration that we have here in New York City on [Dec. 9]. I'm really excited to be there. But even meeting those people, meeting people who are kind of working towards the same goal, and the goal being just creating a better world for all of us, creating a better world for all of our children – I think it will really help the work that I do with my organization. But it's also just like a beautiful thing to, you know, be with community and be with so many women of color who are doing really incredible work all across different industries, whether it's education or social impact or media. It's just really incredible to see all of that and to know that, one, we're not alone in what we're facing, even though we come from different parts of the world, and, you know, creating this beautiful cohort and, like, coalition of really incredible people. I think the network is what I'm most excited about, and I think I don't know, like, I never thought I would be here. I just didn't think this was even a possibility for me. So I'm really excited to see what my future will look like with this. And obviously the work doesn't stop here. But, yeah, I'm just super honored and super excited to see even more Native people too on this list in the future, but especially more Yup’ik people on the list because I definitely want to see more Alaskan Native representation. So yeah, I'm just really honored.
KYUK: So outside of this work with lilnativegirlinSTEM, the last time we talked you were pretty close to graduating from Columbia. I want to hear an update on what you've been doing since then and what you're working on now, personally. Well, obviously this is all personal work, but what you're working on now?
Ropati: Yeah, so right now I have my bachelor's in civil engineering from Columbia, but I'm a water engineer. I work on just a lot of good projects for people. I work here in New York City. We do a lot of cool work with Indigenous peoples, with First Nations, and we work on a lot on water infrastructure. So I'm just learning the ropes on what it means to be an engineer in the industry, and I'm super excited about that work. And then obviously continuing the work that I do internationally on behalf of my community, ensuring that we continue to have rights in these spaces, talking about some of the issues we face due to climate change, continuing that work. But it's been really great having a job now, having those benefits, it's great. It feels good. I never thought as a 5-year-old, I never thought I would make it this way and be an engineer now, but yeah, that's what I've been working on. And I think I've – through all of this work, I've kind of found my lifelong purpose. And for me, I think I want to start my own firm, potentially an engineering firm, and continue that work to build water infrastructure, especially for our people in our region. So I'm going to work towards that for sure. And I think I found my dream, because after working for so many of our communities this past summer, it's such a fulfilling job. And being in our communities, and providing water and sewer services, and just being in community with so many incredible people, I think that's where the real work lies. And I'm really excited about what the next few years will look like. But yes, I've just – these customers have just been learning the ropes on what it means to be an engineer, what it means to be a water engineer, what it means to design water infrastructure. So yeah, I'm just learning the ropes still.
KYUK: So before you started this job this past summer, you spent mostly out in western Alaska, right? Working on water systems. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Ropati: Yeah, so I worked with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) as an intern in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I got to return home to my region in the [Yukon-Kuskokwim] Delta, and we served so many communities the southwest, but also we served a community in the northwest as well. But a lot of my projects were really focused in that region. And for me, that meant a lot because that's where my family is. That's where my community lies. We worked with Atmautluak, which is, like, the closest community to Bethel, like five minute plane ride, and it was really great because we had community meetings, we met with Elders. It was one of the best experiences of my life. And I think through experiencing that, I realized kind of my life's purpose, but also this circular moment of continuing a legacy that my family started with my great-grandfather relocating, and then me becoming an engineer. Now I want to serve my people just the way that my family has always done. So it was just an incredible experience. And I highly, like, for any youth, any young Yup’ik people listening, definitely tap into ANTHC and their internships. It's an incredible experience, and you'll meet really incredible people, and you'll serve our people and kind of contribute to their mission of ensuring that Alaska Native people are the healthiest people in the world. Because when we do that, it benefits everyone. So yeah, it was one of the best experiences of my life.
KYUK: That really segues perfectly into my next question, which is what you hope youth, especially Alaska Native youth, take from seeing someone like you go on this journey: become the first Alaska Native woman to graduate from the Civil Engineering Department at Columbia and then be named to the Forbes 30 under 30. Like, this is a huge trajectory, and obviously there is inspiration for everyone in it. But what are you hoping Alaska Native kids, or Yup’ik kids specifically, are able to take away or set goals based on what you've done?
