(SitNews) Klawock, Alaska – Over the past several years small and mobile groups of university students from around the country have been plying the waters between the outer coast of Prince of Wales Island and the mouth of the Stikine River in Southeast Alaska. Explaining that they are “a rapid response learning force,” students have dedicated their summer months to participating in rigorous academic study, community interactions and long-term ecological research.

Program alumni Lidia Johnson and Trenton Doyle, Tatoosh executive director Peter Chaille, program alumni Louis Lin and Kristen Walz (left to right) kayak around Prince of Wales Island.
Photo courtesy of Tatoosh School

The Tatoosh School, founded in 2011, is a nonprofit, university-level school provides lecture halls unlike any other with classrooms in the towns, oceans, and forests of Alaska's Inside Passage From owner-led tours of the largest (and some of the smallest) mills in Alaska to conversations with conservation leaders, monitoring large-scale river restoration projects to kayaking through narrows overflowing with salmon, Tatoosh students live what they learn from the people and places they visit. Field courses provide undergraduates with a foundation and a drive to understand and apply frameworks in ecology and governance to the places they call home.

Erin Steinkruger, Tatoosh School Program Manager, describes the experience as “abroad without being abroad, the School’s action-oriented curriculum is designed around the concepts of transference, problem solving, and civic engagement.”

In a major boost for further development of these types of programs, the Tatoosh School received a $50,000 gift, launching a major effort that since February has raised over $128,000. With a goal to exceed $190,000 in 2014, these funds are dedicated to further develop new course offerings, increase scholarship support for students and facilitate the improvement of a base camp on Prince of Wales Island, in the heart of the School’s course area.

“We could not be more humbled by the incredible support at a local, regional and national level and the endless possibilities available for students through partnership and collaboration,” said Peter Chaillé, the executive director of the school. “Formal and informal partnerships are no small part of what Tatoosh is all about, as is evidenced by the long and diverse list of those who visit with students over the course of their summer experience, over 80 hours are volunteered by guest lecturers and community members each year!”

Tatoosh School works with agencies, academic institutions and nonprofits involved in education and research programs across the Pacific Coastal Ecosystem. Chaillé notes that a wide range of stakeholders and community members teach balanced perspectives on the past, present, and future of Southern Southeast. A new partnership with the USDA Forest Service enhances the School’s capacity to conduct watershed restoration monitoring to leverage investments on priority watersheds of the Tongass National Forest.

“Hands-on learning is the most effective, and seeing and experiencing what we were learning enhanced the academics,” said Louis Lin, an alumnus from the program. “Our learning was beyond the classroom, and our classroom was incredible.”

“I believe it is necessary for the sake of learning to get out into the world and get one’s hands dirty. I know classroom work is important, but the Tatoosh School is really what I want my education to be like.” Lydia Johnson, University of Oregon student and 2013 Bridger Scholarship recipient.

The Tatoosh School has a a 1-acre beachfront base camp on Prince of Wales Island and seasonal offices in Portland, Oregon. The Tatoosh School in Southeast Alaska is a Portland State nonprofit partner.

The school offers three– and six-week courses over the summer where students can earn up to 12 credits—six with an emphasis on natural resource policy and six with a focus on ecology.

Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

On the Web:

Tatoosh School
http://tatooshschool.org

Source of News:

Tatoosh School
http://tatooshschool.org

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