A program that provides students from across Alaska with educational opportunities in engineering, science and business celebrated its 30th anniversary last week.
Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, known as ANSEP, began 30 years ago to help one Indigenous student get a scholarship. Since then, ANSEP has helped more than 2,500 Alaskans from all over the state get their footing in science, engineering and business.
Matt Calhoun, the program’s executive director, is Athabaskan from Southcentral Alaska, with roots in the Upper Kuskokwim River region. Calhoun dropped out of college back in the 1990s but returned to become one of the first ANSEP students – and, according to the University of Alaska Anchorage, the first Alaska Native to earn a Ph.D. in civil engineering.
Calhoun said there were 20 university students in the program when he started.
“Now there's thousands, from kindergarten to PhD,” he said. “That's really the progress that's occurred over the past 30 years.”
ANSEP is a University of Alaska program funded through a variety of government and private organizations. One of its main features is that it allows middle and high school students to take college classes, helping families – as well as the state as a whole – save money.
One of those students is Isabella January. Originally from Bethel, she joined the program because she wanted to dip her toes into science. But by the time she graduated high school, she’d already earned 125 college credits. This spring, she will graduate with an associate of science degree and then attend the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the fall.
“I plan to specialize in either neurosurgery or emergency medicine, and I will be receiving my MD within the next four years,” January said. “It is all thanks to ANSEP for allowing me to get a jump start in my career.”
She said she hopes to specialize in removing tumors or treating aneurysms and strokes.
Several hundred participants – including students, alumni, partners and supporters – gathered at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center for the anniversary celebration, which was a night filled with music, dance, food and speeches.
The event featured keynote speaker Izzy Yasana, a value brand manager at Nike and a member of the Klamath and Modoc tribes. Following the ANSEP tradition, students presented giant strips of baleen to various organizations for their support of the program.
ANSEP founder Herb Schroeder spoke during the event as well. Schroeder said the idea behind the program was to grow the number of Alaska Native professionals working in areas like fish and wildlife management, health care and education. He said he faced pushback for that initiative and saw mistreatment of Alaska Native students in schools and universities.
He said he realized that scholarship money wasn’t what students really needed.
“What they needed was somebody to believe in them,” Schroeder said. “For the students – thank you for inspiring us every single day by doing what was once considered impossible. It is the honor of my life to have helped kick down the walls of ignorance that denied opportunity to so many for so long.”
