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Ilisagvik College: Helping Students Get Ahead While Keeping Their Identities

There are 37 tribal colleges in the United States. Barrow, Alaska is home to one of them. Ilisagvik College was founded in the 1980s but didn’t become an independent, accredited tribal school until the 2006. Now it offers a blend of traditional college classes, technical trade training, and Inupiaq culture that gives students from around the North Slope the chance to get ahead -without leaving their identities behind.

For the next several weeks, APRN will be airing a series that looks at how Alaskans describe what makes their way of life unique. Whether you live in a village or a city, everyone has a culture and we're going to bring you stories of how both urban and rural Alaskans define and live theirs. The series is funded by a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum Rose Urban Rural Exchange.

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Anne Hillman is a behavioral health clinician working in rural Alaska. Before going back to school for her Masters of Social Work, she covered social justice issues for Alaska Public Media and ran the multimedia and arts project Mental Health Mosaics with Out North.