This project broadens the participation of Alaska Natives in the geosciences at both the professional level and the community level, by increasing geoscience literacy amongst the next generation of Alaska Native leaders. It also increases the awareness of local geoscience issues in Alaska Native communities.
Alaska Natives in Geosciences is a project with an integrated, intergenerational approach designed to attract young Alaska Natives to the geosciences as a career and to encourage declared Alaska Natives geoscience majors to continue their studies. A college-level, field-intensive, introductory geoscience course is designed specifically for the high school juniors and seniors enrolled at the Rural Alaska Honors Institute (RAHI). This is followed by a community-based one-week field course open to RAHI graduates as well as other Alaska Native geoscience students. Both classes will introduce Alaska Native students to the geologic issues and concerns relevant to Alaska Natives and their communities. Alaska Native undergraduate geology majors from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) work with geoscience faculty as teaching assistants and mentors to the RAHI students, providing an additional opportunity for undergraduate geology majors to interact with faculty on an individual basis and explore geology as a profession. This program works with the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) to provide cohort registration, student advising, tutoring and scholarship support for Alaska Native undergraduate students currently in or entering into the UAF geoscience program. Geology majors work with teaching and research faculty to present geologic concepts to high school juniors and seniors in a context that is relevant to the students, promoting a team atmosphere within the student body, while providing mentoring opportunities both to and by the undergraduate students.
