Alaska Close Up

I spent last week in Juneau with four students participating the Alaska Close Up program. Close Up operates at the state and national level providing students the opportunity to see how their government works "close up." This is the second time our district has sent students to the program. There were 16 students in total sent from our district and the social studies teacher from each site was sent along as a chaperone. Overall, this was a great experience for my students and myself, and I tried to take lots of pictures of all the places we went. 

 It was a warm sunny morning when we left Tuluksak. 

 Several students took advantage of our layover in Anchorage to relax before our busy trip.

All of the students and chaperones in our Close Up session (around 50) stayed at Juneau's youth hostel. It was nice for the students because they got to spend time with other students from around the state. It was okay for the adults who had to stay on the bunk beds with the students. 

There were four school districts participating in this session: ours, Lower Yukon, Kuspuk and North Pole. The Lower Yukon district is just north of ours, and the Kuspuk district is just upriver. Both districts are also comprised of remote Yup'ik villages. North Pole is an urban district in the Fairbanks area. 

Juneau reminded me a bit of Duluth because it was a hilly city on the water. Juneau's climate is temperate rainforest. We were lucky to have lots of sun and warm weather during our week. 

Our classroom for the week was inside a church that was a few blocks from the hostel and the capitol building.  In the classroom, students spent time doing activities relating to the three branches of state government and working on their local project presentations.

One of the activities the students did involved trying to create a budget for school district. Alaska is currently in fiscal crisis. Oil revenue is depleted and the state is trying to mitigate a 3.5 billion dollar deficit in next year's budget. While we were in Juneau, it was decided that the legislature would only hear bills relating to the budget for the remainder of their session. 

Meeting with Lt. Governor Byron Mallot was exciting for the students. Mr. Mallot is a Tlingit man who grew up in a very remote region, like many of the students, and he delivered a very uplifting message to them. 

Our tour guide pointed out that Alaska is the only state whose seal features a seal. 

Our State Senator Lyman Hoffman was in the Bethel area while we were in Juneau, but we were able to talk with his staff at his office. The students liked seeing that Senator Hoffman's office was decorated with lots of Yup'ik art from both the coast and upriver.  

The students were not able to meet Governor Walker on our trip, but they did receive a tour of his house. 

A Tlingit totem pole and brown bear inside the state administrative office building. 

The observation deck across from the capitol building. 

I was able to help choose the students from our school who attended this program and I am so proud of these four girls (3 seniors and 1 sophomore). Even as an adult who has been in the village less than a year, it can be very overwhelming leaving the village and spending a whole week in an urban area. They did such a great job being brave, kind and representing our school. 

The cutest photo-bomber! Wearing her qaspeq made during culture week :)

Student from the Yupiit School District with State Representative Bob Herron and his wife. 

The steps of the capitol building at sunset.

 One thing that really surprised me about Juneau was that because of the mountains, their days were over an hour shorter than ours. 

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski was in Juneau and took time to briefly talk and take pictures with our students. One of my students bravely asked her a question about what she hopes for Alaska's youth in the future. She said that she hopes to see more jobs created in rural areas. This sentiment that was very relatable to the Yupiit and Lower Yukon students whose communities have very few jobs. 

For me, the most memorable part of our trip was visiting Lemon Creek Correctional Center--a maximum security prison that houses inmates from around the state. At the prison, we all had to take off our jackets, sweatshirts and jewelry before entering. We had to walk single file through several sets of fences and doors, being counted by Correctional Officers the entire way. Once inside, we were seated in the gym. The officers talked with us for a while about their jobs and explained the cell layout that was taped on the floor. 

There were three inmates who volunteered to talk with the students. They were escorted into the gym, introduced themselves and told a bit of their story. All of them were in prison for drug or alcohol related offenses and all were repeat offenders. There was one woman who was from the village of Napaskiak which is about 60 miles downriver from Tuluksak. Some of our students knew her family. She told a very emotional story about her lifelong struggle with alcohol abuse and encouraged our students to live a sober life.

Throughout our stay, students wrote thank-you notes to the representatives, teachers, tour guides and others who spent time with us. One of my students chose to write to one of the inmates who spoke with us and I was really impressed with her message. 

Each school group was asked to put together a local project that identified a problem in their community and how they could ask their representatives to help with that problem. These students from Alakanuk and Numan Iqua focused their project on jobs they would like to see created in their villages. Other problems students addressed in their projects were water quality, lack of after school activities and the need for Village Police Officers in their communities. My student's project was about the need of running water in our village's clinic.

On the day before our students left, we took a trip to see the impressive Mendenhall Glacier. 

This was my first time seeing a glacier and I thought it was pretty cool! (get it?)

 Our district arranged a special trip for our students to visit the University of Alaska Southeast. The campus was on a lake surrounded by mountains and was absolutely beautiful. This campus is the smallest of University of Alaska's sites and has a sizable Alaskan Native population. For these reasons, it could be a good fit for our students who want to go to college. I know that after our tour and hearing about scholarship opportunities, several students were inspired to apply. 

After a few "exciting" experiences navigating the bus system during the week, I splurged the last day and we took a cab back to hostel. 

The skies were so clear on our flight from Bethel back to Tuluksak we could see the mountains in the distant. 

Returning to the village has been a bit challenging. Tax returns have created a serious influx of alcohol resulting in distressed students, shots being fired at all hours, and some pretty unpleasant encounters with drunk people at the store and post office. I am looking forward to the extra money running out and things quieting down. 

The weather has been strangely warm the last week--in the high 30s/40s with lots of sun. I've enjoyed spending lots of time outside with Birkie after being away for a week. We have one more week of school before spring break. I'm look forward to break and especially to seeing my parents who will be visiting Alaska for the first time and spending a few days with me in the village.