Students arrive for 26th annual RAHI

Submitted by Denise Wartes
Phone: 907-474-6886
05/30/08

Dozens of high school students from across Alaska arrived at the University of Alaska Fairbanks this week for the 26th annual Rural Alaska Honors Institute.

RAHI is a summer college preparatory program run by UAF’s College of Rural and Community Development. The 48 juniors and seniors attending this year’s program were selected from a pool of more than 120 applicants and hail from nearly three dozen communities across Alaska. They will spend the next six weeks living in UAF dormitories, building their academic skills and learning firsthand about college life. They will take courses throughout the program and earn up to 10 college credits for their efforts. A July 9 ceremony and awards banquet will mark the end of the 2008 program.

Organized in 1983 at the request of the Alaska Federation of Natives, RAHI aims to increase college success for rural Alaska Native students. Nearly 250 RAHI alumni have gone on to earn baccalaureate degrees. In addition, alumni have earned six law degrees and one medical degree, 108 associate degrees, and 44 certificates. More than 275 are working on their undergraduate degrees and 30 are in graduate school.

"These RAHI students are entering Alaska’s professional workforce "¦ and many more are in the educational pipeline who are closing in on the baccalaureate finish line," said RAHI director Denise Wartes. "RAHI is definitely making an intended impact."

In addition to the regular RAHI program, students from two other programs will reside with the RAHI students this summer. The first program, RAHI II, Next Step, will bring seven students from across Alaska to do genetics research with UAF scientists. The second program, EPSCoR Interns, is part of the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. Students will work as interns with UAF research programs.

RAHI courses are funded through several UAF departments, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., Wells Fargo, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and The Boeing Company.

CONTACT: Denise Wartes, RAHI director, at 907-474-6886 or via e-mail at fyrahi@uaf.edu. Marmian Grimes, UAF public information officer, at 907-474-7902 or via e-mail at marmian.grimes@uaf.edu.

ON THE WEB: www.uaf.edu/rahi