The Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program (ANSEP) was founded in 1995 to prepare Alaska Native students for careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. It starts with middle school programs where students build computers and explore careers. In high school, the Acceleration Academy advances students' math and science skills through intensive summer courses. The best students can then work in internships with industry partners. ANSEP has grown significantly, with over 1,800 students currently participating in its pipeline from middle school through graduate school.

1. 62 Alaska Business Monthly | September 2015www.akbizmag.com
special section Alaska Native Business
ANSEP Middle School and High School AcademiesANSEP Middle School and High School Academies
In a state that faces some of the highest
education costs and lowest performance
scores in the nation, one program is build-
ing a pipeline to prepare students for some
of the most demanding industries in Alaska.
The Alaska Native Science Engineering
Program (ANSEP) at the University of Alaska
Anchorageisdesignedtoprepareandsupport
Alaska Native students from middle school
through graduate school and build a career
path to succeed in the science, technology, en-
gineering, and math (STEM) fields.
Ninety-five percent of students that par-
ticipate in the ANSEP high school-level Ac-
celeration Academy advance one level in
math or science each summer, according to
the Urban Institute.
“The very best Acceleration Academy stu-
dentsareselectedandcanbeginworkingwith
our industry partners immediately after they
graduate from high school through the Sum-
merBridgecomponent,”saysHerbSchroeder,
thefounderandViceProvostofANSEP.“Icall
it career visioning—students have a real op-
portunitytoseewhatit’sliketoworkintheoil
and gas industry or to work in a conservation
career with a federal or state agency.”
Rough Start
Schroeder is not only the founder and Vice
Provost of ANSEP but also a professor of
engineering at the University of Alaska
Anchorage. When he started the program
in 1995, Schroeder was working for the US
government to discover better solutions for
rural sanitation to replace honey buckets.
He says in his work in rural Alaska he had
never met an Alaska Native engineer.
“Engineers were non-Native from outside
the state, and there were serious commu-
nication problems between the people that
lived in the communities and the engineers.
So since I was an engineering professor at
the university I said—naively—I’ll just
make some Native engineers, before I really
understood the issues,” Schroeder says.
He started by arranging funding from
Alyeska Pipeline Service Company to offer
scholarships to Alaska Natives. Schroeder
says he saw blowback from the engineering
department, but even after he pushed back
andsawsomeoftheprogram’sfirststudents,
he realized they were not academically and
socially prepared for the university.
“Academically I’d say they were like
eighth graders, so they had a long way to go
before they could ever take a college-level
course,” Schroeder says.
Schroeder set out to find the root of the
problem by reaching out to the districts re-
sponsibleforteachingthestudentsinAlaska’s
rural communities. The administrators had a
similarnegativeviewonteachingscienceand
math courses to its students, Schroeder says,
telling him the students were incapable of
grasping the material. Schroeder says he de-
cided to talk to the students directly. A friend
of Schroeder’s in Kotzebue helped identify a
group of students that would be successful in
college, and Schroeder says he brought com-
puters and the components to build them
when he met the students in Kotzebue.
“I told the kids that I was going to show
them how to build these computers, teach
them how to use them, and they could even
keep them as long as they took chemistry,
physics, and trigonometry in high school,”
Schroeder says.
To this day ANSEP’s Middle School
Academy and high school-level Accelera-
tion Academy students have had the oppor-
tunity to build and earn their own comput-
ers. But Schroeder’s first group of students
in Kotzebue said they couldn’t earn their
computer because those science and math
classes weren’t offered in their district at
the time. He told the students to ask their
principal to offer those classes in order for
them to be prepared for college.
Even after the school began offering the
necessary classes for an engineering de-
gree, Schroeder’s idea to make Alaska Na-
tive engineers was still an uphill battle.
“There was a disconnect in the grades that
students earned and the knowledge that they
acquired when they took those classes all
across the state, which even applies to An-
chorageandmajordistrictsaroundthestate,”
Schroedersays.“AstudentcouldgetanAorB
inAlgebra2,butwhenwetestedthemforcor-
rect placement they would be in Pre-Algebra.
We said, ‘Oh boy, what do we do?’ And that’s
how the Acceleration Academy was born.”
Acceleration Academy
Schroeder says the most cost-effective way to
prepare Alaska students for the STEM field
was to bring those students into Anchorage,
have university professors provide them with
the courses, and let the students earn univer-
sity credit at the same time they earned high
school credit. Fast forward to today: ANSEP’s
Acceleration Academy offers two five-week
sessionsattheUniversityofAlaskaAnchorage.
The sessions offer Intermediate Algebra to dif-
ferential equations and sciences courses that
span biology, chemistry, and geology, all while
feeding and housing the students at the dorms
togivestudentsthefeelingofbeingincollege.
