Education Week - June 13, 2018 - 9

"We have over 400 students in
our school district, and I know
every single one of them," Van
Wyhe said.
Meanwhile, in Quinhagak, a
small, even more remote village on
Alaska's southwestern Bering Sea
coast, Robby Strunk, a high school
junior and gifted student, takes
most of his classes online. His favorite subject is math, but his school's
most difficult math class is Algebra
2, which Strunk took as a freshman.
Strunk said there are no teachers at
his school who are trained to work
with gifted children. He also said
that because of budget reductions
last year, his school had to cut a
teacher position, leaving only two
teachers at his 227-student high
school.

College Transition
Strunk, however, has an opportunity to further his education
through the Rural Alaska Honors
Institute, an intensive college-preparatory program that brings rural,
Alaskan Native high school juniors
and seniors from across the state to
the University of Alaska Fairbanks
for six weeks.
Students can earn anywhere from
eight to 11 college credits in one
summer through the all-expensespaid program.
Started in 1983, it is the oldest,

continuously run program for academically promising rural students
in Alaska.
The program was created in
partnership with the University of
Alaska and the Alaska Federation
of Natives, with the goal of helping
students ease the transition from
village to town as they gear up for
college.
The program, which nearly 1,800
students have attended since its
inception, receives an average of
125 applicants each year and accepts 40 to 50 of them, according
to RAHI program manager Denise Waters. Students must have a
3.0 GPA and have lived in Alaska
most of their lives.
Strunk has been hearing about
RAHI his whole life. His four older
siblings went through it, and he
was accepted to attend this summer, along with 41 other students
from across the state. He said he is
hoping to have similar experiences,
and that the program will give him
a jumpstart on college.
Over six weeks, students take
classes from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and
then work in a mandatory study
hall from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., five days
a week.
"This is not a walk in the park,"
Waters said.
S t u de nt s c ho o s e f r om t wo
course-study options. For those
with an interest in the sciences,

In a rural school
of 100 elementary
students, you'd only
have maybe five gifted
kids, maybe one for
every grade level.
The opportunity for
a teacher to create
a whole enriched
curriculum for one
child becomes
limited."
CAROLYN CALLAHAN
University of Virginia

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there is RAHI Research. Students
must have taken some basic biology or chemistry classes and write
two essays. This summer, six students will join university researchers, and, depending on the nature
of the research the university is
conducting, the students will be
required to go into the field, collect
data, assist with research, write
a research paper, and give a final
presentation about their findings.

Hard Work and Opportunity
The other track, the more traditional path, gears students up
for managing college life. Those
students take classes in college
writing, library sciences, and
study skills. In the afternoon, they
choose from among four different
classes: an appropriate level math
class, chemistry, business, and
a class that teaches the process
and operations of refinery, chemical, and other industry manufacturing. In the evening, a physical
education class is required; Alaska
Native dance, karate, and yoga are
the options.
The university and the Alaska
Federation of Natives were able to
entirely fund the program on their
own when it began in the 1980s.
"This was during the [oil] pipeline
days, and there was more money,"
Waters said.

But in the last 10 years, external funding and partnerships were
needed to continue the program.
The state of Alaska is grappling
with a recession that has left districts, schools, and students with
few resources, especially for the
advanced content required to challenge gifted students.
This summer, while Strunk is attending RAHI, Aric will continue volunteering at the library and at Cross
Road Clinic, as well as working with
his school district to put together
technology guides for teachers and
students to work with the devices
the school plans to start using next
school year. In the fall, Aric will be
leaving Glennallen, and Alaska, to
study computer technology at Grove
City College in Pennsylvania.
Strunk's longterm goal? He hopes
to return to Quinhagak after college
and possibly teach math at this local
high school.
Coverage of the experiences of lowincome, high-achieving students is
supported in part by a grant from
the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation,
at www.jkcf.org. Education Week
retains sole editorial control over
the content of this coverage.
Victoria Petersen is an Alaskan
journalist, working as the education
reporter for the Peninsula Clarion
newspaper.

Quality Counts: Follow the Money -
School Finance and Funding
Funding is the lifeblood of public
education, underpinning everything
from staffing to curriculum to
administration. this webinar
examines state-by-state school
spending patterns, how fairly that
money is distributed, and the
factors underlying those decisions.

guEStS
* daarel Burnette II, staff
writer, Education Week
* sterlIng lloyd, assistant
director, education week
research Center

Education Week - June 13, 2018

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