A Wrangell student is currently in Anchorage getting a full month’s worth of science, math and engineering lessons.
On July 8 future sophomore Tasha Massin left for Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program’s (ANSEP) five-week acceleration academy, one of two such sessions it holds each summer. She joins 138 students from 30 different communities around the state, to be immersed in a university setting while exploring opportunities in scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical (STEM) fields.
“The goal of Acceleration Academy is to develop students academically and socially for college while fueling their passion and giving them all the tools they need to achieve their goals,” ANSEP vice provost Herb Ilisaurri Schroeder explained in a media release. “Acceleration Academy students have access to valuable educational experiences and have a chance to earn college credits that can jump-start their STEM careers.”
Working with a combination of youth peer mentors, STEM-related professionals and teachers, students this year get to try their hands at a number of interesting projects that reflect needs experienced by communities in the state. For instance, students design and test out tower models capable of withstanding earthquakes, and construct and test model water treatment systems. Students can also work with real health professionals in telemedicine and physical therapy sessions, scenarios which are becoming more commonplace as disparate rural communities become better connected electronically. Others include growing biomaterials native to the region and testing their thermal structural properties, engineering and competing robotic fish models, and programming and working with unmanned aerial vehicles.
As she is still in Anchorage, Massin’s mother, Donna Massin, explained her daughter was having a good time with the program so far. The student had thought the ANSEP summer academy would be a great educational opportunity, and successfully tested into the program earlier this year. The academy is a kind of scholarship, covering all expenses for qualifying students.
While in Anchorage, Massin will be able to accrue credits for college through the coursework she is taking. She also has a familiar face there at the academy, with older brother Devan working as one of its youth peer mentors.
The summertime academy is one a number of initiatives put on each year by ANSEP. Part of the University of Alaska system, its ultimate mission is to improve enrollment and hiring patterns for Alaska Natives in STEM-related career fields through a combination of extracurricular programming such as this summer’s academy and professional mentoring.
The organization launched the STEM teacher certification program in 2015 to further address rural education issues, with the goal of placing one such certified teacher in every Alaskan village by 2025. Last year saw the start of ANSEP’s very first year-round acceleration academy, at the Valley Pathways Alternative High School campus in Wasilla. The curriculum covers all the normal requirements for a high school student in Alaska, but with additional emphasis on STEM subjects such as the summertime academy focuses on.
Last year, Schroeder had come to Wrangell to build up support for building a second year-round academy on the island, proposing its former Institute property as a possible site. Unlike the Matanuska-Susitna area school, this accelerated academy would be a residential campus, housing between 400 and 450 students from around the state on site.
Last summer the Wrangell Borough Assembly approved formation of a steering committee to track the program’s progress, while exploring options for developing a residential campus. In the year since, the committee has been lobbying support from among various Native associations such as the Central Council of Tlingit-Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, which passed a resolution in support of the project in April.
Reader Comments(0)