Michael Ulroan, ANSEP Acceleration
Academy regional director, says each ANSEP
academy is unique and spans the realm of
STEM activities from building biomaterials
and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to out-
break response and carbon fiber training ses-
sions.Oneofthisyear’sAccelerationAcademy
team-based activities saw students building
a structure out of PVC piping and fiberboard
such that it could withstand an earthquake,
since Alaska is prone to earthquakes.
This year’s UAV activity saw ANSEP stu-
dents assemble the UAV from parts, pro-
gram it to fly, and then design a mechanism
fortheUAVtopickupanobjectandundergo
a mock search and rescue mission. Students
spentfiveafternoonsoverthreeweeksunder
the direction of UAA engineering professors
in the process. They attempted computer-
basedsimulationsbeforefinallytestingtheir
UAVandflyingskillsinatimed,point-based
exercise. Organizers say this exercise has
real world applications in gathering data in
the field, but in this setting is used as a way
to spark interest in science and engineering.
“They’re set free to design what they
want, but they are given rules and guide-
lines. So we want them to be creative and
challenged. That’s what these STEM activi-
ties are meant to be,” Ulroan says.
Tehya Tucker working with her Accel-
eration Academy group on a structural
engineering exercise.
Preparing Alaska’s
future engineers
By Russ Slaten
©ChrisArendPhotography

2. www.akbizmag.com September 2015 | Alaska Business Monthly 63
Tehya Tucker, a senior in high school from
Nome, began the program after she finished
her seventh grade year in 2011. She started in
the Middle School Academy, which involved
building a computer and career explora-
tions, and then moved on to the Acceleration
Academy to take her math requirements for
high school and college. Tucker says it made
a clearer path to college and a career.
“[The ANSEP academies] made me real-
ize how important it is to stay in my classes
and get ahead,” Tucker says. “I’m a straight A
student now, and I don’t think I would have
been if I didn’t start in middle school, because
I didn’t know where I would go in my future.
But after I joined this program I have an idea
of what I want to be, and it’s more set in stone.
I’mthinkingtogointoelectricalengineering.”
Beyond preparing her academically,
Tucker says ANSEP has prepared her so-
cially for a professional career.
“I was really shy when I was younger and
didn’t like talking to or in front of people, but
this has pushed me to do those things and be
comfortable with it, and I’ve actually grown
to enjoy it,” Tucker says. “I can do a presen-
tation without stuttering, I’ve become more
confident, and I’ve become a bigger part of
my high school because of my confidence
and because I know where I want to go.”
Middle School Academy
As ANSEP has progressed since its incep-
tion, it has continued to accept students at a
younger and younger age. The Middle School
Academynowoffersatwo-weekcollegecam-
pus experience and STEM activities to cur-
rent students in fifth through eighth grades.
“AtMiddleSchoolAcademywearenotonly
introducing students to the STEM field and
getting them excited about their education,
we are also getting them out of their comfort
zone and on to an actual college campus, so
they can see their future here and start plan-
ning for it,” says Josephine Mattison, Middle
School director for the Middle School Acad-
emy. “Additionally we’re giving them an at-
tainablegoal.Allofthestudentsinthissession
have agreed to complete Algebra I before high
school, which will get them on an accelerated
track to come to the university prepared.”
Rabbit Creek Elementary sixth grader
Renon Racy-Shields participated in one of
two, twelve-day Middle School Academies
which benefited more than one hundred
Anchorage School District students rep-
resenting more than forty schools. Racy-
Shields says he gained the most from the
computer build activity.
“I personally like building the computer
because it’s hands-on, and it’s me actually
building it, and it makes me feel better to
know that I’m building something, I’m not
destroying it,” Racy-Shields says.
Mattison says the computer build task
began at the high school level, but after AN-
SEP established the Middle School Acade-
my in 2010, they introduced the computer
build activity to prepare middle school stu-
dents for high school and start students on
the right track.
“We are at 1,800 students strong this
year and plan to grow even further,” Ul-
roan says. ANSEP’s goal is to have more
than 4,000 students from middle school to
PhD to be involved in part of the ANSEP
education pipeline by 2020.
ANSEP is geared toward Alaska Native
students, but is open to students through-
out Alaska. It’s demographic is 80 percent
Alaska Native and 20 percent non-Native.
Ulroan says students who started AN-
SEP with the Middle School Academy and
returned to participate in Acceleration
Academy will be graduating from high
school with many of the academic require-
ments for a university-level science or engi-
neering degree even before they start their
freshman year of college.
Ulroan says, “They have come back and
participated each and every year and ad-
vanced in their academic levels through
their own community support and ANSEP,
and we want that to be the norm.” R
Russ Slaten is an Associate Editor at
Alaska Business Monthly.
Acceleration
Academy students
testing their skills in
a timed, point-based
UAV exercise.
Russ Slaten for Alaska
Business Monthly