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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.

The best part about the class was that it made me realize the importance of community hazard resilience and how it can blend into existing science curriculum (not previously on my radar). Prior to this class, hazards were taught in more of a strictly science cause-effect context without the thought of resilience. The resources that were shared and experienced throughout the class were excellent. I have already learned a great deal about our local OEM and the resources they offer through the preparations for a potential Hazard Expo

I feel empowered to engage my students in experiential learning and provide the opportunity for students to complete the Seal for Climate Literacy. The lessons provided will be easy to implement in my classes and encourage a focus on resiliency with an emphasis on hope, positivity and courses of action.

I have hope that students participating in the action projects will recognize their own agency to create positive change.

The energy of the workshop was phenomenal - beginning with grounding ourselves in our current reality, then hearing from students about their passion and need for more climate education, to seeing the excitement, relationship building, and support teachers showed for each other.

This was an excellent workshop, and easily one of the best workshops on leadership I have ever attended. I really appreciated the concrete examples of how to use our own strengths in leadership. 

This conference was a great experience, in which I developed a deeper understanding of my own project, gained valuable skills presenting my work to the public, got to network with other scientists, shared bonding experiences with remote collaborators, and learned more about other experiments in the community. I am deeply grateful to the PSECCO!

Thanks to the PSECCO BAJEDI micro-grant for helping us build a polar climate and weather aware community in Fairbanks and Interior Alaska!

I made so many new friends and so many things I would have never thought I would see, done so many things I would have never thought I'd done. It was such a great experience and I would definitely recommend it.

Spending so much time with these girls really pushed us to get to know each other and really connect. I feel really connected with everyone after spending 12 days of sharing memories, laughs and unforgettable moments together.

One lasting lesson that I gained from this program is the importance of protecting the environment for future generations. There are so many beautiful locations and hundreds of species, and it's the least we can do to respect the environment and try to maintain biodiversity. Since completing the Girls on Rock program, I have since moved to Utah to study public health and compete for a Division I program in track and cross country. I also have a part-time job as a research assistant at the Office of Community Research and Evaluation, which gives me the opportunity to work with data from partners in order to help them improve their programs. Girls on Rock also sparked a love of writing, and I have since had two poems published in print through Metaphor, my university's undergraduate literature journal!

RECCS has impacted my life in various ways including social interactions, academic work, research, presenting, and so much more. I was able to develop personal relationships with professionals in the CU community, as well as NOAA. I now have a network of great friends and mentors I can depend on and reach out to if need be. Research and graduate school are now tangible and do not seem unobtainable since completing the RECCS program

It was so lovely to meet my fellow RECCS students, who have similar interests and approaches to climate and environmental issues. I feel like this is the type of community I don't have access to at my community college. [My mentor] is immensely helpful, structured in his thought-process, but also friendly and easy-going. I often get very nervous around new people, but I felt comfortable working with him, and I also felt like he had my best interests at heart.