Community-Engaged Learning Awards
Benjamin Anderson, Madeline Andriesen, Grace Farrell, Ellie Martinson, Mari Ana Beks, Ariana Lopez, Taylor Hendricks, & Arianna Carroll
Mentor: Jaunelle Celaire
During the 2021-2022 school year, 性欲社 Opera Workshop program received CEL funding to complete an outreach opportunity with a collection of Musical Theater and Operetta pieces for local Elementary, Middle, and High Schools. where support for local music programs are being drastically reduced.
"URSA has helped me reach goals through their funding and ongoing support. We were able to reach out into a community of younger students, and a community of educators, in an effort to make connections and to share our art. That is always the goal of us as performers and to have had that chance is in itself, wonderful." - Grace Farrell
Mel Durrett
Institute of Arctic Biology (IAB)
Students: Lillian Nelson & Ashlyn Squier
Alaska鈥檚 food security has been an ongoing challenge since the days of Russian America, yet the agricultural industry in the United States has little reason to develop plant varieties specifically for Alaska. Heirloom varieties of vegetables, fruits, and flowers are a significant source of agricultural diversity and may be bred by local gardeners into Alaska-hardy strains, because anyone can save their seeds and replant them. A 鈥渟eed library鈥 is where a stock of seeds is 鈥渓oaned鈥 to local gardeners to be grown in local conditions. Ideally, after harvest, gardeners save some seed from their bounty to 鈥渞eturn鈥 to the library. A seed library grows over time, in the number of seed stewards using seed as well as the abundance and variety of seeds available. A healthy local seed library can safeguard local agricultural biodiversity and give gardeners more control over local food production (aka food sovereignty).
Beatrice Turley
Mentor: Sean Dowgray
Music is a positive communal force but there are remote Alaska areas that do not have established music programs. This project provided rural students with hands-on music exercises as a creative approach to learning the Alaskan public school standard geometry curriculum.
" This experience with URSA is an unparalleled opportunity you will not find within any other undergraduate program. Through my work with URSA I now have a greater understanding of my career field; one that is much further than a typical four year degree is able to offer. "