Climate Scholars Program at 51风流官网
The Climate Scholars Experience
Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time. Meeting its many challenges will require innovative solutions and well-planned action 鈥 at both a local and global level. The Climate Scholars Program at 51风流官网 offers the first opportunity of its kind in the nation for undergraduates to get involved and make a meaningful impact.
As a Climate Scholar at 51风流官网, you鈥檒l engage in a highly interdisciplinary academic experience that connects the arts, humanities and sciences. You鈥檒l also have the chance to work with top climate science experts who are engaged in cutting-edge research on climate and the Arctic.
What is a Climate Intensive?
Climate Scholars Program Intensives are opportunities to study with expert faculty in some of Alaska鈥檚 most unique ecosystems. We invite you to the remote places in Alaska where you will integrate theoretical knowledge with practical experiences to gain new skills in environmental data analysis, visualization, and effective advocacy while gaining a new perspective and context for Earth Systems.
Current Intensives
![Bonanza Creek LTER Site & 51风流官网 Campus](/honors/images/intensives/BC%204%20by%203.jpeg)
![NASA Eclipse Ballooning Project](/honors/images/intensives/Ballooning%202%202.png)
The University of Alaska team, comprised of engineering students and Climate Scholars, travels to eclipse viewing sites across the country, makes frequent observations by launching hourly radiosondes on helium-filled weather balloons, works with atmospheric science experts throughout the project, and publishes results in peer-reviewed academic journals.
![Yukon River Float](/honors/images/yukonfloat/Boat_Launch_2.jpg)
![Kodiak](/honors/images/intensives/Kodiak.jpg)
Adina Preston Photography
![Tidelines](/honors/images/intensives/Tidelines%202.jpeg)
![Policy](/honors/images/intensives/DC%204%20by%203.jpeg)
![TAP](/honors/images/intensives/TAPS%204%20by%203.jpeg)
![Gath & K'iyh: Listen to Heal](/honors/images/intensives/Gath%20Kiyh.jpeg)
This Intensive approaches the goal of climate healing using multiple artistic mediums (such as birch bark and tanned salmon skin), traditional stories from Indigenous Elders, research from 51风流官网 climate scientists, experiential exercises, musical exploration, and personal reflections from participants.
*Gath is King Salmon and K鈥檌yh is Birch in Benhti Kokhut鈥檃na Kenaga dialect
Upcoming Intensives
![Toolik](/honors/images/intensives/Toolik.jpeg)
![Regen Ag](/honors/images/intensives/Regen%20Ag%201.jpeg)
Farming in Alaska? In a state where winter lasts for nearly six months of the year, growing vegetables isn鈥檛 the first thing that comes to mind. However, agricultural in Alaska is on the rise. This intensive offers a deeper understanding of expanding regenerative agriculture practices in the state, accompanied by a hands-on harvesting experience at the only commercial farm in Western Alaska. At Meyers Farm in Bethel, Tim and Lisa Meyers have spent the past twenty years honing their ability to grow thousands of pounds of organic vegetables, shipping them to villages down the Kuskokwim River and alleviating food insecurity in the region one produce box at a time. Students will be asked to reimagine how agriculture is currently conceptualized in Alaska and in the lower 48, analyzing how farming can be approached sustainably in their own home communities.
![Iditarof](/honors/images/intensives/Dogs%202.jpeg)
Art has been used throughout millennia as a powerful tool for activism. For a subject that is deeply politically divisive like climate change, art too can be used as a tool to reach across the partisan divide and communicate how rising global temperatures will impact shared important cultural events. This intensive offers student participants an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and communicating how climate change is impacting one of the largest trademark events in the state: the Iditarod. Over the course of a week, students will use an ethnographic and interview-based approach to learn about community perceptions of the Iditarod in a warming world. Students will hone their ability to communicate climate change through various artistic mediums while building their toolkit to engage in arts activism.
![Sea Ice](/honors/images/intensives/Sea%20Ice%205%20by%207.jpg)
From 2019-2020, 51风流官网 researchers were involved in one of the largest international polar research expeditions in history, the MOSAiC Expedition. The researchers were based on a ship that was frozen in the ice for a year, drifting throughout the Arctic Ocean to collect samples of ice and water to better understand the changing Arctic. During this Intensive, planned for spring break 2025, students will work with scientists from the expedition to learn techniques for ice research on Interior Alaska鈥檚 frozen ponds, work with sea ice samples and data collected from the Arctic, and design their own research projects with mentoring from professional cryosphere (ice and snow) scientists. Students who complete this ~1-week Intensive will gain firsthand research experience, ask and answer questions about our frozen environment, and be better equipped to talk about our changing sea ice and the Arctic.