Four days after graduating from high school in 2020, Eli moved to Fairbanks from his childhood home in Big Lake, near Anchorage, Alaska. He had a job as a wildland firefighter but nowhere to live.
"I had a duffel bag with all my stuff in it that I would need for the summer," he said. A new co-worker gave him a spot to sleep under a bunk in a cabin. “It was sort of a Harry Potter situation. Oh, I loved it. It was the best. I met a lot of really good friends."
That fall, he enrolled at UAF, settling on a major in natural resources with a minor in emergency management — studies that dovetail with his wildland firefighting work.
Since then, he has fought fires every summer in Alaska and Montana. The work covers his expenses, and scholarships take care of tuition.
When he isn’t working in summers, Eli said, he’s flyfishing for salmon.
As Eli was growing up, his dad worked as a hunting guide and trapper.
“It definitely influenced me wanting to get into some sort of career field that involves being outdoors,” he said. “I feel like I kind of basically grew up on the back of a snowmachine or four-wheeler.”
Coming to UAF, he found it a natural fit. "You've got to be a little bit different to want to live here, right?" he said. "That makes the faculty and staff different, in a good way — they're very accepting and open."
He has also been impressed with the quality of the schooling.
“You get the education of going to a big, prestigious university with that smaller university feel,” he said..
