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Press Release
April. 28, 2003
SHI AWARDS MORE THAN $1 MILLION IN SCHOLARSHIPS
Sealaska Heritage Institute will award $1,013,008 in scholarships to 678 Sealaska shareholders and descendants. The awards, funded by Sealaska Corp. and by grants, will go to Southeast Alaska Natives pursuing educational opportunities during the 2003-2004 school year.
Many of the awards went to Alaska Natives who applied for funds through Sealaska’s competitive college and voc-tech scholarship program, which distributes awards based on students’ academic achievements.
The awards also will fund language and culture camps in Hoonah, Kake, Klukwan and Yakutat to perpetuate Native languages and cultures, the mission of Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), a nonprofit founded to serve the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people of Southeast Alaska.
In addition, some scholarships will go to shareholders who plan to attend SHI programs, including Tlingit language immersion camps in Glacier Bay and Sitka plus Native languages workshops in Ketchikan and Juneau.
The institute also awarded scholarships to participants of its new Master-Apprentice Program, which gives training and modest financial support to master-apprentice teams to guarantee Southeast Native languages are passed on as living languages to future generations.
“In many communities with critically endangered languages, school-based language programs are not a viable option,” said SHI President Dr. Rosita Worl, noting the most successful non-school-based approach to language revitalization has been the master/apprentice language teams.
Under the program, a master fluent speaker pairs with a student for 20 hours a week, during which time only the Native language is used. In this way, students learn the language in a naturalistic setting, and in a manner that closely mirrors how the masters’ learned the language as small children. The institute will kick off its master-apprentice program with 10 shareholders working in five teams of two people.
The majority of funds awarded are provided by Sealaska Corp. from a scholarship endowment and corporate 7 (i) sharing provisions established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The Section 7(i) Agreement among the regional corporations permits shareholder scholarship programs that will further develop Alaska Native expertise in natural resource management.
CONTACT: Dr. Rosita Worl, SHI President, 463-4844
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