Internship

Internship Program

Internships enable Alaska Native teens and young adults to receive training and education in a variety of areas including museum studies, collections management, retail sales, the economics of tourism, marketing, public relations, and other aspects of cultural tourism.  Interns acquire a wealth of information about the vibrant heritage of the eleven Alaska Native cultures.

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The Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC) is pleased to announce that they were recently awarded a three-year grant through the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS) program. ANA's FY 2012 SEDS goals and program areas of interest are focused on strengthening children, families, and communities through community-based organizations, tribes, and village governments. The purpose of ANA is to promote the goal of economic and social self-sufficiency for American Indians, Native Hawaiians, Alaskan Natives, and other Native American Pacific Islanders, including American Samoa Natives.

The ANHC will be implementing a three-year Youth Development project whose goal is to improve community connectedness, educational, and vocational outcomes for Alaska Native youth ages 14-25.  ANHC believes that community connectedness and educational and vocational outcomes for youth are closely intertwined. Using a culturally based approach, the proposed project will develop weekly classes and one-to-one coaching for students to help them become on track for graduation, set educational and vocational goals for after high school, and access resources to support their goals. ANHC also will develop weekly activities to assist students to become more aware of and connected to the Native community within Anchorage, including planning youth-led community events. Additionally, the project will develop 10 new internship jobs in ANHC program operations areas that would be most likely to build skills for entry level competitive employment, and will incorporate job readiness coaching into these internships to improve the transition to regular employment.

This three-year project will serve 100 youth per year and will achieve the following objectives:


1) The ANHC Youth Development Project will develop and infuse community connectedness curriculum and classes, for 85 youth each year who are involved in ANHC’s High School Program, in order to combat the effects of cultural alienation and community fragmentation.

2) develop and infuse graduation/career/job readiness curriculum, classes and coaching for up to 85 youth each year who are involved in ANHC’s High School Program  (HSP) or internship programs.

3) develop and implement 30 part-time paid youth internships each year that are based on core competencies in program operations, which include job-readiness and skills for regular paid employment.

A major three-year outcome of the project will be that the percentage of Alaska Native youth involved in ANHC’s programs who successfully achieve their goals in terms of high school achievement, graduation, college preparation, college or vocational school placement, employment, military, or community leadership/volunteerism will increase to 75%. The proposed project was planned with and will continue to involve partnerships with area tribes, Alaska Native service providers, the Anchorage School District, and ANHC's Youth Advisory Council.  

By the end of year three, a completed Youth Development project will consist of

1) Complete, replicable curricula in the areas of community connectedness, job readiness, and academic/educational/career/vocational preparation for Native youth, and
2) Job descriptions and core competencies for 10 internship positions in ANHC program operations. These developments will be sustained as they are infused into ANHC’s High School Program.

ANA offers two additional program areas: Environmental Regulatory Enhancement, and Language Preservation and Maintenance.  Under Language Preservation and Maintenance, they offer two funding opportunities:  Native American Language Preservation and Maintenance and the Esther Martinez Initiative.  The ANHC intends to apply for funding under the Native American Language Preservation and Maintenance by the January 31, 2012 deadline.  The Native Language Preservation and Maintenance program provides funding for projects to support assessments of the status of the native languages in an established community, as well as the planning, designing, and implementing of native language curriculum and education projects to support a community's language preservation goals.  The ANHC is currently working on defining the project scope for the application.