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Lydia, who grew up in the small Alaska town of Haines, had a very un-Alaskan experience during spring break 2023.

A collegiate chess club from Alaska has one advantage: Teams from elsewhere don’t know what’s coming at them.

Jaiden, who grew up in Fairbanks, has “never seen a real beach before.” But even though she pondered Hawaii for college, she didn’t feel the need to escape her hometown.

A sawed-off 6-foot bow section of a concrete canoe stands upright in a Duckering Building hall, part of a display about engineering at UAF. Look closely, and you’ll see a subtle image of a harpoon pressed into the boat’s floor.

When a housing mix-up canceled Riley von Borstel’s plans to attend college in Hawaii, she quickly regrouped and headed to UAF. She knew a bit about the place.

When Don Sumic graduated from high school in Waikoloa, on Hawaii’s Big Island, he saw many of his classmates headed in one direction.

Elmore, an undergraduate in ocean science, is investigating the sources of mercury in Alaska’s Kachemak Bay. 

Jenessa Oviok’s nephew was born with a hole in his heart. Watching him face that challenge, while she wasn’t able to help, helped her decide on a career. “That’s why I want to be a doctor,” she said.

Benny Acquah remembers the trouble people sometimes had obtaining clean water in her home city of Koforidua, Ghana. So she decided she would study environmental engineering at UAF and someday help solve such problems.

Kahryn Buchanan didn’t like math until she started taking a college-level course. At age 13.

Two unique features have marked life at UAF since its earliest days, and Grace Miller has embraced both. She skis on the cross-country team, and, like many students, she lives in a cabin without running water.

Daniel Dykes first got interested in neuroscience as he watched doctors on the fictional TV program “House.” Now he’s studying the topic at UAF and plans to eventually earn both a doctorate and a medical degree.

Cyan Woodward has been fascinated by geology her whole life. Volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis — “I was interested in learning the mechanisms behind them,” she said.

Like other painters, Ruth Nashookpuk uses canvas as a foundation. But when she’s done, Nashookpuk can lace up her work and apply it to her other passion: basketball.

Chelsea Brown went straight from high school in Georgia to a 35,000-student university nearby. However, the U.S. Army transferred her mother to Fairbanks a few years later, prompting Brown to follow and enroll at UAF.

John Oulton bought a car last summer. The 2008 Chevy Cobalt isn’t big or fancy. Car and Driver magazine described it that year as “an acceptable choice as a transportation appliance.”

Bachelor’s in secondary education
Hometown: Quinhagak

Bachelor’s in Yup’ik Eskimo
Hometown: Newtok

Andrew Akelkok, a high school student in Dillingham, studies energy at UAF's Bristol Bay Campus in hopes of finding better sources for rural villages.

Mark Conde, a space physicist with UAF Geophysical Institute, wants to make maps of weather in the upper atmosphere above Antarctica.

Matthew Balazs, geophysics student, and Anupma Prakash, professor of geophysics.

UAF electrical engineering graduate student, Morgan Johnson, and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, Denise Thorsen

When Lakeidra Chavis told friends she would move to Bethel to work as a reporter for the public radio station this fall, she could feel their skepticism.

Jeff Thompson didn’t tell people where he lived when he first started school at the �鶹���� Fairbanks. After a series of setbacks in his life and his blue-collar career, Thompson had moved into a homeless shelter, the Fairbanks Rescue Mission.

This summer, Sean McGee, who has taught homeland security and emergency management courses at the UAF School of Management for three years, shared the following thoughts about his life and career.

Derek Starkenburg’s academic progression is a case study in how a person can set out on one path but take many forks.

Jesstin Patterson attends petroleum engineering classes in Fairbanks, hundreds of miles from his home villages, but those places remain foremost in his mind — and often on his taste buds.

Before breaking his back in a four-wheeler accident in 2001, Brant Schalk was a skateboarder. “I would try a trick over and over until I landed it,” he says. “And printmaking demands the same level of patience and process, if not more. In a way, printmaking has filled the hole that was left when I could no longer skateboard.”

"Speaking directly to a student like Tiana about her experience, I learned that donors like you and me truly make a difference in students’ lives."

A few dozen students at the �鶹���� Fairbanks put a twist on the traditional spring break trip to the beach each year.

Jennifer Moss discusses her painting "Caribou Night."

Carolyn Lang’s life is consumed by one goal: finishing the Yukon Quest. For now, she’s a dog handler, which means scooping poop, putting on booties, cutting meat and performing minor vet care. She’s also a full-time student at the �鶹���� Fairbanks.

"At UAF, I was given room to discover what I have to contribute to the world ... Thanks in part to the mentorship I received at UAF, I discovered what propels and inspires me the most."

UAF graduate, Bennett Wong, and UAF School of Education assistant professor, Ute Kaden

UAF electrical engineering major, John Venables, and Alaska Center for Energy and Power director, Gwen Holdmann