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I feel more comfortable doing research. I wanted to do research with teenagers in rural Alaska that is meaningful to them and their communities, but I put that dream on hold for the last year. Getting through this and creating the product I did makes me more confident and willing to go back to research.

It is important for youth to understand that there isn’t one specific route you are supposed to go. As an at-risk Indigenous youth I never thought I could be a scientist, but I found mentors who believed in me and Elders who spoke very wise words of encouragement. Youth should look to Elders. Elders have wisdom. You should foster those relationships with Elders to make changes and grow as a community so you can pass down knowledge our ancestors fought hard to keep.

It [has] widened my perspective on how climate change affects communities and how researchers affect communities and that there needs to be change to better the process of how community informed research is done to better involve communities and prioritize their values practices and perspectives.

(What participants learned from the program): That everyone has something to learn from one another, there are opportunities out there and [that] learning isn’t always linear. Collaboration is extremely important in moving science forward and building relationships properly and genuinely with those from various communities and backgrounds

The support from PSECCO... was instrumental in enabling me to attend this conference. It was a privilege to bring the voices and concerns of Arctic Indigenous communities to a global audience.

RECCS program not only improved my research experience, but it also gave me an opportunity to learn how to communicate with my peers and mentors. I gained communication skills, independent research skills, creating scatter plots, which were very difficult for me in the beginning of my project, and making a professional poster as well.

I've been lucky enough to spend a lot of time outdoors, but this helped me gain more of an interest in outdoor sciences, and especially like wildlife biology. And it made me feel like, maybe I want to explore this as like a career option.