Published May 3, 2023 by Alaska Native News

Tuesday the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development announced four teachers as finalists for the 2024 Alaska Teacher of the Year: Catherine Walker (Anchorage School District), Jennifer Reinhart (Kenai Peninsula Borough School District), Megan Henry (Anchorage School District), and Michelle Heminger (Fairbanks North Star Borough School District).

The Alaska Teacher of the Year and an alternate will be announced before the end of this school year. The selected teacher will serve as Alaska’s nominee for the National Teacher of the Year and will be able to participate in programs and activities with other State Teachers of the Year coordinated by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

“Congratulations to our four finalists for Alaska’s Teacher of the Year and those who were selected by their peers for this special recognition,” said Acting Commissioner Heidi Teshner. “These four teachers are a testament to the teaching profession and deserve recognition for the impact they are making in the classroom and in their school communities. Thank you for choosing to be a public school teacher in Alaska and for all you do to help our students be successful.”

Published May 3, 2023 by Greg Knight

According to Rick Thoman with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, that 8.4-degree average is significantly lower than what Nome usually sees.

“That is 14 degrees below the normal,” Thoman said. “It’s not the coldest April that we’ve ever had; 1985 was significantly colder. The average temperature is only about one degree above zero that month.”

That chilly April in 1985 showed an average temperature of just 1.3 degrees.

Of note this April, It was the coldest in a lifetime. The next coldest April was in 1924 with an average temperature of 4.1 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Unless you’re almost 100 years old now this was the either the second coldest or coldest April that you’ve lived through,” Thoman said.

This year, Nome saw an extremely cold single-day temperature in April, though warmer temperatures later in the month affected the average.

Published May 3, 2023 by Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon

Alaska is the home of the world’s biggest piedmont glacier — meaning it falls from a mountain into a plain. But a new study has revealed it is not quite as big as previously believed, and its low-elevation positioning makes it more highly susceptible to melting that would affect the rise in global sea levels.

The findings are in a study of Malaspina Glacier, which spills out of the St. Elias Mountains into a wide circular lobe atop a broad plain that stops short of the sea.

If Malaspina’s 590 cubic kilometers of above-sea-level ice melts, that would raise global sea levels by 1.4 millimeters, about seven times the current annual impact on sea levels by Alaska glaciers’ melt, the study found.

Exactly when and how fast Malaspina will melt out is a subject still being calculated, said the study’s lead author, Brandon Tober, a University of Arizona geophysics doctoral student. That work is being done by the same team that produced the new study, with members from UAF and the University of Montana as well as Tober and his University of Arizona colleagues. Tober said he hopes some results that forecast Malaspina’s future will be ready for release by the end of the year.

The Malaspina-scanning research was part of NASA’s Operation IceBridge, a program that ran from 2009 to 2021 and used airborne equipment to measure sea ice, glaciers and ice caps in both polar regions.

Published May 3, 2023

Graduation at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is the same graduation experienced years ago by older readers in that graduates then and now donned gowns. Pretty much, that is where the similarity ends, we at the News-Miner have come to realize.

We salute and congratulate the UAF Class of 2023, which is crossing the stage Saturday, but recognize how this class bears no resemblance to the graduates of 2003 and before, or even of 2013.

Published May 3, 2023 by Wrangell Sentinel

Students dissect, build, study and play in science trip

They tested their abilities to follow instructions. They designed and built structures to withstand seismic activity. They studied the inner workings of marine life. They looked at sea lion poop.

Over the course of seven days, six students from Stikine Middle School attended the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) at the University of Alaska Anchorage campus.

Published May 3, 2023

On the first weekend in May, the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) will celebrate student achievement and success at commencement activities on its three campuses in Sitka, Ketchikan, and Juneau. UAS expects to award 381 associate, bachelor, and master’s degrees, as well as certificates, professional licensures, and occupational endorsements. Commencement in Sitka takes place Friday, May 5, Ketchikan on Saturday, May 6, and Juneau’s event is Sunday, May 7. Details for each ceremony follows.

UAS Chancellor Karen Carey, Provost Maren Haavig, UA Regent Dale Anderson, and UA President Pat Pitney will travel to the campuses to celebrate the success of graduates in the three communities.

“We are enormously proud of our graduates at all three UAS campuses,” noted Chancellor Karen Carey. “Many of our students are first-generation college students and are completing their degree while raising a family and working one or two jobs. Every one of them chose to advance their skills and education at UAS as a pathway to improving their life and that of their family and community. They’ve put in a lot of hard work, and now it is time to celebrate their accomplishments! Well done, all!”

Published May 3, 2023

Community has been at the heart of Tuan Graziano’s undergraduate career at UAA. The spring 2023 student commencement speaker has been volunteering in various capacities since high school, and once at UAA, his sense of serving his community and advocating for his fellow students grew.

“A mentor and I were discussing what it means to have and provide genuine support and we came up with a really cool quote that still resonates with me today,” Graziano said. “What do you want to do and how can I help? I think about that when I am advocating for others and it’s been such a guiding principle in my life and the work that I do.”

When Graziano wasn’t studying for his economics major or political science minor, you could find him on the second floor of the Student Union in the Union of Students of the University of Alaska Anchorage (USUAA) offices. His terms as USUAA student body vice president and president came on the heels of major university budget cuts, and an unprecedented global pandemic — a tall order for any leader to handle — let alone a student. But Graziano’s deeply rooted beliefs in public service and advocating for those without a voice navigated him through those uncertain times, allowing him to continue providing a voice for his peers and other interested stakeholders at UAA. 

Published May 2, 2023 by Izzy Ross

Tav Ammu: Hello, I'm Tav Ammu with Alaska Sea Grant. And Alaska Sea Grant is an organization that coordinates between the University of Alaska Fairbanks and NOAA.

Ross: Thank you for joining us today. I hope you had a great weekend and a great start to your week. What is on the docket for the Sea Grant and for the campus?

Ammu: So we're excited. Not this week, but next week, we're having a Business of Fish with BBEDC, and we're going to different communities around the bay to give presentations. We have several presenters, Alice Ruby, Tim Sands, Andrew Miller, me and Tony Zoch from a variety of different organizations.

Monday we'll be in Dillingham at the Bristol Bay Campus that is available in person and online. Tuesday we'll be at the Manokotak Village Council. Wednesday we'll be in Togiak at the Togiak Traditional Council. And Thursday will be in Naknek at the Naknek Native Village Council.

Well, we'll have a couple presentations from BBEDC. We'll have a presentation from ADF&G, from the Department of Natural Resources and me kind of talking about different programs and what's happening in our neck of the woods. And I will be talking about the skipper apprenticeship program that will be starting up after this summer season.