A place to study, a place to call home: Iḷisaġvik College helps preserve Inupiaq culture

When Mary Jane Litchard came to Iḷisaġvik College, she felt more accepted and encouraged than ever before in the world of education.

Growing up in Utqiaġvik, Litchard was among the students who were punished when they spoke their Native language — a traumatic experience that made her feel shame for being Inupiaq. When Litchard showed interest in studying nursing, she was told her English was not good enough to be in that program. Later on, working as an elementary teacher, she learned about Iḷisaġvik College, loved that the courses the college offered were focused on Inupiaq culture and decided to continue her education.

“I was so happy that our culture is finally going to be recognized,” she said. “That’s how I got myself all the way up to masters — starting here, in Iḷisaġvik College.”

The only tribal college in Alaska, Iḷisaġvik College is a place that offers hands-on educational programs and fosters culture preservation. From Inupiaq studies to allied health, from construction to education, the college focuses on the needs of the North Slope communities and the unique challenges local students face. Soon, all these programs will be taught in a modern, environmentally sustainable building.

New Iḷisaġvik College campus is underway

The college currently operates out of a 70-year-old building that was never meant to be a college, so college officials and architects are in the process of the pre-concept design of the new building. The new campus is going to consolidate operations in a single, modern campus and will expand services to all North Slope Borough villages by allowing for greater capacity, according to the college officials.

“The new college campus is so beautiful,” said Asisaun Toovak, the external affairs coordinator at Iḷisaġvik College, looking at the draft of the building. “We’re hoping we will be completed with a pre-concept design by July and, depending on funding, continue on with concept design.”

To complete the pre-concept design, college officials are using the $1 million they received from the North Slope Borough in 2018, Toovak said. They are continuously looking for funding to move forward to the next stages.

Designing a 91,300-square-feet college building in the Arctic has its unique challenges: architects need to take into account winds, temperatures and the environment, Toovak said.

The process is split into three phases: constructing the spaces for vocational education, workforce development and maintenance first; then turning to the academic classrooms, wellness space, cafeteria and offices. The last stage would focus on constructing childcare facilities and student dormitories.

After the pre-design stage, the college officials and architects will move to the concept design. By then, they will need to know how many people the classrooms need to fit, what the dimensions of the desks and boards should be, and how much the electricity is going to cost. The college is working with different sources to obtain funding for the next stage.

During the pandemic, the process, which started back in 2016, slowed down.

“Our need was to continue to try to continue higher education and deliver that to our students,” Toovak said. “Now that we’re out of the pandemic where it seems a bit more normal, we’ve come back to” the pre-design of the campus.

While some funding was allocated to the project before the pandemic, now college officials and architecture need to rework the initial design of the facility, based on the changes in the budget that happened during the pandemic and on the reassessment of the college needs. for example. Toovak said that most of the classes offered at the college are hands-on, and it is important for the college leaders to be able to offer these classes in a safe environment – for example, in spaces designed for teaching small groups of students where students can also physically distance.

“When we think about our pre-concept design, we want to keep the pandemic in mind,” Toovak said. “We want to continue to think about being able to serve our students even during a pandemic and educate as many students as we can – safely.”

Summer programs prepare students for college, expose to culture

Besides regular classes, the college also offers students summer camps in such areas as Allied Health, leadership, crafts, sports and STEM. The camps go from a few days to several weeks in duration, and many of them provide college credits and match the programs and classes offered during regular sessions at the college, said Simon Aina, student support coordinator.

“They fly in and then they learn about the college and the self, they love being around the atmosphere,” Aina said. “A lot of our kids, they may graduate from high school and not go to college, but down the line, they end up saying, ‘Hey, you know, I went to summer camp, and so I’ll come to college.’”

Summer camps also help keep children busy and entertained during the summer months when oftentimes, especially between cultural activities, there are not that many activities.

“It’s filling that void of like, there’s nothing to do for the kids,” Aina said.

The younger children sometimes encounter homesickness when they attend summer camps. This is why camp leaders started offering shorter summer programs to help students adjust to the new environment gradually. They also prioritized including “traditional things from their home” in day-to-day programs, Aina explained.

“Nalukataq was great for a lot of our kids because a lot of our kids are coming from the villages and they love to be around the culture, so we try to incorporate it,” he said.

Timothy Ferreira was in middle school when he first attended a summer camp at the college and since then, he attended the one on Allied Health, public safety, photography and Inupiaq culture. Now he is 25 and is teaching the Inupiaq language in Point Hope elementary school. One of his sisters, Lauren Ferreira, completed the leadership summer camp this June.

“I think it’s good for the kids because they connect with each other and other cultures and traditions and identities,” he said. “They unite. They form a connection with each other and with themselves.”