PROVO, UTAH

When RD Boardman was a teenager, his mother was inspired by a dream to research her family's genealogy and was told that doing so would assist in her children's education. She followed that prompting and discovered a strong link to the American Indian Choctaw tribe.

Subsequently, RD officially joined the Choctaw Nation during his freshman year at BYU.

Now pursuing a doctoral degree in counseling psychology within the David O. McKay School of Education, Brother Boardman is benefiting from his mother's obedience.

Beginning with fall semester 2006, the Indian Health Service through the Health Professions Scholarship program is paying RD's tuition and providing a living stipend as well. This annual award of more than $20,000 will help him complete his education.

In return, he is required to work for IHS for two years after graduating.

"I am excited about the work requirement. I don't see it as an obligation. I see it as an opportunity and look forward to it," he said.

Indian Health Service, operated through the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, offers a wide variety of health services on or near reservations throughout the United States. While employed by IHS, Brother Boardman may be assigned to any part of the United States where there are reservations.

Brother Boardman explained that his ideal assignment would be in Oklahoma with his own Choctaw Nation, and that he plans to stay at IHS for longer than the required two years.

He is the first counseling psychologist to receive the scholarship, which has traditionally favored clinical psychologists.

"Counseling focuses on building on the strengths of the person, whereas clinical psychology is more empirical. Clinical psychologists emphasize fixing what is broken," said Brother Boardman, who believes his uniqueness will give him an opportunity to make a place in IHS for future counseling psychologists.

This is not the first time that Brother Boardman has served the Native American nations. He visited the Navajo Reservation in Southern Utah with his director, Aaron Jackson, offering career counseling to junior and senior students. "I found this service to be very fulfilling and meaningful," he said.

He also previously received a scholarship directly through the Choctaw Nation.

"My family always knew we had American Indian in our lineage, but we didn't know what it would lead to until my mother did the genealogy," he explained. "Through my mother's research we found that my great-grandfather was born on the Choctaw Indian reservation in Hugo, Oklahoma."

Brother Boardman's great-grandmother Francis Harriet Hibben (Carter) has a roll number on reservation documents and wrote about walking the "Trail of Tears," the forced march of the Cherokee Nation from their lands in Georgia to Oklahoma in 1838-39.

"My feelings have been much, much stronger since I began to learn about the Native American culture and the Choctaw Nation," said Brother Boardman. He regularly attends events organized to celebrate American Indian culture.

"I feel like this is an opportunity to give back to my heritage and show my gratitude for all the suffering and sacrifice that brought my family to where they are today," he said "This service will show appreciation and respect towards my ancestors."