GEOFORCE ALASKA: DESIGNING FIELD EXPERIENCES AND BUILDING A LEARNING COMMUNITY TO ATTRACT, PREPARE, AND RETAIN RURAL, ALASKA NATIVE, AND FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTS (Invited Presentation)

GeoFORCE Alaska is a four-year, field-based, summer geoscience program designed to raise graduation rates in rural Alaskan school districts and encourage participants to pursue college degrees. The program was launched in 2012 by the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in partnership with GeoFORCE Texas. Two cohorts of predominantly Alaska Native students have since completed the curriculum with the support of industry sponsors and Alaska Native Regional Corporations. With an overall high school graduation rate of 95% and a college matriculation rate of 68%, these two cohorts have raised graduation rates in remote Alaskan communities and increased the participation of rural, Alaska Native, and first-generation students at colleges and universities. However, alumni tracking indicates that barriers to degree completion remain.

In order to increase preparation of college-bound participants, GeoFORCE Alaska will incorporate digital mapping and language arts curricula into expanded summer Academies. To support alumni when they arrive at UAF, we will build an undergraduate learning community during the 2020-2021 academic year. This NSF-funded GeoFORCE Learning Community (GLC) will provide academic, social, and financial support for GeoFORCE Alaska graduates through a combination of scholarships, common course construction, supplemental instruction, and Geoscience Club activities.

Whereas the pandemic poses challenges to execution of the summer GeoFORCE Alaska Academy and to construction of the GLC, solutions lie in flexibility and adaptability. Lack of connectivity in rural communities complicates efforts to reproduce hands-on projects and simulate geological locations in a virtual environment, so we elected to postpone the 2020 First-Year Academy until summer 2021. The Third- and Fourth-Year Academies will be combined, allowing the new cohort to complete the program on schedule. As GeoFORCE alumni alter their fall 2020 plans in the face of changing delivery methods, the GLC will allow students at rural campuses to participate in study halls and tutoring through synchronous online sessions. By keeping cohorts together throughout their undergraduate experience, we aim to increase degree completion rates and diversify the Alaskan workforce.