Commuting from Florida is a small price to pay for an education

Don't let Diane Sleszynski catch you complaining about your commute to campus. Her commute from Lutz, Florida, to Anchorage is 3,700 miles one way and takes roughly 20 hours, and that's if the layovers are generous. Despite the hefty price tag and time commitment, Sleszynski is more than happy to pay it.

"I'm so very privileged to be here," she says. "It's an adventure, and adventures aren't made to be easy. It's an education, and there's always going to be costs associated with an education."

Sleszynski is enrolled in Alaska Policy Frontiers, an upper division course housed under UAA's College of Business and Public Policy and taught by visiting distinguished professor Willie Hensley. The class meets seven times over the course of a semester, with each meeting consisting of a Friday and Saturday session. Sleszynski hasn't missed a single one.

Hensley's curriculum explores the intersection of Alaska Native heritage and history, and modern day issues like economics and energy. In addition to drawing from his own background as a prominent activist, Hensley invites many of the colleagues he's made along the way to discuss the issues from every angle, including politicians, historians, energy company representatives and Alaska Native corporation executives.

"His class is a brain trust," raves Sleszynski. "The people he brings in are brilliant and they all have wonderful backgrounds. I'm just amazed at how hard they've all fought."

Unlike most out-of-state students who find out about UAA through traditional channels, Sleszynski's discovery of the university, and specifically Hensley's class, was much more serendipitous.

While vacationing in Anchorage with her husband this past June, Sleszynski randomly picked up an issue of First Alaskans magazine while waiting in her hotel lobby. The issue ran a profile on Hensley that touched on his class, his activism and his book Fifty Miles from Tomorrow. For her, finding that article marked the end of a decades-long search.

Originally working as an adolescent psychiatrist and nurse therapist in the '80s, that path was unceremoniously cut short for Sleszynski after a near-fatal car accident. Her road to recovery was a long one that lasted two years. Not one to stay inactive, she turned to another one of her passions: reading and learning about history, particularly Native American and Alaska Native history, which is an interest she attributes to her Cherokee heritage.

Never pausing on her educational development pastime, Sleszynski proceeded to make a full recovery, raise a son and find success in real estate and investments. Today, she's made learning her latest full-time career.

"Sometimes your path just derails and you have to learn how to pick yourself up, and sometimes you get caught up in life and the things that really interest you are put on the back burner," she describes. "Life is a four-letter word occasionally."

Sleszynski's endless pursuit for knowledge has taken her to courses at Harvard and Yale. She has even traveled to Maine to learn directly from the Wesget Sipu Tribe. And yet, nothing has gripped her the way Hensley's class, and Alaska in general, has.

"If anyone doubts the ability of what one class and one teacher can help one student achieve, take a look at Professor Hensley's. Everyone should take this class," she shares. "This isn't just history. These issues are still important and happening.

"What Alaska has is so unique. Not every state has leaders that are approachable and has people that want to be involved in making laws and changing things. Not every state wants to include their [indigenous] peoples."

Sleszynski jokes that the amount she's paid to take Alaska Policy Frontiers - including the airfare, hotels, car rentals and veritable buffet she excitedly brings to feed her classmates - could be enough to make a down payment on a house, which happens to be a move she and her husband are considering. Becoming a reverse snowbird should make her commute to UAA much easier for the other classes she plans to take, one of which being another course taught by Hensley.

"I love this university and there's still so much I want to do here and in Alaska," she says. "I feel welcome here and everyone has just been phenomenal about helping me take this class. It's a wonderful place to learn."

Written by Matt Jardin, UAA Office of University Advancement