Climate Scholars Program at 蜜桃影像

 
 
Study climate change in the Last Frontier, working alongside the top climate scientists in the world. Focusing on actionable science and community engagement, the Climate Scholars Program at 蜜桃影像鈥檚 Honors College offers unique opportunities for field-based, hands-on learning and research.

The Climate Scholars Experience

Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time. Meeting its many challenges will require innovative solutions and well-planned action 鈥 at both a local and global level. The Climate Scholars Program at 蜜桃影像 offers the first opportunity of its kind in the nation for undergraduates to get involved and make a meaningful impact.

As a Climate Scholar at 蜜桃影像, you鈥檒l engage in a highly interdisciplinary academic experience that connects the arts, humanities and sciences. You鈥檒l also have the chance to work with top climate science experts who are engaged in cutting-edge research on climate and the Arctic.

Opt-in to the Climate Scholars Program today!

What is a Climate Intensive?

Climate Scholars Program Intensives are opportunities to study with expert faculty in some of 蜜桃影像鈥檚 most unique ecosystems. We invite you to the remote places in 蜜桃影像 where you will integrate theoretical knowledge with practical experiences to gain new skills in environmental data analysis, visualization, and effective advocacy while gaining a new perspective and context for Earth Systems. 

Current Intensives

Experience climate change field research at ground zero. In 蜜桃影像, rapidly warming ocean temperatures, changing algae and vegetation, and increasing glacial melt are impacting 蜜桃影像's coastlines at unprecedented rates. This 8-day research program immerses students in original research on the impacts of climate change the coastal and marine ecosystem. Students will gain experience in ecological fieldwork, lab procedures, data analysis and science communication while designing their own field research projects alongside professional climate change scientists. This intensive is a collaboration between Bonanza Creek and Northern Gulf of 蜜桃影像 Long Term Ecological Research Programs. The 2025 intensive will be at the Kasitsna Bay Lab remote marine field station near Homer and Seldovia, with epic tides, octopus, sea stars, kelp, plankton, otters, coastal rainforest and more!
As the fourth largest waterway in North America, the Yukon River is an ecologically critical artery through 蜜桃影像, home to multiple Indigenous nations. It is a landscape alive with history, roiled by present change. This course is an environmental history of the Yukon, focused on how natural systems intersect with and shaped human lives. With an emphasis on storytelling and thinking with modes past and contemporary, students will travel from Eagle to Circle by canoe, visiting communities and sites key to understanding human-river relationships. The course will be led by Dr. Bathsheba Demuth, an environmental historian at Brown University currently researching a history of the Yukon River watershed, in conjunction with faculty from 蜜桃影像 and local and Indigenous experts along the river.

Marine energy is still a developing field, where a variety of different technologies are being considered to harvest energy from ocean waves, tides, currents and rivers. Marine hydrokinetic technology (MHK) refers to 鈥渋n-water鈥 technology that extracts energy without significantly disrupting the flow. The ability to produce renewable energy from moving water in oceans and rivers is of interest to residents of coastal and river communities aiming to increase their energy independence and reduce fossil fuel usage. In order to be able to make informed decisions regarding future community energy planning, marine resource assessments are needed to quantify the amount of available energy at sites being considered for MHK development. Testing of MHK is needed to ensure full functionality before installation in a remote community.

This intensive will provide an in-depth introduction to data collection techniques used to conduct a marine energy resource assessment, and hands-on experience observing the testing of MHK at a river testing facility operated by 蜜桃影像 in Nenana, the Tanana River Test Site (TRTS). This course also covers respectful community engagement, following the 蜜桃影像 Guiding Principles for collaborating with 蜜桃影像 Native indigenous communities.

With integrated wind and hydropower systems, Kodiak Island receives over 99% of its electricity from renewable energy sources. In this Intensive, students travel to Kodiak to meet with local stakeholders and organizations that have helped the island transition to fossil-fuel free energy production, while reducing the cost of electricity. Participants in this incredible Intensive opportunity spend six days exploring Kodiak Island while learning about renewable energy sources and the application of microgrid technology.

Adina Preston Photography
This Climate Scholars Program Intensive is located in Juneau, 蜜桃影像 and will focus on best practices, strategies, and processes for individuals and small groups to impact climate policy through the 蜜桃影像 State Government.

