Alaska's graduating high school class of 2022 includes 937 students designated for the prestigious UA Scholars Award. Members of the cohort hail from 238 high schools in communities ranging from Akiachak to Yakutat.
"We honor and celebrate UA Scholars in the class of 2022 on their upcoming graduation from high school," said Lael Oldmixon, the program's executive director. "This cohort represents some of Alaska's best and brightest minds. Through them, Alaska will remain strong and ready for whatever the future holds. Our universities are poised and ready to accept them as students and partners in creating the life they want in a state they love."

“From her earliest years at UAA, I admired how Vara brought diverse perspectives together and created a shared vision for supporting students to achieve personal and academic success,” said UAA Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Bruce Schultz. “As she drew from her past personal and professional experiences in the South, Vara showed us how to serve students with grace and a never wavering commitment to excellence.”

The Alaska House of Representatives passed a bill with a 23-9 vote on Thursday that would protect the state’s college scholarship fund.
The $410 million Higher Education Investment Fund has been used to pay college scholarships for more than 5,000 Alaska students each year. It was drained last year due to a failed procedural vote by the Legislature needed to keep it full.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks sponsored an educational symposium for students across Alaska with the Global Learning and Observations for the Benefit of the Environment (GLOBE) program for Earth Day.Since 1996, GLOBE has worked to not only educate K-12 students on environmental awareness, but also to foster a love for science and mathematics in kids.

Next week, hundreds of University of Alaska Fairbanks degree-seeking students will be recognized for their scholastic efforts over the last several years. For those, who like me, graduate in the 10% of the class which makes the top 90% look really good, I have important news for you. Study after study, survey after survey, reveal that long-term career success is 60-90% a function of the attitude we bring to work each and every second of each and every day.

As these watershed ecosystems undergo climate-driven changes, two Climate Adaptation Science Centers, in Alaska (AK CASC) and the Pacific Islands (PI-CASC), have joined forces to address similar local challenges in a collaboration unique within the CASC network. PI-CASC is hosted at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and includes consortium members UH Hilo and the University of Guam; AK CASC is hosted at the University of Alaska (UA) Fairbanks with consortium members UA Anchorage and UA Southeast.

Dannielle Carlson grew up in Sandpoint, a remote, predominantly Alaska Native community. As a first-generation graduate, she knows the challenges of pursuing a degree. She’s now putting her personal experience to work as an Alaska Native Student Success Specialist, a newly-created position at the University of Alaska Southeast. Her mission is two-fold: to attract and retain Native students by making the campus a welcoming and equitable experience for Alaska Natives.

As an Alaska Native, Dannielle Carlson knows personally what it takes to succeed in college. Now she helps other Native students on their educational journey at the University of Alaska Southeast. On this Wednesday’s Juneau Afternoon, Carlson will talk about her graduate research into some of the barriers Native and Rural students face, as well as what it was like to be a first-generation Rural Alaska Native at UAS.