Ninth-graders gain urban experience

Published on March 4th, 2010

By ROSE COX

Standing next to Darth Vader at the Anchorage Museum's Star Wars exhibit are: Daquan Jenkins-Thomas, 14; Jennifer Ruiz, 15; teacher Amy Purevsuren; Jennifer Ruiz, 15; and Alec Magalong, 15. This is one of many places Purevsuren took the students from Unalaska last week. (Beth Skabar, Alaska Newspapers)

Alec Magalong, center, and other students from Unalaska leave the Anchorage Museum with Amy Purevsuren after their excursion last week. (Beth Skabar, Alaska Newspapers)

Unalaska ninth-graders got a chance to experience the "urban" part of the Rose Urban Rural Exchange program during a recent trip to Anchorage.

In addition to attending classes at Service High School the week of Feb. 22, Alec Magalong, Daquan Thomas, Karina Garay and Jennifer Ruiz visited KTUU to see how a television newscast is put together, toured the Anchorage Police Department, and visited the psychology department at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

"They said I could take online classes, and that they accept some high school students," Ruiz said about the UAA visit. "I could still be in high school and take those classes."

The teens attended "Chicago, the Musical," the Anchorage Concert Association's production about vice and violence in 1920s Chicago and got a backstage tour. They visited the Anchorage Museum to learn more about the area's history and culture.

They seemed nonplussed by the talking robots and looming figures of Darth Vader and Chewbacca at the museum's hugely touted Star Wars exhibit. But that may have been low blood sugar, since it was way past lunch time.

Thomas said he'd played a Star Wars video game, and Magalong had watched the movie. The group perked up when they heard the words "fast food." They'd already visited Burger King, McDonald's, Taco Bell, Subway, Wendy's and a Chinese restaurant in Anchorage.

"Twin Dragons was awesome," Thomas said.

Time at Service High also made impressions.

"The amount of kids at school is crazy," Magalong said.

"I like how Service High School has so many options, and so many different people," Ruiz said.

The group had planned a trip to Anchorage People Mover to learn more about public transportation, but a snowstorm Feb. 25 halted the excursion since the bus didn't pass by Service High.

Sister schools

The Unalaska students were participating in the Sister School Exchange, a cross-cultural program for Alaska middle school and high school students. It's part of the Rose Urban Rural Exchange, an Alaska Humanities Forum program. In the exchange, rural classrooms are paired with urban classrooms. Selected students from each classroom form a Cultural Ambassador Team, along with their teacher. Teams visit each other's communities for one week during the school year.

The goal is for students to share their community with another culture, learn about their sister school's community and build bridges through relationships.

Seven of the 30 freshmen at Unalaska City School completed the requirements to be considered for this year's program, said teacher Amy Purevsuren, and four were selected.

"In order to be in the program, they wrote essays on why they'd make good ambassadors and represent our community."

This was Purevsuren's third year in the exchange program. The first year, her students in Angoon exchanged with a Matanuska-Susitna Valley school. Last year, her Unalaska students exchanged with a Sitka alternative school that was even smaller than theirs.

"This is a true urban experience," she said of the Anchorage visit.

Although many Unalaska students travel to Anchorage for sports and academic competitions, sometimes multiple times each school year, they generally stay in a hotel, compete and fly home, with maybe a brief stop at the mall, Purevsuren said.

The Sister School Exchange lodges students with host families. Service High School students stayed with Unalaska families the week of Feb. 1, then hosted Unalaska students during their stay.

Karina Garay was surprised by what her host family in the big city ate.

"They eat a lot of moose because they hunt."

When Service High Schools students visited Unalaska, they attended Unalaska City School, toured the Westward fish processing plant, and learned about Aleut and World War II history in the region. They visited the Russian Orthodox Church and went out to Morris Cove to see the wild horses.

As part of their ambassadorship, students post blogs, telling about themselves and their communities, and their experiences during the visit. Read more on the RURE Web site at www.roseurbanruralexchange.org.