Short Takes

Submitted by Marmian Grimes
Phone: (907) 474-7902
11/08/05

Summer Sessions joins national association
University of Alaska Fairbanks Summer Sessions was recently selected to join the Association of University Summer Sessions. The association was founded to serve as a forum for policy and administrative issues peculiar to summer sessions. Membership is limited to 50 universities.

History professor authors book on tribal commerce
John W. Heaton, an assistant professor of history at UAF, has authored a book that examines how the Shoshone-Bannock cattlemen at Fort Hall, Idaho, entered the marketplace while still maintaining their cultural beliefs. "The Shoshone-Bannocks: Culture and Commerce at Fort Hall, 1870-1940,"? was published in October by University Press of Kansas.

Students receive thousands in Alaska Advantage grants
About 100 students at UAF have received $114,000 through the Alaska Commission on Post-Secondary Education’s new AlaskAdvantage Education Grant program. Students received grants of between $500 and $2,000. Eligibility was based on financial need. Students studying for careers in workforce shortage areas such as education, community or social services, or allied health sciences, as well as those with high SAT or ACT test scores, received the largest grants. Students apply for the grant by completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

Human services program earns national recognition
The UAF Rural Human Services program was recently recognized by the First Nations Behavioral Health Association. The association named the program one of 10 Effective Practices and Models in Communities of Color: Effective Behavioral Health Interventions for Children, Adolescents and Families of Color. The four-semester, 32-credit certificate program trains students to work in the behavioral health field. According to the association, UAF was selected for recognition because it successfully meets critical workforce needs in rural Alaska.

Poet receives Wilderness Writing Award
UAF adjunct instructor and former Alaska poet laureate John Haines has received the first Wilderness Writing Award from the WILD Foundation, a non-profit international consortium of conservation organizations. Haines, who was named a UAF Northern Momentum Scholar for the 2002-2003 academic year, received the award "for his body of work published relating to meaningful and significant writing on wild nature, the environment and the land," according to a citation. "During his career, through his poetry and essays, Haines has contributed greatly to all of our appreciation of this world we share with nature," the citation states.

UAF chorus to perform at Carnegie Hall
The University Chorus under the direction of Jaunelle Celaire has been accepted to participate in the Carnegie Hall Concert Residency program, April 19-23, 2006 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The chorus will receive musical training from world-renowned choral directors and at the conclusion of the residency the chorus will perform Haydn’s "Te Deum" and Mozart’s Missa Brevis in B flat at Carnegie Hall. The chorus is accepting donations to help defray the costs. Contributions may be mailed to: Carnegie Hall program, 1009 Pedro Street, Fairbanks, AK 99701. The University Chorus will perform in Davis Concert Hall on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 8 p.m.