Hello Readers! This week I wanted to blog/brag about a cool event I attended this weeked hosted by our College of Engineering and Mines and Flint Hills. This weekend was the High School Robotics State Championship. Teams from high schools all over the state designed and built their very own robots and brought them here to UAF to compete against each other. The robots earned points by collecting plastic pucks and dumping them into a basket in the center of the ring all while navigating obstacles and other robots in the ring. The winning team, East High School, will now go to Atlanta, Georgia along with their partner team from Lathrop High School to compete in the World Robotics Championships. Good luck teams!

International Research Opportunities

Being at UAF, it's easy to be inspired. I was reading today that one of our professors, Dr. Katey Walter, was just named one of National Geographic’s ten Emerging Explorers for 2009. You can read National Geographic's profile of her on their website. Katie conducts her research in Alaska and Russia, studying methane released from thawing permafrost. Katie did her Ph.D. at UAF, and at the time, her dissertation received the nation's highest honor. Katie's research demonstrates the important role that UAF plays in addressing circumpolar issues that ultimately impact the entire world.

Update: Here's an LA Times story about Dr. Katey Walter that ran after my initial post. The story includes the following video.



By the way, if your interested in joining in on research in remote places in Alaska and Russia, Dr. Pavel Izbekov of UAF, and former UAF professor, John Eichelberger of the Volcano Hazards Program, USGS, will be leading two trips as part of UAF Summer Sessions to study volcanoes in Katmai National Park, in southwest Alaska, and on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia. The International Volcanological Field School is held every year and is open to both undergraduate and graduate students alike. I've included some photos below from my trip to Kamchatka in the summer of 2006 to help my wife, Anastasia, gather samples for her research. They're from the same areas that the Field School takes place.

Mutnovsky Volcano on a clear August day. Mutnovsky is one of the volcanoes students explore as part of the International Volcanological Field School.











The whole region is dominated by active volcanoes, making for dramatic views and intense back-country hiking.













As part of my duties as Anastasia's research assistant, I helped gather water samples from geothermal springs and glacial runoff.












Despite it's remote location, and potential hazards, scores of extreme adventurers from around Russian and the world make their way up treacherous path to Mutnosky's crater every year.

College Goal Sunday!

Hey UA Fans!

This is Joe from Admissions, again. College Goal Sunday was this past Sunday, and I was lucky enough to get to volunteer to help at the Fairbanks event. This is a nationwide event with the goal of encouraging and assisting students and parents in filling out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). The FAFSA is your key to thousands upon thousands of dollars in Financial Aid for college.

We had spectacular turnout at the event, and we were on the radio advertising it as much as we could. I got to be the lucky announcer person on the live broadcast with KWLF (that's "K-Wolf") who was enthusiastically encouraging students to fill out the FAFSA! If you heard my broadcast, I am not yet so famous that I won't sign autographs ^_^

In all seriousness, though, this was a great event and a great opportunity to find out more about getting the money you need to go to college. If you have questions, the most important thing you can do is ask them. If you'd like to speak to anyone in the UAF Financial Aid Office, feel free to visit their website by clicking here, or email them at financialaid@uaf.edu. The nice folks at the Alaska Commision on Post-Secondary Education have also posted a video online with instructions for filling out the FAFSA. Check it out by clicking here.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day. Remember, if you have questions about college, the best thing you can do is ask them. Have a great week!

Joe

Power Shift is coming!

Dear fellow shifters,

Hello, this is Joe from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Office of Admissions again. Just wanted to give a quick post about a meeting I sat in on last night. The meeting was sponsored by the upcoming Power Shift event which will be happening in Washington DC at the end of February. This is an opportunity for people all over the country to come together to share their thoughts, concerns and hopes for the future of the environment. I was impressed to see such a wide variety of students attending this meeting on campus. It seemed like a real community event. Parents with their children attended, undergraduates, graduates, staff members, and more were present. I was impressed with the dedication to the environment, and I can only hope that the response was as positive on other campuses throughout the nation and world. I know that some students and community members from Fairbanks will be attending, and I hope that many more attend. I won't be able to attend, unfortunately, but I will be following the event and related events closely. Remember, that's powershift09.org!

Thanks for reading, and have a great day. I'll post again soon about some more excitement!

Joe

Lucky to live in Alaska

Last night I flew to Kodiak with my UAF colleagues (from the College of Engineering and Mines, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, ROTC, and from the RAHI program with the College of Rural Development) to present at Kodiak High Schools for their annual Career Day.

The more I participate in the recruitment events or other visits throughout the state, the luckier I feel to live in Alaska. Mostly because I get to see the diversity of Alaska's people, geography, and culture.

Coming from Fairbanks, I wasn't sure what to expect when I landed in Kodiak. I was awed as I walked off the plane and was greeted by a giant mountain which seemed to rise out from nowhere. As we drove to our hotel we were greeted by hundreds of bald eagles, perched in trees or on roof tops. Before moving to Alaska, I'm not sure that I had ever seen a bald eagle, let alone hundreds of them! When we stepped out of the shuttle at our hotel, I was greeted by the fresh scent of the sea, a rich salty breeze, and a gorgeous sunset. Where else but Alaska!

Our Fisheries (http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/) students have the opportunity to experience Kodiak as a part of their UAF experience. They get to complete internships, research, and field work right here in Alaska in one of the largest fishing communities in the state. It amazes me how unique and rare that opportunity is for students.

It makes me feel so lucky to live in Alaska, to have access to a place this beautiful, and to have the ability to visit other places like this (including Fairbanks) which are so unique and distinct.

If you haven't already visited, we have an upcoming preview day on March 30th called Inside Out (http://www.uaf.edu/admissions/insideout/index.html).

