APU president says the school can help address Alaska’s outmigration woes – Alaska Beacon

Alaska Pacific College, with about 600 college students, is dwarfed by its next-door neighbor, the College of Alaska Anchorage and its roughly 11,000 college students.

However college President Janelle Vanasse mentioned the small non-public college, which is transitioning right into a federally designated tribal faculty, can play an essential position in addressing a sweeping Alaska downside: the continued outmigration of residents, particularly younger folks.

“We could also be a small a part of a giant resolution, however I feel we is usually a key half,” Vanasse instructed the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce on Monday.

The challenges are broad, Vanasse mentioned in a presentation that was related to her business-oriented viewers. Counting on a number of statistics, she offered an image of an Alaska that has, for varied causes, turn out to be much less engaging to college students.

Whereas greater than 60% of Anchorage highschool graduates who went to varsity a decade in the past selected in-state colleges, barely greater than half went exterior the state for his or her faculty educations by 2020, she mentioned, referring to knowledge from the Alaska Greater Schooling 2022 Almanac.

Fewer Anchorage highschool graduates are even going to varsity, she mentioned, citing the identical supply. In 2013, 52% did so, however by 2020 that fell to 37%, she mentioned.

Alaska ranks final among the many states in college students’ completion of four-year levels, with a 31% fee, she mentioned, drawing on data from the 2021 almanac. As compared, Massachusetts had the highest spot, with 74% of its college students finishing their levels.

For Alaska Native college students, there are extra challenges, mentioned Vanasse, who was superintendent of Mt. Edgecumbe Excessive College, a Native boarding faculty in Sitka, instantly earlier than she got here to APU.

Whereas Indigenous college students make up about 20% of highschool graduates, they account for less than 2% of certified college students receiving the state-provided Alaska Efficiency Scholarships, in response to 2019 statistics, she mentioned.

That exhibits plenty of missed alternatives, she mentioned: “We want to have the ability to assist the continued scholarship of our Alaska Native college students.”

That’s the place standing as a tribal faculty is useful due to the deal with Indigenous tradition, wants and methods of studying, she mentioned.

Citing Decrease 48 data from the American Indian School Fund, she mentioned arduous knowledge exhibits that Indigenous college students can discover it troublesome to really feel snug at school. In accordance with these statistics, 86% of tribal faculty or college college students full their chosen program of research, however fewer than 10% who go instantly from reservation colleges to schools full their bachelor’s diploma.

“With out a sense of belonging, folks drop out of faculty,” she mentioned. “And it’s very, very true for college students who come from a minority inhabitants,” or for many who are first-generation faculty college students. Many Alaska Natives fall into each classes, she famous.

Presently, about 30% of APU’s college students are Alaska Native, up from 20% only a few years in the past, Vanasse mentioned. One of many necessities for turning into a federally acknowledged tribal faculty is 50%; at the moment it’s thought of an Alaska Native-serving faculty, she mentioned.

For now, Iḷisaġvik School in Utqiagvik is the state’s solely tribal faculty.

APU doesn’t at the moment have a timeline for turning into eligible for the tribal designation, Vanasse mentioned.

For each Indigenous and non-Indigenous college students, APU’s distinctive hands-on and community-focused applications could make it a gorgeous place to get an training.

A lot of that is proven in APU’s health-education applications. The college has a partnership with the Alaska Native Tribal Well being Consortium; the sprawling ANTHC campus borders APU’s leafy campus.

Well being training contains nursing, comparable to a licensed sensible nursing program working in Bethel and Utqiagvik and about to develop to Juneau and Fairbanks.

There’s a new bachelor of science program in environmental public well being, she instructed the chamber viewers, “as a result of the fact is, in the event you take a look at our communities, particularly our rural communities, there’s lots occurring in that setting that’s impacting the well being and the general public well being of that group.”

APU is likely one of the faculties, together with the College of Alaska Fairbanks and the College of Colorado, that’s serving as a group heart for the Nationwide Science Basis’s Navigating the New Arctic analysis program. By way of that program, APU is concerned in research about local weather change and resilience within the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta; these research emphasize Indigenous information.

Different signature APU applications are its environmental and sustainability levels, its marine science levels, its out of doors applications and its Spring Creek Farm on the Kellogg Campus within the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, which has a deal with meals safety, she mentioned.

A lot of what APU provides might be thought of complementary to the College of Alaska, together with the next-door Midtown Anchorage neighbor, UAA, Vanasse mentioned.

“APU doesn’t have to develop by stealing or taking a few these folks,” she mentioned, referring to a graph exhibiting the 2 colleges’ pupil enrollment. “What we have to do within the state of Alaska is develop each of these packing containers.”