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My name is Willie Templeton.
The social identity group of which I belong is I'm mixed blood Alaska Native,
which is a hybrid of the native tradition and the non native tradition.
My mother is half Eskimo, Inupiat Eskimo, and half Swedish and my father was also mixed blood.
So we grew up in the mixed blood community here in Anchorage.
I serve as the Director of Native Student Services so
that is one of the initiatives that we're really focused on.
What we've done within this last year is we've
done what I call Triple O registration, which is Off campus.
Outreach and Orientation, where we've done registrations in rural Alaska.
to make that transition from rural Alaska into Anchorage much more seamless.
Some of the other things that we've done is we've sponsored round table discussions
within the Native Student Services lounge on the book of the year, and
on topics of Native students to where it's a student lead discussions.
What I wanted to do is to create a safe place for Native students to be who they are and
to speak their minds.
The one thing I appreciated about Anchorage Community College and University of Alaska, Anchorage
is the diversity in student population.
When I went to classes, I am an alumnus of this institution,
when I went to classes it wasn't just the 18-22 year olds
I found a lot of people with a lot of life experience
a lot of people coming back to school
That really enriched my education.
It was not necessarily just theoretical but also it had a reality base to how it
plays out in the real world.
So within diversity I really appreciated the diversity within
the age groups, I also appreciated the diversity within the different
social and economic groups and that we had some people that came from
disadvantaged backgrounds. A lot of first generation students.
We have traditional students.
It all kind of enriched the pie here at the university.
I spent a lot of time in the library.
Just the openness of the campus and the friendliness and welcoming of the community
I was welcomed back as a student.
It made me decide to come back to school at UAA rather than to go somewhere else.
I started working at UAA as a math tutor in December of 1979.
So I gradually, as I continued my education, and got further degrees
an Associate, Bachelor's, and Master's
The university has provided me with the opportunity to grow within the university and
to have a career here going from a math tutor to the Director of Native Student Services.
I went from math tutor to a student career counselor, to an office manager, to a counselor,
to retention coordinator, to the director of Native Student Services.
What I love most about my job is just seeing the innocence and excitement
of incoming students from rural Alaska.
They come to the big city, to Anchorage.
There's a certain amount of fear but there's a certain amount of curiosity.
Trying to create an atmosphere in which these students feel comfortable.
they feel at home, and in which they can succeed.