I hope you'll join us and see for yourself how spectacular it is here in Alaska.

Laramie Project at UAF

Word up, friends!

I'm running out of silly ways to open my blog posts :) A couple of weeks ago, Theatre UAF did a presentation of The Laramie Project in the Lee H Salisbury Theatre. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the play, it is an analysis of the reaction of the people in the town of Laramie Wyoming following the 1998 brutal beating and eventual death of Matthew Shepard, a 21 year old University of Wyoming student. Why was he killed? He was gay. This was a hate crime of the most heinous sort.

The play is a brilliant observation of the concepts of hatred and ignorance in our society, and I highly encourage anyone who hasn't seen or read the play to do so. The rendition done here at UAF was quite impressive. A solid performance by the cast in a pretty difficult play to perform. In the play, each actor plays 8-10 of the residents of Laramie, each with a different personality, opinion and story. In most plays it is difficult to play one person well, but playing 10 is absolutely exhausting for actors. Nevertheless, the performance was quite solid, and was received by very positive reviews in Fairbanks. I would share photos, but of course I don't have any, being that I was only an Usher, not a cast member. Anyway, Thanks for reading, more to come!

Joe

National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week

Hello again, everyone!

I know I'm bombarding you with blogs right now, but I have a lot to share! Two weeks ago was National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. The goal of this program is to promote awareness of the plight of those living in poverty and in homelessness, and to see what we can do to help. To commemorate this event, two UAF students, Mariah Acton and Anna Dale, organized a weeklong vigil on campus to raise awareness. Mariah is also one of my Student Ambassadors, so I was extra proud of her role in this event. Volunteers stood out in the cold in temperatures down to -20F to raise awareness. The volunteers also raised more than $400 for the Fairbanks Rescue Mission. Throughout the course of the week, I stood with the for somewhere between 3 and 4 hours in the cold. I would have stood more, but my duties called me away. I was also going to volunteer at the rescue mission with the group, but the brakes on my truck went out that day, and that had to take priority :(
The week was a tremendous success. The event was covered in the local media, and it is my hope that we will do this or something very close to it next year again. Thanks for reading!

Joe

PS: I will have photos of my participation posted soon!

Musky Oxes!

Hello again, my loyal fans!

This is Joe again, coming atcha with some hardcore awesome stories and photos! I recently got to go on a tour of the Large Animal Research Station here at UAF, and it was awesome. This is one of the only places in the world where people can study and raise Musk Oxen, an endangered species. They are studying their digestion and studying their genetics to see if it would be possible to cross breed the gene in Musk Oxen which enables them to subsist on such difficult to process food into domestic farm animals such as cattle. If they are successful, this could mean the ability to raise cattle on a tenth as much feed as they currently consume, which translate into a tremendous reduction in the price of milk and cow meat! This would also mean a significant boon to the environment, because the cows would then need less grazing land, because they need less food. Pretty cool, huh?

Of course, that's not the only cool research that's going on out at LARS. They also do tons of other research. Overall, it was a very cool visit and a cool experience. If you find yourself in a position to visit LARS, I would highly recommend it. Anyway, thanks for reading, stay tuned for my next post!

Joe

Hello New York!

Greetings from New York!

Carrie Coxon, our new admissions counselor and East Coast recruiter, and I are traveling throughout the great state of New York in an effort to recruit another great group of students to UAF! We are having a blast and loving New York. We are mostly focused in the Albany area, but we are heading into NYC on Friday and can't wait to see the Big Apple. Are you from the East Coast? Contact Carrie at carrie.coxon@alaska.edu.

- Lael

Back from travels!

Hey again, righteous fans!

This is Joe again from the UAF Office of Admissions. I just thought I would take a couple of moments to write a blog about my recent trip to the Eastern part of this country. I just got back from a week of high school and individual visits in Michigan and Pennsylvania (and this was pre-November 4th, so the political atmosphere was intense). In Michigan, everything was going pretty great. I ran into a whole bunch of students who were interested in our Biology programs, our Hockey team, our Natural Resource Management progam, and our Marine Biology MS and PhD Programs. Overall, the enthusiasm of the students, families, teachers and counselors in favor of UAF was wonderful.

Now, it wasn't all fun: When I was supposed to fly from Musekgon (Western MI), the whole airport was fogged in, so I had to re-rent a car, and speed across the state to Detroit so I could catch my connecting flight from Detroit to Pittsburgh. Then, when I got to Pittsburgh, I found out my hotel was actually an hour drive away from the Airport. (and my rental had a funny smell, for some reason). But, after that, things went pretty well.

But hey, pop quiz: what excitement just recently occured in the state of Pennsylvania? That's right, the Phillies winning the World series for the first time in 28 years. Does Philly know how to party? Well, it would appear they do. They actually had a city wide celebration and parade on the 31st, which was the day that I was in Philly. Now dig this: the parade route went down 21st and Market, and my hotel room was overlooking 22nd and Market. I actually got to watch the Phillies' float drive by from my window. It was awesome.

In Pennsylvania, I also received a lot of postive reactions to UAF. Mostly I was asked questions about Engineering, Physics, Liberal Arts, and such. Again, the positive attitude present in the schools was very heart-warming. One of the schools in Allentown was so excited to have me at the school, I actually wound up giving the presentation in their auditorium, and they took photos for their yearbook (which I wish I had asked for copies of, in retrospect)!
Anyway, I know this is longer than I initially meant for it to be, but it's all good information and/or in good fun. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the next exciting adventure of Joe in Admission Land!

Joe

Prometheus Bound in the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Rawwwr!

I was even able to find Nanooks in Pennsylvania!