Alaska Humanities Forum launches program to transition Alaska Native students to higher education

The Alaska Humanities Forum (AKHF) is launching an initiative in partnership with UAA that will provide a mentored transition for village high school students from their rural culture to an urban post-secondary campus experience. A three-year, $1.62 million competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Education will fund the new program.

This program follows the successful model of the Forum's Rose Urban Rural Exchange (RURE), aimed at middle and high school students. RURE has operated since 2000, with over 1,000 program graduates from every corner of the state.

"AKHF is delighted to receive this new grant that will allow us to expand the good work of Rose Urban Rural Exchange to include a post-secondary," said Dr. Greg Kimura, the Forum's president and CE0. "The new program will cultivate the remarkable and talented students in Alaska villages and prepare them to meet the challenges they will face post-high school. It will give them the tools they need to succeed, whether in college or specialized training."

The program will focus its efforts on 50 Alaska Native students from the Lower Yukon and Lower Kuskokwim School Districts. The project will recruit students in their high school sophomore year and provide opportunities over three years for urban campus immersion at either UAA or the Alaska Job Corps Center in Palmer.

Students will select a community sponsor at the outset who will encourage them to remain in high school and will work with the family to understand the commitment the student has made. Students and their community sponsors will share an urban campus experience in the program's second year. Participants will receive Alaska Native student mentors at that time. During the spring term of their senior year, the students will return to the urban campus to shadow their mentors in class and at school events.

Additionally, UAA professors and Job Corps instructors will have the opportunity to participate in Regional Native Culture Camps in the partner school districts during each summer of the project. The success of the RURE Teacher Training program for urban K-12 teachers to visit culture camp inspired its inclusion in the new program.

Both Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Mark Begich support the new initiative. "I am pleased to see the Alaska Humanities Forum's efforts to help Alaska's students make the transition from home community to college campus or job training," said Sen. Murkowski. "This is a logical extension of what the Forum has accomplished with the Rose Urban Rural Exchange."

Sen. Begich said, "Preparing our young people to be the next generation of leaders is important for the well-being of all Alaskans. This new program will help to make that possible."

RURE Director Laurie Evans-Dinneen, who authored the grant, will oversee the new program. The grant was determined through a competitive application process of the U.S. Department of Education, with the support of the Alaska Congressional delegation.

For more information, please contact Dr. Greg Kimura at (907) 272-5308.