The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Bristol Bay Campus (BBC) proposes to strengthen UAF BBC's Environmental Science (ES) and Sustainable Energy (SE) applied science programs. The ES and SE programs were created in response to a community need to enhance STEM knowledge and capacity in order to develop local sustainable solutions to environmental and energy challenges brought on by a rapidly changing world economy and climate.
The goal is to improve STEM interest, enrollment, graduation, employment and ultimately to reclaim a sense of stewardship to our place, our land, or Nunaput in Yup'ik, among Native Alaskans in the Bristol Bay region. UAF BBC directly serves over 30 remote villages in southwest Alaska and a growing number of rural Alaska Native communities via distance education. Nunaput will nurture students using a culturally appropriate suite of activities aimed towards student academic success.
The intellectual merit of this project is in the ES and SE degree development and their potential benefit to the local community. The Broader impacts may be realized in the preparation of Alaska Native students in these STEM areas as researchers, educators and citizen scientists.
