US Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor is heading to Fairbanks

This August, Alaskans will have a chance to see an associate justice of the nation's highest court speak in Fairbanks.

"A conversation with U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor" will take place Aug. 14, during a free event hosted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Summer Sessions.

Sotomayor will answer questions during the afternoon lecture.

Summer Sessions and Lifelong Learning Director Michelle Bartlett said that the stars aligned to make the event happen.

Last year, acclaimed writer and American feminist Gloria Steinem was the guest speaker at a summer sessions event.

"Before Gloria even came, people said, 'OK, who are you going to bring next year?' … In my mind, it had to be Sonia Sotomayor," Bartlett said.

Sotomayor, who has sat on the nation's highest court since 2009, grew up in the New York borough the Bronx in a single-parent household, after her father died when she was 9 years old. At age 8, she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and she learned to give herself insulin shots, according to her memoir. She went on to attend Princeton and earned her juris doctor degree from Yale Law School.

"Against all odds, she did it, and what better example on a university campus," Bartlett said.

Although Bartlett had wanted Sotomayor to be the next speaker, she wasn't sure how she'd make it work. But as luck would have it, Sotomayor was already heading up to Alaska for a vacation this summer.

The free event will take place at the Davis Concert Hall on the university campus, and seats will be on a first-come, first-seated basis.

The university is expecting overflow – last year, 1,500 people showed up for Steinem – so the event will be webcast on campus. Anyone who doesn't make it into the concert hall's roughly 880 seats will be seated in other concert halls, which will broadcast the event. The event will be video recorded, and available to anyone not able to attend, Bartlett said.

Anyone with questions for Sotomayor will be able to submit them on the UAF Summer Sessions' website.

The event begins at 4 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 14.