GeoFORCE Alaska launches first season
July 27, 2012
907-474-7902
7/27/12
The University of Alaska Fairbanks this week hosted the first season of GeoFORCE Alaska, a program that prepares high school students to pursue higher education in math and science fields and eventually enter the high-tech workforce.
The program brought together 16 ninth-graders from six North Slope villages for a week of field study. Students are visiting sites of geological interest, such as the Fox permafrost tunnel, Healy coal deposits, Denali National Park, Anchorage's Earthquake Park, Portage Glacier, Matanuska Glacier and the Denali Fault from July 21 - 27, 2012. The weeklong program ends with presentations and a graduation ceremony July 28 at UAF.
Over the next three years, the same cohort of students will take weeklong geologic field trips to the Grand Canyon, volcanoes of Washington and Oregon, and the Appalachian Mountains. Additional cohorts will be added each year from different regions of Alaska.
The program is a collaboration among UAF’s Rural Alaska Honors Institute, the UAF geology and geophysics department and the University of Texas at Austin.
Following is a list of participants:
Ariel Bodfish, Lorean Driggs and Frances Kagak, Wainwright; Chelsea Brower, Kaktovik; Jerry Brower, Sheldon Matumeak and Elijah Williams, Nuiqsut; Justin Ferris, Cynthia Kim, Braden Miguel, Jazzfer Moreno, Kimberly Pikok , Angelica Telfair and Monika Valdez, Barrow; Andrew Oktollik and Alfred Omnik, Point Hope.
ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Denise Wartes, GeoFORCE Alaska program manager, mdwartes@alaska.edu, 907-474-6886.
NOTE TO EDITORS: GeoFORCE participants will give presentations and participate in a graduation ceremony Saturday, July 28 from 11:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Room 201 of the Reichardt Building at UAF.
MG/7-27-12/028-13