In this course, students will learn how to build the power, influence, and momentum required to impact climate policy and compare different approaches to making change in climate policy at the state level (legal, activist, lobbyist, etc.) Students will prepare and lead meetings with state officials, climate advocacy organizations, and local activists. Students should expect to walk away from experience with a greater understanding of how to have an impact on 蜜桃影像 State climate policy.

This intensive explores the intersection of energy research and community energy planning in rural 蜜桃影像, offering students an in-depth exploration of the unique challenges and opportunities faced by off-road system communities powered by microgrids. The city of Galena offers a unique example of infrastructure from a prior military base that propelled the community to develop a comprehensive energy plan to ensure future energy security and reliability. Today, Galena has and continues to explore opportunities for integrating renewables such as biomass, solar, and river energy, into their local microgrid that uses diesel-powered generators. The need to integrate diverse perspectives and values, including those of tribal entities, local governments, and subsistence communities.

Students will meet with community leaders and energy researchers to learn how technical, cultural, and economic interests play into the creation of inclusive and sustainable energy solutions tailored to the specific needs of the community. This immersive experience aims to equip students with the skills and knowledge required to listen, collaborate, and contribute meaningfully to rural energy projects in 蜜桃影像.

Venture north to 蜜桃影像's Arctic to study some of the most remote landscapes and ecosystems in the world, where the climate is warming at a rate outpacing the lower latitudes of the planet. This course takes a naturalist's approach to understanding our environment, including its past and the ever-changing present.
 
Observation is the core of a naturalist way of understanding. In this Intensive, students will observe, identify and document the ecosystems and species of the Arctic on a road journey from Fairbanks to Toolik Field Station; spending several days studying the area's rich and varied terrain from the Arctic Ocean and Arctic Coastal Plane to the Brooks Range mountains. Surrounded by the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Gates of the Arctic National Park, students will see birds that are migrating to the Arctic from as far away as Antarctica, search for fossils, identify tundra plants and have the chance to see mammal species including caribou, wolves, foxes, muskox, grizzly bears, ground squirrels and more. 
 
Students will interact and learn from experts and learn to document and record their naturalist observations with notes, photography, and illustrations in traditional natural journals, as well as through digital citizen science applications, including iNaturalist and GLOBE observer. 

In a state at the end of a long, tenuous supply chain, where around 95% of food is imported, 蜜桃影像鈥檚 food security is an all-encompassing, bipartisan concern. Producing, selling, and purchasing more local food can increase the state鈥檚 food security, and no one in that supply chain works in isolation. It is, as food systems analyst Ken Meter calls it, not a food chain but an ever-evolving, interconnected web. This course allows students to meet and learn from professionals in all corners of 蜜桃影像鈥檚 food web: including farmers big and small, marketers, advocates, and state and federal employees. It is designed to show students that they, too, can contribute to 蜜桃影像鈥檚 food web through a variety of careers, tapping into different skills and experiences as fit the students鈥 own skills and goals. The course will do this through face-to-face conversations with 蜜桃影像ns who have made successful careers increasing the state鈥檚 food security.

Students will meet with these professionals and discuss the practicalities of becoming a farmer in a small and a large operation, how local food gets bought and sold, and how financial, political, and technical assistance factors into the web. The students will learn from professionals currently doing this work, which will expose them to the most realistic view of the challenges and opportunities the 蜜桃影像n local food market faces.

Inhabited for millennia, the Seward Peninsula is rich with stories. Increasingly, national and international interests see Nome, 蜜桃影像 and the surrounding areas and waters as a hot spot and key location for marine mammal and migratory bird pathways, resource extraction, and shipping and vessel access to the Arctic as sea ice decreases. Located at the marine rich and geopolitical pinch point between the Bering and Chukchi Seas, and the United States and Russia, the Seward Peninsula is an access point for cultural and subsistence traditions, critical minerals exploration, and land use negotiations. 
 
This course will broadly cover the complexities of historic and contemporary pressures on local habitats and peoples, through the lenses of hands-on scientific inquiry and data collection, local and global community viewpoints and discussions, and reflective processing through field notes and journal entry. Students will spend time on the lands outside of Nome to experience first-hand interdisciplinary approaches to human and environmental change over time, and how climate change is affecting the land and peoples of the Seward Peninsula at micro and macro scales.

