I (Jon) went to the graduation of Ilisagvik College Saturday afternoon, Alaska’s only native tribal college. This was their 20th graduating class, having awarded 127 associate degrees in that time, 14 today, including one grandmother. It is primarily a technical college giving degrees in Allied Health, Accounting, Construction Technology and Business Management, but also four graduated in liberal arts and plan to move on to a four year school. Rightly so, they are proud that this is an accredited community college administered by, and especially for, the Inupiat peole of the Arctic North Slope. No more do they have to leave their communities to go to boarding schools administered by persons outside of, or historically often unappreciative of, their culture.
The graduates pass under the arch from the baleen of a whale while accompanied by a native chant and drumming.
On the platform from left to right:
the Chairperson of the College Board,
the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Alaska
the North Slope Representative to the State Legislature.
What do they have in common?
All are graduates of Sheldon Jackson school in Sitka, a Presbyterian school, now closed.
The first person to be awarded an honorary Associate of Arts Degree? an elder in the community that has taught the culture to many students.
“I finished my schooling in 1943....but I got my degree in 2015.”After the ceremony, they served dinner to everyone and native drumming and dancing.
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