Past Students

Reagan Ballard

Reagan is a junior Robertson Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University, as a biology major on the pre-medicine track with a data science major. Her current research focuses on how social determinants of health influence the prevalence of illness. She participated in the first Voices of Oklahoma cohort and now maintains her connection to upcoming students as a mentor. Reagan loves reading, writing, and working with children and her peers!

Reagan Bieligk

Reagan is a junior at Holland Hall in Tulsa, OK. She participated in the Voices of Osage Summer Internship 2022. She presented a poster at the 2022 Plains Anthropological Conference. In her free time, she enjoys reading and sewing. She is excited to see where her job at OKPAN is going to go. She participated in an American Heart Association fundraising effort as a 2024 Tulsa Heartball Sweetheart where she raised over $2,500 to fight heart disease.

Dawson Fontenot

Dawson Fontenot is a senior at Sequoyah High School in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. He attended the 2023 Voices of Oklahoma program. Dawson & Voices Alum, Rafael, presented and won the poster competition at the 2024 Oklahoma Archaeological Conference.

Lily Gibson

Lily is a freshman at the University of Oklahoma majoring in human health and biology with a pre-med track. Lily was a part of OKPAN’s Voices of Oklahoma summer internship program in 2023, that focused on educating about indigenous boarding schools. Lily is a member of the Cherokee Nation and, inspired by her internship, wants to work for her nation when she finishes schooling. Lily enjoys competing in speech and debate, reading, and listening to music.

Rafael Gómez

Rafael Gómez is a junior at Norman North High School who relished taking part in the 2023 Voices of Oklahoma program. At the 2024 Oklahoma Archaeology Conference, he jointly presented a poster he collaborated on with other members of his Voices cohort. He is interested in histories of the Americas and spends free time riding his bicycle (with a helmet, of course).

Aaron Patton

Aaron Patton is a passionate junior majoring in Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. With a strong commitment to using anthropology as a means for positive social change, Aaron has dedicated himself to making a difference in his community. Aaron's journey with the Oklahoma Public Archaeology Network (OKPAN) began during an internship called "Voices of Oklahoma." Since then, his partnership with OKPAN has deepened, allowing him to further explore the transformative power of anthropology. As an intern at OKPAN, Aaron has honed his skills in archaeology and anthropology while actively advocating for social change. He believes in the potential of anthropology as a tool to empower individuals and communities, fostering a greater understanding of our shared history and heritage.

Abbey Sempebwa

Abigail Sempebwa recently earned her Master of Liberal Arts degree in Museum Studies from Harvard University. During her time at Harvard, she worked as a collections assistant at the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Multidisciplinary Studies degree in 2021 and served as the TA in Voices of Greenwood that summer. In January of 2024, she had the exciting opportunity to visit the archives of the Louvre museum and Palace of Versailles for her master’s research which focused on the safeguarding of museum collections in wartime. This summer, she will work as a research assistant for the Monuments Men and Women Foundation, an organization that completes the unfinished mission of the Monuments Men- returning missing art to the rightful owners from Nazi looting. Abbey accepted a scholarship at Texas Christian University for a Master of Arts degree in art history with a concentration in High Italian Renaissance, and will begin in the fall of 2024.