Helping others has always been ingrained in Kallie Chapman’s DNA. As a youngster, the Chickasaw citizen from Coalgate, Oklahoma, wanted to play a role in being useful to others in their time of need.
That passion still drives her today as a soon to be graduating senior at Oklahoma State University (OSU) in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
“I’ve always enjoyed being as helpful as possible,” Chapman said. “If something is wrong or something needs fixing, I like to be there. I like to help. It’s just something I want to continue to do as I get older.”
Chapman is a psychology major who traded aspirations of one day improving organizational performance and well-being of employees to concentrating on learning the more personal, one-on-one skills involved with becoming a therapist.
This change of interest hearkened back to her deep-seated, youthful mindset of helping others.
“When I started my freshman year at OSU, I wanted to be an industrial organization psychologist, which is very different from being a therapist,” Chapman said. "I started taking counseling classes and really fell in love with helping others. That kind of ability to help is something I find really special.”
This desire also led her to apply for and receive a unique internship opportunity funded through the Lewis Scholars Program by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
The program, Tribal Health Experiential Internship Seminar (THESIS), presents a focus and curriculum geared toward First Americans.
THESIS interns invest four hours a day, four days a week over eight summer weeks participating in online Zoom sessions, which Chapman admits took some getting used to.
“By the end of the summer, it was pretty good, but that first week or so, that was a lot of Zoom,” she laughed.
That said, the experience proved more than worthwhile for a host of reasons.
“There was such a wide variety of topics and it allowed for such a variety of speakers,” Chapman said. “When you’re involved in an in-person internship you’re limited as to who can be there.
“Not only was I learning about public health, but we also had statistics classes, cultural classes and one day we wove baskets. I got to talk to a woman who had Indigenous fashions in a show during New York Fashion Week. We got to hear from people who work at the Oklahoma City Area Indian Health Service.”
The internship was topped off by a trip to the CDC where Chapman and other interns made poster presentations and toured the facility.
Chapman likened the CDC’s Emergency Operations Room to something she had only seen cinematically in which people make important, world changing decisions.
“You’ve seen in movies huge rooms with a big screen with all the data and rows of computers behind it? That was the room we were in. That’s what it feels like walking into that area of the CDC. Things happen here. This is an important place. Decisions are made here.”
Chapman’s poster presentation focused on “Observations of Indian Health Services OBGYN Care Locations in Oklahoma.”
“We got to pick our own topic for our research paper,” she said. “We had eight weeks to do the research and compile it into an academic poster presentation.”
Chapman credits the Chickasaw Nation with helping her pay for her college education.
“I receive some Chickasaw Nation education grants every year. It is incredibly helpful in attending OSU. With the help of the Chickasaw Nation and some other scholarships, I am able to graduate debt free.”
Chapman graduates in December and is currently applying to different universities to be accepted into a doctoral program. She looks forward to landing a position later, possibly within the Chickasaw Nation’s health care programs and services.
“Working for my tribe would be very special for me,” she said.