Feb. 4, 2025

This paid piece is sponsored by Dakota State University. 

Dakota State University graduate student Justina White Eyes is driven to help people.

As an undergraduate at Oglala Lakota College, she often found herself helping her classmates understand course concepts, even though she was just learning them herself.

“Helping other people makes me feel good,” she said.

DSU graduate student Justina White Eyes takes classes online but visited campus last summer to help with a STEM camp.

White Eyes initially planned to study business at Oglala Lakota College, but a friend who worked in information technology told her about the opportunities in those careers.

“She said I should study IT because it’s a growing field, and they need IT workers, especially in rural places like where we live,” White Eyes said.

Although it takes some work to learn the concepts, “I like technology and am good at it,” she discovered, so she majored in information technology at Oglala Lakota, earning her bachelor’s degree in 2022. She knew she wanted to continue her education and earn her master’s degree, but she didn’t want to move away from her home in Eagle Butte.

She has three children and wants to be near her grandmother, so she appreciated the online options offered by Dakota State graduate programs.

“Online classes let me stay home with family and my three children. I like to be around my family because they are my support system,” she said.

“Our graduate programs attract students who want to be challenged, who want to be immersed in rigorous study yet remain anchored with their families in their communities. That’s the case for Justina,” said Dr. Mark Hawkes, dean of DSU’s graduate studies.

“Dakota State University is a perfect fit because it allows her to study as a distance student while providing what she wants in a master’s degree in computer science: advanced study and data structures, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. She’s doing an amazing job as she makes her way through her coursework.”

The Master of Science in Computer Science program also allows her the flexibility to focus on data science specializations. She uses what she has learned from her coursework at her part-time job as an IT assistant at a small nonprofit.

“My undergraduate coursework was more focused on IT aspects. In graduate school, I am learning more programming, which helps me build different codes to use on the job. It’s all a learning experience,” she said.

“Like most adult, online students in our graduate courses, there’s no shortage of demands on Justina’s time,” Hawkes said. “But I think there’s part of her that enjoys putting that bright, analytical mind to work on algorithms, encryption, programming or any other prevailing computer science topic du jour.”

Hawkes said one opportunity that has facilitated White Eyes’ progress is a graduate assistantship funded by South Dakota’s National Science Foundation EPSCoR project. This provides her with an opportunity to work with one of DSU’s faculty for a meaningful amount of time each week and be mentored in research and student engagement strategy.

White Eyes also is participating in instructional experiences, working as a teaching assistant at DSU, and was able to help with a STEM boot camp last summer. The annual I.T.S. Institute camp, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, is a partnership between DSU and Oglala Lakota College. High school students from Kyle take classes for a week at the Oglala campus, followed by a week at the DSU campus and a few days in Sioux Falls. The campers learn what it’s like to study and work in technology through lectures, hands-on projects and guest speaker events.

High school students from Kyle visited campus for a STEM camp last summer. Graduate student Justina White Eyes helped with the camp.

“That was a really good experience,” she said. “Helping them learn helped me, too,” because it opened her eyes to the possibility of teaching as a college instructor, either at Oglala Lakota College or elsewhere on the reservation.

“Justina’s experiences with the EPSCoR partnership and graduate assistantship will help her realize her vision to be a computer science faculty at one of the state’s tribal colleges,” Hawkes said.

White Eyes plans to complete her master’s degree in the spring of 2026, but as she progresses through the program, she has been considering continuing on to get her Ph.D. in cyber defense and cybersecurity.

“I do like to learn different things, and I’m excited to learn more about cyber,” she said.

She is sharing that excitement by example. “I’d like to think I am a role model for others,” she said of being a working single mother with family obligations.

White Eyes also shares her excitement through her words.

“I try to encourage people to go to college, like when I have a family member who graduates. I encourage them to enroll in college or community college so they have something to fall back on.”