Seward Upward Bound High School Students Travel to UAF

Imagine, as a rural high school student, traveling to a university to see firsthand how being a student could benefit not only you but an entire community.      

A group of 10 Seward High School students in the Upward Bound program and their teacher road-tripped north to Fairbanks earlier this month for a five-day immersive tour of UAF and the greater Fairbanks area. It wasn’t your typical sightseeing tour by any means. These students were on a mission! 

The students visited the UAF campus, saw some projects they started, learned about renewable energy, and met UAF students, faculty and staff.  

ACEP Director Gwen Holdmann sat down with the students and introduced them to microgrids and renewable energy. Holdmann related how she incorporates renewable technology at her home, which students later visited. There, Holdmann, who has no refrigerator, challenged the students upon their arrival at her home to find where she stores her perishable foods. They were blown away to discover she lowers a dumb waiter into a root cellar below her house. 

“The ultimate goal for this past week's Seward experience was to help them feel connected with the University of Alaska and the UAF T3 Alliance Makerspace,” said Adam Low, director of the Upward Bound program and UAF’s T3 Alliance program lead, “It’s important to give students a chance to immerse themselves into the context of how a student contributes and adds to their community through projects.”   

Upward Bound is program funded by the Department of Education, and the T3 Alliance supported the logistics of the event.

For more information on the Upward Bound and T3 Alliance programs, please contact Adam Low at alow@alaska.edu.

 

At right, Gabriel Low, T3 Alliance’s chief operating officer, and Brian Reggiani, Upward Bound’s associate director, look over seismometer data collected by a Seward Upward Bound student.