by Greg Lincoln
Do you know a hard working youth that is engaged in volunteering or community service activities? You can nominate them for a Spirt of Youth Award. Nominations can come from anyone who wishes to recognize a hard-working Alaska teenager. Nominations can be made in one of 8 categories. Recommendations often come from school staff and board members; youth clubs and organizations; the business community or other teenagers. Any community member inspired by a teen’s efforts can submit a nomination.
What are the benefits of nominating a youth?
Nominees are eligible to be selected for the Spirit of Youth Award each year. Eight nominees are chosen by the Spirit of Youth Teen Advisory Council to receive the award and be featured on our Spirit of Youth radio series, which broadcasts to nearly 100 Alaska communities. Individual award recipients will receive a scholarship from Alaska 529 of up to $2,000 and eight runners-up will each receive a $500 scholarship. Group recipients receive a grant to support their efforts.
Here are some of the 2023 Nominees from our region of the state. Congratulations and good job to all nominees.
Adeline Perry
Adeline is president of National Honor Society and leads many community service projects. She also serves in AWANA clubs as a leader for the kindergarten-second grade room. She serves at church in multiple capacities which have huge impact to quality of life for the people in our community. One of the many outlets Adeline serves in is running the thrift store that benefits our abused women and children’s shelter. She also serves food at our homeless shelter and also through a (separate) Supper Club Program. Adeline also originated and executed a successful fundraising campaign to help a member of our community facing unjust legal matters around immigration status.
Home Town: BETHEL
Award Category: Role Model
Innoko River Middle and High School
Shageluk has a three-mile road between the village and the runway which is under construction. There are ancient pit houses of Shageluk ancestors along the road. This spring, students at Innoko River School ensured their community’s history was being preserved while a construction company came in to resurface the road. Students put markers out that identified the pit houses, which the company honored and left the area alone. They are learning how to own their history including the land, lifestyle and beliefs.
Home Town: Shageluk
Award Category: Humanitarian, Dreamer
Jack Boelens
Jack has identified a need in his community and has helped fill it. In the rural community of Aniak he secured a coffee machine and sells espressos, lattes, and breves along with food, starting his own entrepreneurial venture to reach his financial goals. He taught other students how to run the espresso machine as well as consumer math, profit margins and customer service. Community members look forward to hot lattes at morning athletic events or hot breakfast items to pick up on busy work days, along with great customer service.
Home Town: Aniak
Award Category: Visionary
Jamie Twitchell
Jamie is a stand-out alum of a year-long Ilakucaraq cohort, a program that brings together Alaska Native youth in 9-12th grades. This program is designed to form friendships, learn and share about Indigenous cultures, and build confidence in their cultural identities. Although Jamie would never call herself this, she is a great example of an “elder-in-training.” Despite her young age, she is already sharing her Yup’ik culture with pride and embracing her Indigenous heritage.
She yuraqs (traditional dances) and has made her own traditional regalia including a qaspeq, nasqerrun (headdress), dance fans, and uyamik (dance necklace). Jamie brought this regalia on an Ilakucaraq trip and shared them with other participants. She designed and developed an uyamik craft kit so that other youth can learn about and make their own uyamiks. Jamie is helping to reclaim cultural activities suppressed by colonization and to counteract the pressure youth sometimes feel to assimilate into mainstream “western” culture. She is a role model to other youth and is contributing to keeping her culture vibrant.
Home Town: Kasigluk
Award Category: Humanitarian, Dreamer
JaZara Ivanoff
JaZara is a young Alaska Native woman who is actively involved in her hometown of Unakaleet. She is readily is available to substitute at her local school. She also used to be an open-gym supervisor for the community of Unalakleet. Eldest sister to her three brothers, she has shown them to keep one foot in front of the other and not stay abstinent of any mind-altering substance. JaZara will be completing her generals for her Associates Degree through U.A.A. Once JaZara sets foot into a field of service of her own, she will excel. She loves any challenges that may arise and helping youth whose families have been affected by substance use disorders.
Home Town: Unalakleet
Award Category: Role Model
Keiren Fitka
Keiren has been working since age 14 and sought out opportunities to connect with his Yup’ik, Inupiaq, and Athabascan cultures. This includes being an Alaska Native Heritage Center intern, Raise Program intern, and Ilakucaraq program participant. In these settings, Keiren applies himself, builds bonds with other participants, and learns as much as he can. He continues to look for programs to expand his knowledge and is currently taking welding and aviation classes.
Keiren currently lives in Anchorage but stays connected to his family’s home community of Marshall. He understands the challenges of rural Alaska and is actively making a difference by meeting with politicians in Alaska and Washington DC to advocate for foster youth and their medical needs, for sexual assault victims, and for increased quality rural housing. He also serves as a positive role model for and caretaker of his foster siblings. Keiren shows youth voices matter and that involving themselves in their communities can happen in many different ways.
Home Town: Anchorage
Award Category: Humanitarian, Role Model
Shanella Kashatok
Shanella Kashatok is an outgoing and peachy student in Eek, AK. She attended a CPR class this summer in the efforts to further provide for her community.
Home Town: Eek
Award Category: Life Saver
The 2023 Spirit of Youth is still accepting nominations. The deadline has been extended to January 16, 2024.
