Alaska Native students in Juneau and Klawock to pitch tech prototypes to Elders

Alaska Native students in Juneau and Klawock will spend five days this fall building working prototypes for problems in their own communities, then pitch them to Elders, educators and local industry representatives.

Sealaska Heritage Institute runs the program, STEM for Change, with McKenzie's Adventures, an education company. Its chief executive, Yaritza Villalba, founded it, according to the Alaska Society for Technology in Education. The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development described it in its October computer science newsletter, which lists no dates or sign-up path.

Students pick a challenge such as language revitalization, fisheries, sustainable tourism or small business. They also sit the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals exam, a cloud computing credential. The state's computer science plan lists closing the gap in Alaska Native enrollment in grades 7-12 computer science courses as a goal.

The top three teams from each community will present at ASTE 2027, the society's February conference, in a new category of its student media contest.