University of Alaska Fairbanks
Tier2-3: Student Training Opportunities

Summer @ UAF provides a number of free, on-campus events in the summer. Weekly event and lecture series include: Family Cultural Night, Alaska's Land and Sea, Discover Alaska, and REEL History- Fairbanks Made. These events are free and open to the public. Example event titles from 2011 include: About Japan: Music, Food, & Education The Philippines: Landscape, Food & Celebrations Opening up the Country: History of Alaska Transportation Climate Change Office of Equal Opportunity has a training, Recruiting a Diverse Workforce In accordance with the Affirmative Action Program, the Office of Equal Opportunity conducts training for hiring authorities, supervisors, and search committees on developing effective recruitment techniques to attract, identify and hire the applicant that best meets their needs. This office also works with search committees to advertise executive, faculty and high level positions in venues that target women and minorities. To sign up or schedule special training sessions, contact Barbara Gabel at fyeeo@uaf.edu or bagabel@alaska.edu or call 474-6600. Festival of Native Arts History of the Festival The Festival of Native Arts unites the major Native culture groups of Alaska, as well as foreign groups of the continental United States and countries such as Japan, Russia and Canada. These groups share their rich heritage of their respective cultures, which not only solidifies the Alaska Native identity, but also educates all people as to the nature of cultures different from ours. This tradition began in 1973, when a group of University of Alaska Fairbanks students and faculty (representing a variety of colleges and departments) met to consider a spring festival focused on the artistic expressions of each Alaska Native culture. In less than three months, perhaps for the first time in Alaska, Native artists, craftspeople and dancers from all major Native culture groups gathered together at UAF to share with each other, the University community and Fairbanks their rich artistic traditions. The enthusiasm with which this first festival was received (by artists, observers and coordinators) indicated that a major annual Native event had been born. The first festivals were organized jointly by faculty and students. However, recent years have found the responsibilities of planning and production placed squarely on the shoulders of UAF Native students. The countless hours of making arrangements for housing, transportation, fund-raising, budgeting and more is assumed by these students in addition to their University course loads. Planning now takes place year-round. Such commitment is a testament to a very great pride in cultural values and traditions. http://www.uaf.edu/festival/history/ Office of Multicultural Affairs and Diversity has several programs including: Brown Bag Hour - Foreign Language Conversational Hour ~ 12:00 pm. Second language learners (Russian, German, Spanish, English, Italian...) each meets once a week in the OMAD center to practice their language of interest with leadership, faculty or TA. Jamming Fridays - The campus Asian-Pacific Islander club gathers in OMAD every Thursday after 5:00 pm to reconnect with their roots through music. This activity is open to all. English as a Second Languae and/or Citizenship Tutoring - OMAD has volunteers available to mentor/tutor students in these areas depending on interest. For the past two years, Dan Darrow has been donating his time to meet with ESL students interested in improving their English or students interested in preparing to become US citizens International Sustainability Awareness Group - ISA's mission is to get experience and ideas from other countries in terms of environmental issues, make some conclusions and share it with local people. Group lead by Dinara Tamabayeva http://www.uaf.edu/omad/activities/