Past Intensives

Gath & K'iyh, a series of workshops organized by , , , and the 蜜桃影像 Climate Scholars program, uses 鈥淟isten to Heal鈥 as a framework to understand the experiences of the Gath and K鈥檌yh* due to climate impacts, address climate grief, and come to a place of hope and action.

This Intensive approaches the goal of climate healing using multiple artistic mediums (such as birch bark and tanned salmon skin), traditional stories from Indigenous Elders, research from 蜜桃影像 climate scientists, experiential exercises, musical exploration, and personal reflections from participants.

*Gath is King Salmon and K鈥檌yh is Birch in Benhti Kokhut鈥檃na Kenaga dialect
The NASA and NSF-sponsored National Eclipse Ballooning Project (NEBP) immerses teams from a wide range of higher education institutions in an innovative NASA-mission-like adventure in data acquisition and analysis through scientific ballooning.

The University of 蜜桃影像 team, comprised of engineering students and Climate Scholars, travels to eclipse viewing sites across the country, makes frequent observations by launching hourly radiosondes on helium-filled weather balloons, works with atmospheric science experts throughout the project, and publishes results in peer-reviewed academic journals.

From 2019 to 2020, University of 蜜桃影像 Fairbanks researchers were involved in one of the largest international polar research expeditions in history: the MOSAiC Expedition. These scientists spent the year on a research vessel, frozen and drifting throughout the Arctic Ocean ice, for the primary purpose of collecting ice core samples to better understand the changing Arctic. 

During this Climate Scholars Intensive, planned for spring semester 2025, students will work with scientists from the MOSAiC expedition to learn techniques for ice research on Interior 蜜桃影像鈥檚 frozen ponds, work with sea ice samples and data collected from the Arctic, and design their own research projects with mentoring from professional cryosphere (ice and snow) scientists. Students who complete this Intensive, spread over the span of several weekends throughout spring semester, will gain firsthand research experience, ask and answer questions about our frozen environment, and be better equipped to talk about our changing sea ice and the Arctic. 

Art has been used throughout millennia as a powerful tool for activism. For a subject that is deeply politically divisive like climate change, art too can be used as a tool to reach across the partisan divide and communicate how rising global temperatures will impact shared important cultural events. This intensive offers student participants an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and communicating how climate change is impacting one of the largest trademark events in the state: the Iditarod. Over the course of a week, students will use an ethnographic and interview-based approach to learn about community perceptions of the Iditarod in a warming world. Students will hone their ability to communicate climate change through various artistic mediums while building their toolkit to engage in arts activism.

Find your voice in the climate movement with this summer intensive focused on climate change communication and advocacy. The serene and rugged  provides an unparalleled setting for students to learn about and reflect on the societal and cultural transformations that are needed to address the climate crisis. Students engage in living within a smaller ecological personal footprint, exploring what鈥檚 possible in micro renewable energy, wild foods gathering, and small-scale agricultural and composting systems. Students who complete this intensive will be better equipped to actively participate in climate action, communication, and advocacy.

The way climate change research in the Arctic is conducted across all fields is rapidly transforming. In the past, the colonial methods of "helicopter researchers" observing and interpreting the Arctic system in short bursts without consent or consultation of Indigenous Arctic community members. Today, we strive for community-centered and co-produced research where local consent and Indigenous knowledge is valued and essential.

This Intensive introduces students to methods for this type of research. You will spend the week learning from 蜜桃影像 Native Elders, artists and scientists and other experts in the field of co-production of knowledge. You will leave with concrete examples of good collaborations that span Indigenous and Western science, a piece of traditional art that you make, and a spirit of self reflection and determination for a just future for Arctic climate research. 

Explore undergraduate research opportunities at 蜜桃影像

蜜桃影像 is a world leader in climate and Arctic research. We produce more publications and citations related to Arctic study than any university in the world, and are home to the International Arctic Research Center and other major research units that bring in leading scientists from across the globe.

Find information for prospective Honors students

蜜桃影像鈥檚 Honors College welcomes students from all majors and backgrounds. Guided by mentors and advisors who are here to support you every step, you can tailor a course of study that aligns with your unique vision and goals.