Ropati: Yeah, I love that question. I think for me, we live in a world that doesn't see us as even human, and sometimes we meet people who don't treat us kindly, or when we say we want to do something or have these dreams, especially as, like, young Yup’ik kids, sometimes we're told no. And my advice to those youth, not even sometimes, like, most of the time, my advice is to not listen and not give in to the negativity and to continue pursuing your dreams no matter what. I grew up in an environment surrounded by my mom, but also my aunties, my cousins, who saw me as, like, one, as like a real human being, but who saw me as – that when we talked about our dreams, we told them, we told each other that we can do anything we want to do. So find people who believe in that as well. Find friends, be unapologetic about those dreams and continue down that pathway. Because I think for me, if it weren't for the support system I had, but also for my community, I don't think I'd be where I am today. Because I remember being like a really young, like 5 year old kid saying I wanted to be a leader. I wanted to be an engineer, and to now have done that at 23, I'm really thankful, and I want to see more of that, because we have so many brilliant youth in our communities, and we need to create better support systems, so that when are youth say they want to do something, we tell them that they can, because they will. And I think that's what I would tell our youth: that, no, we were born of that knowledge. I was always told by my mom, whenever I was having a hard time, especially in my undergrad, that I was born of engineers. I was born a scientist, and the way that we have lived and continue to live, especially in our region, the way that we have continued to survive, it is incredible, that knowledge is valuable, but that is where genius lies. And I think when we realize that at a young age we could do whatever we set our mind to. Because if you know we could survive harsh conditions and colonialism, we could do anything. And I think that's kind of the mindset that I've grown with. But yeah, I think that's – it sounds kind of cheesy, but that's what I would share with kids. Find the support that you need, be unapologetic about your goals, about your dreams, and to go after them and to ignore the negativity. Because everything that we do, we're not only doing it for ourselves, but we're doing it for our families and our community.
KYUK: Absolutely. Obviously, there's an important aspect of this, which is just sitting with the accomplishment that being named to a list as prestigious as the Forbes 30 Under 30 list provides. But I do want to ask, what's next, or what you're wanting to do from here? Like, I want to acknowledge it's important to revel in this accomplishment and not just be like, ‘Okay, and then what?’ But, you know, moving forward, what are your goals? What are you looking forward to? What are you trying to do from here?
Ropati: Yeah, I love that question too. I think for me, especially because I have a really supportive advisor at Columbia Engineering, he's incredible, but he was one of the first people to tell me that, you know, he could see me starting my own firm, and specifically, like, an engineering firm. That's the next goal. It's, like, a huge goal, but it's something that I want to do because in doing so, I can continue to serve my people, and I want to still provide water and sewer services for our communities. Because we're taught that when we're healthy, physically, mentally, our land is also healthy. And I know for sure that when we have access to water and sewer services, that contributes to our health as a people. So that's my next goal, for sure. But also holding space – something that I talk to, even with my mom, a lot – also holding space for joy, being able to celebrate these little things, being able to do things that I love. I'm going to continue leading with love and kindness, because despite anything, we need more of that in this world. So continuing to do that, but also holding space for joy and doing fun things like watching new movies and getting books, doing fun things for myself too. I think that's what I'm going to continue to do. But yeah, next goal: definitely want to have my own engineering firm, so we're manifesting that. Not only manifesting, but working towards that. So yeah, I think that's my next goal for myself, and then continuing the work that I do with my organization. I want to create a world where we no longer have to say we are the first, because it shouldn't be the reality of our people, especially in spaces like this. So I want to see more youth, more Yup’ik youth in STEM and engineering, but particularly I want to see more Yup’ik girls and women, because we're brilliant, we're cool. And I think these people, these departments, these schools, have so much to learn from our people.
KYUK: Absolutely, we're all so excited to see you achieve those goals. Is there anything else you would want to add as we wrap up this interview about being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list?
Ropati: Yeah, I think the last thing I would add: I just, I'm incredibly thankful to KYUK for just always doing an incredible job highlighting stories from our region. But this accomplishment, I feel like, as Yup’iks, we're taught to be humble. It's just the value that we have. So I just want to say how incredibly thankful I am for my community, especially my family. This wouldn't have been possible without the people who came before me, but especially without the women that came before me, the leadership that came before me. So I'm incredibly thankful for that. And this is something that wasn't just done by myself. It happened because of people who believed me, but also people that provide mentorship, that gave me advice that really led by example. So I'm really grateful for those people. So I think that's all I would ask. So yeah, just incredibly thankful. And I'm thankful to you too for just giving me space to talk about this.
KYUK: Well, thank you so much for sharing your time and your thoughts, and congratulations again. We're so proud of you.
Ropati: Thank you so much, I appreciate it. Quyana.
KYUK: Quyanaqvaa.
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