PAGE 1 FALL / WINTER 2007–08 Fall / Winter 2007–08 RURAL NEWS DEVELOPMENT University of Alaska Fairbanks Department of Alaska Native & Rural Development RD Graduate Wins $30,000 Alaska Marketplace Award DIANA (RIE D EL ) BU R TON , a 2003 RD BA and plans to use the graduate, won a $30,000 award in the Alaska award money for busi- Marketplace competition at the Alaska Federa- ness expansion. tion of Natives Convention in October. The 61 Annie Fritze of finalists for the competition were selected from Dillingham, a 2004 300 applicants and competed for $700,000 in RD BA graduate prize money to enhance their businesses. Ac- and current RD MA cording to the program’s booklet, “The Alaska student, was also one Marketplace is an initiative of the Alaska of the 61 finalists. Her Federation of Natives that cultivates innovative business is called The ideas to promote new businesses and to stimu- Art of Skin Sewing. late economic development in rural Alaskan Ulric Ulroan, a 2006 Diana (Riedel) Burton communities. It does so by incorporating tradi- RD BA graduate, was tional knowledge and cultural skills of Alaska’s a $25,000 winner in 2006, the first year of the residents.” Burton’s Dineega Specialty Furs is a competition. family-owned skin sewing business. Originally The theme of this year’s competition was from Cordova, she currently resides in Sitka “Culture and Development.” Hegna named one of “Alaska’s Top Forty Under 40” RD MA G R A D UATE Chamber of Commerce and Alaska Journal of SHAUNA HEGNA (2004) was Commerce to recognize the state’s top young named as one of Alaska’s “Top professionals younger than age 40. (As one of Shauna Hegna Forty Under 40” by the Anchor- the youngest award recipients, Hegna could age Chamber of Commerce. have been in the “top 30 under She is originally from Port Lions and currently thirty” category if there was serves as Deputy Director of the Rural Alaska one.) Award recipients have Community Action Program (RurAL CAP). The demonstrated professional prestigious award was presented to her by excellence and a commitment Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich at a luncheon to their community. at the Egan Center in Anchorage on November In a prepared statement 5. The program was created by the Anchorage continued on page 3 AMERICA’S ARCTIC UNIVERSITY RURAL DEVELOPMENT NEWS PAGE 2 Message from the Director BY GO rd ON L. PULLA R THI S FALL S E M E S TE R I am particularly excited and proud that our we can look back on faculty members are taking on this challenge. a significant year for the Rural Development The RD program will be stronger because of Program. Last spring we had a total of 20 RD their efforts. graduates, the most ever. There were 12 MA We have two new faculty members, both graduates and eight BA graduates. Congratula- of whom are no strangers to the RD program. tions to all of them! Our new student count for Professor JoAnn Ducharme has joined us in fall semester is 20, matching the graduation our Anchorage department office. Many know number. her for the years she spent as Director of Rural We have some exciting changes taking Student Services at UAF and as the Associ- place in the department. Professors Dixie ate Dean for Enrollment Management in the Dayo, Theresa John and Miranda Wright have College of Rural and Community Develop- all begun Ph.D. programs at UAF. This has ment. Dr. Tony Nakazawa joins our faculty in necessitated a cutback on their class time but Anchorage after spending the past ten years as it will be well worth it. A concerted effort is Director of Cooperative Extension Service. He emerging within UAF to develop more Alaska will be working 51% time as a DANRD faculty Native Ph.Ds and when our three faculty member. members receive theirs it will nearly double We are working on establishing new stu- the four Alaska Natives that have earned Ph.Ds dent opportunities through collaborations and at UAF thus far. As one of the approximately partnerships. We are currently in discussions 30 Alaska Native Ph.Ds currently in existence with the Resilience and Adaptation Program at UAF to co-sponsor a graduate level seminar at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to be held at UN headquar- ters in New York next May. We also hope to Student and secure funding for a student travel seminar to Greenland in August to attend the International Graduate Notes Congress of Arctic Social Sciences. The Alaska Federation of Natives Conven- tion was held in Fairbanks this year and was well attended by RD students and graduates. BEVE R LY MELOVI D OV , BA 2004 and MA 2007, One of our BA graduates, Dianna (Riedel) Bur- has been hired as the new Director of Shareholder ton won a $30,000 prize in the Alaska Market- Affairs for the TDX Foundation in her home village place competition for her business, Dineega of St. Paul Island. Specialty Furs. MA student Annie Fritze of Dillingham was a finalist in the competition. Finally, we are proud of the statistics that show that the Rural Development Program Apr IL LAKTONEN COUN C ELLE R , MA 2006, the is doing very well in graduating Alaska Na- Language Program Coordinator at the Alutiiq Mu- tive students. Of the 38 RD MA graduates, 31 seum in Kodiak has started in the Second Language (or 81.6%) have been Alaska Natives. Over Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE) Ph.D. this same five-year period there were 73 total program at UAF. This program is part of the UAF Alaska Native MA graduates representing only Interdisciplinary Program. Her doctorate will be in 6.7% of the total. The BA program has done Language Policy and Planning. She received her BA well in this area also with 121 of 157 gradu- in Anthropology from Brown University. ates being Alaska Native representing 77%. We look forward to a successful 2008! PAGE 3 FALL / WINTER 2007–08 Class of 2007 Sets a Record for RD Grads DANRD Grads and Faculty, 2007 THE DE P A R T M ENT OF ALA S KA NATIVE BA graduates and their hometowns are: AN D RU R AL DEVELO pm ENT awarded eight Albert Ames, Nenana; Jenny C. Bell-Jones BA and 12 MA degrees in 2007, the highest (summa cum laude), Fairbanks; Crystal Frank, number of degrees awarded by DANRD in a Arctic Village; Sonta M. Hamilton (cum laude), single year. The department has awarded 157 Shageluk; Dawson Hoover, Bethel; Hannah BA degrees since it was established in 1984. Loon, Selawik; Ronald H. Nalikak, Barrow/An- The graduate program began in 1999 and has chorage and Mercedes Yanez, Togiak. awarded 38 degrees with the 2007 graduating MA graduates include: Nicholas R. Charles, class representing nearly a third of that total. Jr., Bethel/Anchorage; Kelly Eningowuk, DANRD is a substantial contributor to UAF’s Shishmaref/Anchorage; Nina Heyano, Tanana/ commitment to meet the educational needs Anchorage; Joella Hogan, Whitehorse, Yukon of rural Alaska. Since 2002, we have been Territory, Canada; Linda Joule, Kotzebue; responsible for 42% of the master’s degrees James LaBelle, Kotzebue/Anchorage; Dorothy awarded to Alaska Natives at UAF and 18% of M. Larson, Dillingham/Anchorage; Daniel those awarded to Alaska Natives in the Uni- Lung, Anchorage; Beverly A. Melovidov, St. versity of Alaska system as a whole. This year’s Paul Island; Shannon E. Oelkers, Fairbanks; graduates join a large number of DANRD Ayapaq George Owletuck, Marshall/Anchor- alumni that can be found in leadership posi- age and David J. Parks, Wasilla. tions throughout Alaska. Congratulations class of 2007! graduation photos continue on page 8 continued from front page for the awards program, Hegna said, “I have Pullar, director of UAF’s Department of Alaska been blessed with many mentors in my life Native and Rural Development, also shaped who have helped me to become the person who I am today. He encouraged me to go to I am today. My father, Ivan Lukin, taught me graduate school and mentored me through the value of hard work, determination and the many of my first jobs. David Hardenbergh, importance of subsistence. He showed me RurAL CAP’s executive director, believes in my that if you put your mind to something, even potential and expects me to excel at everything if you have limited resources, you can make it I do. No excuses, just results. It is his high level happen. My older sister, Tanya Lukin-Linklater, of expectation, and my own drive, that makes taught me that every person can overcome im- me strive for excellence in everything I do. mense obstacles in pursuit of their dreams. She These four people have largely shaped my life. told me never to accept things ‘because that’s They have given me strength and encourage- the way they have always been’ and to strive ment and sometimes a swift kick in the pants for success. Most importantly, she told me that if I needed it. They have been my mentors and I could be anything that I chose to be. Gordon friends.” RURAL DEVELOPMENT NEWS PAGE 4 DANRD faculty and staff. Top row, left to right: Tony Nakazawa, Gordon Pullar, Gail Staudinger, Frances Bedel, Rick Knecht and Ralph Gabrielli. Bottom row, left to right: Dixie Dayo, Miranda Wright, JoAnn Ducharme and Theresa John. Faculty Highlights DIXIE MA S AK DAYO , Fairbanks assistant THE R E S A AR EVGAQ JOHN , assistant professor, has begun working on a Ph.D.