Wales-raised doctoral student wins Bering Straits' $10,000 Towarak scholarship

Aapiaq Cheryl Ongtowasruk, a doctoral student raised in Wales and Nome, won the 2026 Tim Towarak Memorial Scholarship from the Beringia Settlement Trust, Bering Straits Native Corporation announced. The competitive, merit-based $10,000 award goes yearly to one high-performing student at an accredited college or university and honors the late Tim Towarak's advocacy for Alaska Native people.

Ongtowasruk is pursuing a doctorate in educational leadership for social justice at Loyola Marymount University. She expects to finish in May 2027. Her research examines knowledge shared through traditional practices and arts and how intergenerational learning supports Indigenous youth.

She works as a curriculum specialist for the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, building materials grounded in community, culture and Indigenous ways of knowing. A Mt. Edgecumbe High School graduate, she earned a bachelor's and master's degree from Fort Lewis College.

She credits her parents with giving her confidence in academic spaces where she sometimes doubted she belonged.