Building Understanding Between Urban & Rural Alaska
Through a grant from US Department of Education, under the Alaska Native Education Equity Act, the Alaska Humanities Forum houses a cross-cultural exchange program called the Rose Urban Rural Exchange (RURE). The Rose Urban Rural Exchange aims to strengthen relationships between urban and rural Alaskans by building mutual respect and understanding, and fostering a statewide sense of community. To build these connections, RURE offers a rare opportunity to many Alaskans - the chance to experience different Alaskan cultures first hand.
RURE staff work closely as a team. We cross-train and collaborate to bring our collective experience to each project.
We do this through three approaches: The Sister School Exchange, the Teacher Cross-Cultural Immersion, and the Navigating Transitions Project.
The Sister School Exchange creates cross-cultural exchanges between urban and rural middle and high school students and teachers. Students document and reflect upon their experiences in order to realize and appreciate commonalities and differences between Alaska's diverse urban and rural communities.
Teacher Cross-Cultural Immersion provides and opportunity for urban teachers to travel to an Alaska Native summer culture camp where they experience insights into the Native people; Native culture; and Native ways of teaching, learning, and living.
Take Wing Alaska is a project to help rural Alaska Native students in two partner districts as they move from village high school to university and professional training in urban settings.